Anthesterion was the eighth month in the Athenian calendar (roughly February-March), named for flowers (anthē) and marking early spring. The major festival was the Anthesteria, a three-day celebration of wine and the dead. The Lesser Mysteries at Agrae also occurred during this month. In poetry, Anthesterion symbolizes spring's emergence, the conjunction of fertility and mortality, and wine's ritual significance, appearing in works exploring seasonal renewal, the relationship between living and dead, Dionysian worship, and the Greek experience of spring as both joyful awakening and reminder of death's presence.

Anthesterion as both a month name and festival complex demonstrates how Greek calendars intertwined temporal and ritual dimensions. The Anthesteria, its primary festival, celebrated wine, flowers, and the dead, creating a complex tapestry of themes that appear throughout Greek poetry. Understanding Anthesterion helps contextualize references to spring festivals in Attic literature and provides insight into how Greeks structured their year around agricultural and religious milestones. The month's association with new wine connects to symposiastic poetry and Dionysian themes central to classical literature.