CARNEIA, an important Dorian festival (Sparta, Cos, etc.). While many details of it are obscure, the following are the main features, and are tolerably certain. (I) It was held in the month Karneios (roughly August). (2) The name is connected with Karnos or Karneios (probably = Ram), said to have been a favour ite of Apollo, unjustly killed by the Heracleidae, and therefore commemorated to appease the god's anger; perhaps an old god of fertility displaced by Apollo (cp. HYACINTHUS). (3) It con tained an agrarian element. Five young men called KapvEarac were chosen out of each tribe ; one man, decked with garlands, ran away and the rest followed him ; they were called a'racpvXo6p0µ0c, i.e., "grape-cluster-runners," hence they very likely carried bunches of grapes. It was a good omen if they caught the fugi tive, bad if they did not. They were under the direction of a priest called a•yririis, or leader. It seems reasonable to suppose that the person they chased was the temporary incarnation of some spirit of vegetation ; perhaps to catch him signified that fertility was not allowed to go away, but was secured, to be used for the next year's crops. (4) It contained an element apparently military, since a feast was held by nine groups, each consisting of nine citizens, representing the d 8a1 or divisions.