User:Aeris nyx/sandbox

Synoikia, also called the Thesean Synoikismos and the Feast of Union, shows the impact of King Theseus on the formation of Attica and Athens, and also celebrates the goddess Athena

The name of the festival comes from the word synoecism (or synoikismos, Greek: Συνоικισμός) means the merging of smaller communities into one larger community^[5]. The earliest synoecism is thought to be the union of Attica, which occurred when King Cekrops created the original twelve cities (later called demes) of Attica, and mythological King Theseus later on merged these neighborhoods into Attica^[5]. Each of the council chambers and magistrates in the twelve cities were abolished and merged into one chamber and town hall, with the main political center of this larger community (or state) as Athens^[1]. In celebration of the synoecism of the original twelve villages of Attica, accredited to the mythical King Theseus, the Athenians celebrate Synoikia. This myth led to Theseus being known as one of the founders of Athens, and also led to him being associated as the “honorary father of democracy”^[5].

The Synoikia festival came to have more of a religious connotation to it after the Athenian victory over the Persians in the first Greco-Persian War^[2]. This triumph over the Persians—and the subsequent rebuilding and resettling of the city-state— increased Athenian nationalism. In honor of the power and increase in morale of the Athenians, the Synoikia festival became even grander than before the destruction of Athens by the Persians^[2]. Athena and Theseus, who were known as the "divine and heroic patrons"^[2] of the city, were glorified and worshipped more vigorously. These two figures became linked with one another, and rituals and rites that were once attributed to only one of these figures became intertwined between these two characters^[2]. Some “Thesean elements [from] festivals…[were] infused with ceremonies belonging to [Athena, and vice versa]... even those not connected with the Synoikia”^[2].

While this festival was celebrated by the Athenians, there were not many indications that showed that the other demes in Attica, outside of Athens, held Synoikia. This festival was not present in both the Marathonian and Erkhian calendars^[6]— where the Marathonian calendar was for the Marathon Tetrapolis (consisting of the demes Marathon, Oinoe, Probalinthos, and Trikorynthos), and the Erkhian calendar was for the deme of Mesogaia^[7].

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