La Stenia was a celebration of Demeter and of Persephone held three days before Thesmophoria.
Little is known about this holiday, except that it was celebrated exclusively by women and that ritualized jokes, mock obscenity and insults would have featured prominently. It would have coincided with the start of the ritual purification of women who would celebrate Thesmophoria.
This was perhaps also the time when other women, called "the scoops", fetched the offerings for the Thesmophoria from the pits into which they were thrown at the Skirophoria.
