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DAPHNEPHORIA, a festival held every ninth year at Thebes in Boeotia in honour of Apollo Ismenius or Galaxius.

Even his "Cimabue's Madonna" and the "Daphnephoria" suggest bas-reliefs.

That curious ritual of the Daphnephoria, familiar to many English people from Sir Frederick Leighton's picture, is believed to have symbolised the year.

"The Daphnephoria," 1876 By kind permission of the Fine Art Society.

"Egyptian Slinger" was Leighton's principal work exhibited in 1875, "The Daphnephoria" already engrossing most of his time and thought.