Heraean Games
The Heraea was an ancient Greek festival in which young girls competed in a footrace, possibly as a puberty or pre-nuptial initiation ritual. The race was held every four years at Olympia. The games were organised by a group of sixteen women, who were also responsible for weaving a peplos for Hera and arranging choral dances.
Overview
Not much is known about the Heraea, but most of our knowledge comes from
The Heraea took place every four years. Some scholars have suggested that the games took place around the time of the ancient Olympics, but there is no ancient evidence for when the Heraea occurred and Donald G. Kyle argues that due to the ancient Greek custom of secluding women from unrelated males, the event was more likely entirely separate from the Olympics.[4]
The only event at the Heraean Games was the
The winners were awarded a crown of olive leaves and a portion of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera.[6] They were also permitted to dedicate statues inscribed with their name to Hera, though none of these statues survive.[6]
The festival of the Heraea was presided over by a group of sixteen women, who as well as conducting the games were responsible for weaving a
The Heraean Games may have been puberty rites[8] or pre-nuptial rituals.[13] Matthew Dillon argues that as there were three different age categories for competitors, the ceremonies were unlikely to be associated with marriage.[8] On the other hand, the races were associated with a mythological wedding, and other races between girls in ancient Greece (such as a footrace in honour of Dionysos held at Sparta, also described by Pausanias) seem to have been associated with pre-nuptial initiations.[13]
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b Serwint 1993, p. 404.
- ^ a b Serwint 1993, p. 405.
- ^ Serwint 1993, p. 406.
- ^ Kyle 2013, p. 266.
- ^ a b Scanlon 2004.
- ^ a b c Dillon 2002, p. 131.
- ^ Case 2017, p. 29.
- ^ a b c d Dillon 2000, p. 460.
- ^ Serwint 1993, pp. 416–417.
- ^ Scanlon 2014, pp. 113, 126.
- ^ Serwint 1993, pp. 419–420.
- ^ Spears 1984, pp. 43–44.
- ^ a b Serwint 1993, p. 418.
Works cited
- Case, Mary Anne (2017). "Heterosexuality as a Factor in the Long History of Women's Sports". Law & Contemporary Problems. 80.
- Dillon, Matthew (2000). "Did Parthenoi Attend the Olympic Games? Girls and Women Competing, Spectating, and Carrying out Cult Roles at Greek Religious Festivals". Hermes. 128 (4).
- Dillon, Matthew (2002). Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415202728.
- Kyle, Donald G. (2013). "Greek Female Sport: Rites, Running, and Racing". In Christensen, Paul; Kyle, Donald G. (eds.). A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity.
- Scanlon, Thomas F. (6 April 2004). "Games for Girls". Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved February 18, 2006.
- Scanlon, Thomas F. (2014). "Racing for Hera". In Scanlon, Thomas F. (ed.). Sport in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Vol. 2.
- Serwint, Nancy (1993). "The Female Athletic Costume at the Heraia and Prenuptial Initiation Rites". American Journal of Archaeology. 97 (3). S2CID 193022602.
- Spears, Betty (1984). "A Perspective of the History of Women's Sport in Ancient Greece". Journal of Sport History. 11 (2).
External links
Media related to Heraean Games at Wikimedia Commons