The Thargelia Apollo festival was held in Athens in the month of Thargelion, combining purification, thanksgiving, and the presentation of the year's first produce. The ritual included the expulsion of scapegoat figures and offerings of grain or fruit to Apollo and Artemis. Its atmosphere joined danger with renewal: the city cast out pollution so that blessing might enter. A poet can use its imagery for civic cleansing, seasonal ripening, and the uneasy cost of making a community whole.

Thargelia took place in spring and combined purification with thanksgiving for the first produce of the year. Apollo and Artemis were honored, while the pharmakos ritual symbolically expelled pollution from the community. The festival is useful for studying Greek ideas of civic disease, renewal, and divine protection.