Athenian festivals
This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (November 2015) |
The
Athena
The
Dionysus
The
The
The
Apollo and Artemis
The
The
Aphrodite and Adonis
The Adonia (Ἀδώνια), or Adonic feasts, were ancient feasts instituted in honour of Aphrodite and Adonis, and observed with great solemnity among the Greeks, Egyptians, etc. The festival took place in the late summer and lasted between one and eight days. The event was run by women and attended exclusively by them. All Athenian women were allowed to attend, including widows, wives and unmarried women of different social classes.[4] On the first day, they brought into the streets statues of Adonis, which were laid out as corpses; and they observed all the rites customary at funerals, beating themselves and uttering lamentations, in imitation of the cries of Aphrodite for the death of her paramour. The second day was spent in merriment and feasting; because Adonis was allowed to return to life, and spend half of the year with Aphrodite. The Adonis festival was held annually to honor the death of Adonis, Aphrodite's mortal lover who was killed by a boar. Women would participate in the festival by planting their own gardens of Adonis inside of fractured pottery vessels to transport to the rooftops where the ceremonies took place.[5] The women would march through the city to the sea, where Adonis was born and buried. This was preceded by wailing on the rooftops that could be heard throughout the city. The Adonis was an event where women were allowed unusual freedom and independence, as they could socialize without constraint under their own terms.[6]
Demeter and Persephone
The Thesmophoria was a festival held in Greek cities, in honour of the goddesses Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The name derives from thesmoi, or laws by which men must work the land.[7] The Thesmophoria were the most widespread festivals and the main expression of the cult of Demeter, aside from the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Thesmophoria commemorated the third of the year when Demeter abstained from her role of goddess of the harvest and growth in mourning for her daughter who was in the realm of the Underworld. Their distinctive feature was the sacrifice of pigs.[8]
The festival of the
Hermes
The
Heracles
The
Citizenship festivals
The Apaturia (Greek: Ἀπατούρια) were Ancient Greek festivals held annually by all the Ionian towns, except Ephesus and Colophon who were excluded due to acts of bloodshed. The festivals honored the origins and the families of the men who were sent to Ionia by the kings[clarification needed] and were attended exclusively by the descendants of these men. In these festivals, men would present their sons to the clan to swear an oath of legitimacy. The oath was made to preserve the purity of the bloodline and their connection to the original settlers. The oath was followed by a sacrifice of either a sheep or a goat, and then the sons' names getting inscribed in the register.[14]
At
Family festivals
The Amphidromia was a ceremonial feast celebrated on the fifth or seventh day after the birth of a child. It was a family festival of the Athenians, at which the newly born child was introduced into the family, and children of poorer families received its name. Children of wealthier families held a naming ceremony on the tenth day called dekate. This ceremony, unlike the Amphidromia, was open to the public by invitation. No particular day was fixed for this solemnity; but it did not take place very soon after the birth of the child, for it was believed that most children died before the seventh day, and the solemnity was therefore generally deferred till after that period, that there might be at least some probability of the child remaining alive.
Women in Athenian festivals
Select male festivals would include women in their festivities. Often it was high-born women who were allowed to attend the Panathenaia as basket-bearers, but would not participate in the feast itself. The public festivals of Anthesteria and Dionysia, included women both in attendance and rites of sacrifice.[17] The festival of Argive held in honor of Hera was attended by both men and women. The men and women's involvement in Argive was close to equal, as they shared rites of feasting and sacrifice.[18]
Athenian women held their own festivals that often excluded men, such as the Thesmophoria, Adonia, and Skira. Festivals hosted by women were not supported by the state and instead were private festivals run and funded by wealthy women. For this reason they were often hosted inside homes and held at night.[19] The Thesmophoria was a major women's festival held in the honour of Demeter. Women's festivals were often dedicated to a goddess and were held as a way of social, religious and personal expression for women. Wealthy women would sponsor the events and elect other women to preside over the festival. Common themes of festivals hosted by women were the transitioning from a girl to a woman, as well as signs of fertility.
There were festivals held as a way to protest the power of the men in Athens, and empower the women in the community. The Skira was an example of a woman-only event that was held annually in the summer as an opposition to men. This festival was held in honor of the Goddesses Athena and Demeter, where women would eat garlic as it was linked to sexual abstinence to oppose the men in the community and their husbands.[20]
Sacrifice in Athenian festivals
Blood sacrifices were a common occurrence in Athenian festivals. Athenians used blood sacrifices to make the accord between gods and men, and it renewed the bonds of the community.
Sacrifice in Athenian festivals was very formal, and the act was less focused on violence or aggression, and more focused on ritual. Women and men had very specific roles in sacrifices. Only female virgins, called kanephoroi, could lead the procession as they were required to carry the sacred implements and provisions at the sacrifices. The kanephoroi was also required to raise the ololuge, a screaming howl in which the woman would perform as the man would begin killing the animal. The men were the sacrificers; they would cut their hair as an offering, then butcher the animal on the altar. The animal would be skinned and then cooked over the altar for the participants to consume.[22] Ritual sacrifice in Athens had three main steps: the preparation of the sacrifice, the distribution, and consumption of the sacrificial animal.[23]
Other forms of sacrifice took place at Athenian festivals, such as food and other items. Offerings of agricultural products took place at the Proerosia, the Thargelia, the Pyanospia, the Thalysia and the Pithoigia. These offerings were made to ask for help in the production of crops and the breeding animals from Gods and Goddesses such as Demeter, Apollo, and Artemis. The offerings were more likely to happen in areas prone to frost, drought, rain and hailstorms. The offerings consisted of liquid and solid food, and was usually presented daily or at common feasts.[24]
Number
Jon D. Mikalson in his book, The Sacred and Civil Calendar of the Athenian Year, states “The total number of positively dated festival days (i.e., the total in the two lists) is 120, which constitutes 33 percent of the days of the year”.[25]
Other known festivals
References
- ^ Thucydides (ii.15) noted that "the more ancient Dionysia were celebrated on the twelfth day of the month of Anthesterion in the temple of Dionysus Limnaios ("Dionysus in the Marshes").
- ^ Walter Burkert, Greek Religion 1985 §V.2.4, pp 237–42, offers a concise assessment, with full bibliography.
- ^ Burkert 1985: §II.7.7, p 109.
- JSTOR 3250755.
- ^ Smith, Tyler Jo (June 2017). "The Athenian Adonia in Context: The Adonis Festival as Cultural Practice". Religious Studies Review. 43 (2 ed.): 163–164 – via Ebsco.
- JSTOR 3250755.
- ^ For a fuller discussion of the name considering multiple interpretations, cf. A.B. Stallsmith's article "Interpreting the Thesmophoria" in Classical Bulletin.
- ^ "Pig bones, votive pigs, and terracottas, which show a votary or the goddess herself holding the piglet in her arms, are the archaeological signs of Demeter sanctuaries everywhere."(Burkert p 242).
- ^ The festival is analysed by Walter Burkert, in Homo Necans (1972, tr. 1983:143-49), with bibliography p 143, note 33.
- Hellenisticinnovation rather than an archaic survival (Burkert 1983:)
- ^ See Poseidon#The foundation of Athens; the connection was an early one: in the Odyssey (vii.81), Athena was said to have "entered the house of Erechtheus" (noted by Burkert 1983:144).
- ^ William Smith (editor). "Hermaea" Archived May 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1870), p.604.
- ^ C. Daremberg & E. Saglio. "Hermaia", Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines (1900), tome III, volume 1, pp.134–5.
- ^ Herodotus i. 147.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Apaturia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- – via JSTOR.
- – via JSTOR.
- – via JSTOR.
- – via JSTOR.
- – via JSTOR.
- – via JSTOR.
- – via JSTOR.
- S2CID 143693807.
- ^ Wagner- Hasel, B (2016). "GIFTS FOR THE GODS". The Classical Review. 66 (2 ed.): 468–470 – via ProQuest.
- JSTOR j.ctt13x10wg.