Aiskhrologia is the use of foul language and risque humour by women who are friends or family to one another, without malicious intent, during the Stenia portion of the Thesmophoria, an Eleusinian festival dedicated to the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone.
According to the myth corresponding to these festivities, the agricultural goddess Demeter grieved the kidnapping and marriage of her daughter Persephone, then called Kore, by Haides, the cthonic god who rules the lands of the dead. Demeter's handmaiden, Iambe, saw that Demeter's grief was casting the entire world into a deadly winter from which there was no reprieve, and so in an effort to cheer Demeter up and save those mortals who depend on agriculture to survive, Iambe hiked up her skirts and made an impudent and dirty joke at Demeter, causing the goddess to laugh for the first time at such audacity.
During the Stenia, aiskhrologia was historically one of the reported rituals undertaken by celebrants, in line with the festival's purpose of appeasing Demeter's yearly-renewed grief at Kore's absence, and ensuring the success of the coming growing season.
Iron Noder 2015, 27/30