Thargelia
Thargelia
Essentially an agricultural festival, the Thargelia included a purifying and expiatory ceremony. While the people offered the first-fruits of the earth to the god in token of thankfulness, it was at the same time necessary to propitiate him, lest he might ruin the harvest by excessive heat, possibly accompanied by pestilence. The purificatory preceded the thanksgiving service. On the 6th a sheep was sacrificed to
The Athenians, having taken the festival from the Delians, brought to it the gods of summer heat, that is the Horae, goddesses of the seasons, and Helios, the sun god, to whom they offered the first fruits of the summer crops,[3] and cereal all dependent on Helios and the Horae for ripening;[4] a surviving inscription mentions offerings to "Helios, Horae and Apollo".[4][5] They were honored with a procession of which no details survive.[4]
It is supposed that an actual human sacrifice took place on this occasion, replaced in later times by a milder form of expiation. Thus, at
The ceremony on the 7th was of a cheerful character. All kinds of first-fruits were carried in procession and offered to the god, and, as at the
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 726.
- ^ Jan Bremmer, "Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87 (1983): 299–320.
- ^ Gardner and Jevons, p. 294
- ^ a b c Parker, pp 203–204
- ^ Bilić, Tomislav. “Apollo, Helios, and the Solstices in the Athenian, Delphian, and Delian Calendars.” Numen 59, no. 5/6 (2012): 519, note 15
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 726–727.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thargelia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 726–727. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Jan Bremmer, "Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87 (1983): 299-320.
- Bremmer, J.N. (2008). Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East. Jerusalem studies in religion and culture, v. 8. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-16473-4.
- Gardner, Percy; Jevons, Frank Byron, A Manual of Greek Antiquities, University of Wisconsin, 1895, Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Parker, Robert, Polytheism and Society at Athens, ISBN 978-0-19-927483-3.
Cited in Chisholm 1911:[1]
- Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie, i. (1894);
- Georg Friedrich Schömann, Griechische Alterthümer (4th ed. by J. H. Lipsius, 1897–1902);
- P. Stengel, Die griechischen Kultusalterthümer (1890);
- article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, revised by L. C. Purser (3rd ed., 1891);
- August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen (1898);
- L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, iv. (1906), pp. 268–283;
- J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough (2nd ed., 1900), ii. appendix C, "Offerings of First-Fruits," and iii. p. 93, 15, "On Scapegoats";
- W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte (2nd ed. by W. Heuschkel, 1904–5).
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 727.