ALCITHO

in Greek legend, the daughter of Minyas of Orchomenus, in Boeotia. She and her sisters once refused to participate in Dionysiac festivities, remaining at home spinning and weaving. Late in the day Dionysiac music clanged about them, the house was filled with fire and smoke, and the sisters were metamorphosed into bats and birds. According to Plutarch, the sisters, driven mad for their impiety, cast lots to determine which one of their children they would eat. In retribution their female descendants were pursued at the Agrionia (an annual festival) by the priest of Dionysus, who was permitted to kill the one he caught.