Εμφανίζονται 100 (επί συνόλου 166) τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Εορτές, αγώνες & ιεροπραξίες αρχαίων στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΕΛΛΑΔΑ Χώρα ΕΥΡΩΠΗ" .
ΑΖΑΝΙΑ (Αρχαία περιοχή) ΑΡΚΑΔΙΑ
Aetolus, who came to the throne after Epeius, was made to flee from Peloponnesus, because the children of Apis tried and convicted him of unintentional homicide. For Apis, the son of Jason, from Pallantium in Arcadia, was run over and killed by the chariot of Aetolus at the games held in honor of Azan.
ΑΚΤΙΟΝ (Αρχαίο λιμάνι) ΑΙΤΩΛΟΑΚΑΡΝΑΝΙΑ
A festival celebrated every three years at Actium in Epirus,
with wrestling, horseracing, and sea-fights, in honour of Apollo. There was a
celebrated temple of Apollo at Actium, which is mentioned by Thucydides and Strabo.
After the defeat of Antony off Actium, Augustus enlarged the temple, and instituted
games to be celebrated every four years in commemoration of his victory.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΑΜΦΙΑΡΕΙΟΝ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΑΤΤΙΚΗ, ΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΚΗ
Amphiaraia, games celebrated in honour of the ancient hero Amphiaraus, in the neighbourhood of Oropus, where he had a temple with a celebrated oracle (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 154); the rites observed in his temple are described by Pausanias (i. 34, 3)
ΑΣΚΛΗΠΙΕΙΟ ΕΠΙΔΑΥΡΟΥ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Ασκληπιεία. Αγώνες προς τιμήν του Ασκληπιού, γιου του Απόλλωνα και ήρωα-γιατρού, που διεξάγονταν στην Επίδαυρο, στο ιερό όπου λατρευόταν μαζί με τον πατέρα του. Τα Ασκληπιεία τελούνταν ήδη από τις αρχές του 5ου αιώνα π.Χ., κάθε τέσσερα χρόνια, εννέα μέρες μετά τα Ίσθμια, την περίοδο Ιουνίου-Ιουλίου. Στους Ρωμαϊκούς χρόνους ονομάζονταν Μεγάλα Ασκληπιεία, για να διακρίνονται από τα Απολλώνεια, μία άλλη ετήσια γιορτή που τελούνταν την ίδια εποχή. Στη διάρκειά τους διεξάγονταν γυμνικοί αγώνες δρόμου (στάδιο, δίαυλος, ίππιος ή δρόμος τεσσάρων σταδίων, οπλίτης δρόμος), άλματος, δισκοβολίας, ακοντισμού, πυγμαχίας και παγκρατίου, καθώς και ιππικοί αγώνες, αρματοδρομίες και, τέλος, μουσικοί, ωδικοί και δραματικοί αγώνες. Την πρώτη ημέρα προσφερόταν θυσία στον Ασκληπιό και τον Απόλλωνα, ενώ ακολουθούσε συμπόσιο με τη συμμετοχή των πιστών. Την επόμενη μέρα ξεκινούσαν οι αγώνες.
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Asclepieia (asklepieia), the name of festivals which were probably celebrated in all places where temples of Asklepios (Aesculapius) existed. The most celebrated, however, was that of Epidaurus, which took place in the grove of Asklepios every fifth year, and was solemnised with contests of rhapsodists and musicians, and with solemn processions and games. The solemnity took place nine days after the Isthmian games (Schol. ad Pind. Nem. iii. 145; Paus. ii. 26,7). Asklepieia are also mentioned at Lampsacus (Bockh, Corp. Inscr. vol. ii. p. 1131), and at Athens (Aeschin. c. Ctesiph.67), which were probably, like those of Epidauros, solemnised with musical contests. They took place on the eighth day of the month of Elaphebolion.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΔΕΛΦΟΙ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΦΩΚΙΔΑ
Πύθια. Τα Πύθια τελούνταν στο ιερό του Απόλλωνα στους Δελφούς προς τιμήν της νίκης του θεού επί του δράκοντα Πύθωνα. Οι πρώτοι αγώνες ήταν μουσικοί και περιλάμβαναν ένα διαγωνισμό κιθαρωδών και έναν αυλητών. Στα όγδοα Πύθια προστέθηκε και αγώνας κιθαριστών, ενώ στα Ελληνιστικά χρόνια περιλήφθησαν το εγκώμιο και η παντομίμα. Τον 4ο αιώνα π.Χ. πιθανότατα εμφανίστηκαν οι «κυκλικοί» (ή διθυραμβικοί) και οι δραματικοί αγώνες τραγικών και κωμικών ηθοποιών. Γύρω στο 582 π.Χ., μετά τον Πρώτο Ιερό Πόλεμο, όταν οι Δελφοί απελευθερώθηκαν από τον έλεγχο της πόλης Κίρρας με τη βοήθεια των Αμφικτυόνων (δώδεκα πόλεις που γειτόνευαν με το ιερό της Δήμητρας στις Θερμοπύλες), οι τελευταίοι αναδιοργάνωσαν τους αγώνες. Τότε, προστέθηκαν στο πρόγραμμα γυμνικά (στάδιο, δίαυλος, δόλιχος, πάλη, πυγμαχία, παγκράτιο, πένταθλο και αγώνας κηρύκων και σαλπιγκτών) και ιππικά αγωνίσματα (τέθριππο, συνωρίς και αντίστοιχα πωλικά). Τα Πύθια επαναλαμβάνονταν κάθε τέσσερα χρόνια με έπαθλο ένα στεφάνι δάφνης
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Pythia (ta Puthia). The Pythian Games. Next to the Olympic Games, the most important of the four Greek national festivals. From B.C. 586 they were held on the Crissaean Plain below Delphi (originally called Pytho). They took place once in four years, in the third year of each Olympiad, in the Delphic month Bucatius, corresponding to a part of our middle of August. Before this time (B.C. 586) there used to take place at Delphi itself, once in eight years, a great festival in honour of Apollo, the traditional founder (Athen. xv. p. 701), in which the minstrels vied with one another in singing, to the accompaniment of the cithara, a paean in praise of the god, under the direction of the Delphic priests. After the first Sacred War, when the Crissaean Plain became the property of the priesthood, the Amphictyones introduced festivals once in four years, at which gymnastic contests and foot-races took place, as well as the customary musical contest. This contest also was further developed. Besides minstrels who sang to the cithara, players on the flute, and singers to accompaniment of the flute, took part in it, the lastnamed, however, for a short time only. The gymnastic and athletic contests, which were nearly the same as those held at Olympia, yielded in significance to the musical ceremonies, and of those the Pythian nomos was the most important. It was a composition for the flute, worked out on a prescribed scheme, and celebrating the battle of Apollo with the dragon Python, and his triumph. At first the prize for the victor was of some substantial value, but at the second festival it took the form of a wreath from the sacred bay tree in the Vale of Tempe. The victor also received, as in the other contests, a palm-branch. The judges were chosen by the Amphictyones. The Pythian, like the Olympic, Games were probably not discontinued till about A.D. 394. Minor Pythian Games were celebrated in other parts of the Greek world--e. g. at Ancyra in Galatia, at Aphrodisias in Caria, at Carthage, Delos, Miletus, Perinthus, Sicyon, etc.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Pythian Games): As for the contests at Delphi, there was one in early times between citharoedes, who sang a paean in honor of the god; it was instituted by the Delphians. But after the Crisaean war, in the time of Eurylochus, the Amphictyons instituted equestrian and gymnastic contests in which the prize was a crown, and called them Pythian Games. And to the citharoedes they added both fluteplayers and citharists who played without singing, who were to render a certain melody which is called the Pythian Nome. There are five parts of it: angkrousis, ampeira, katakeleusmos, iambi and dactyli, and syringes. Now the melody was composed by Timosthenes, the admiral of the second Ptolemy, who also compiled The Harbours, a work in ten books; and through this melody he means to celebrate the contest between Apollo and the dragon, setting forth the prelude as anakrousis, the first onset of the contest as ampeira, the contest itself as katakeleusmos, the triumph following the victory as iambus and dactylus, the rhythms being in two measures, one of which, the dactyl, is appropriate to hymns of praise, whereas the other, the iamb, is suited to reproaches (compare the word "iambize"), and the expiration of the dragon as syringes, since with syringes players imitated the dragon as breathing its last in hissings.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Pythia (puthia), one of the four great national festivals of the Greeks. It was
celebrated in the neighbourhood of Delphi, anciently, and always by Herodotus,
called Pytho, in honour of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto. The place of this solemnity
was the Crissaean plain, which for this purpose contained a hippodromus or race-course
(Paus. x. 37, § 4), a stadium of 1000 feet in length (Censorin de Die Nat. 13),
and a theatre, in which the musical contests took place (Lucian, adv. Indoct.
9). A gymnasium, prytaneum, and other buildings of this kind, probably existed
here, as at Olympia, although they are not mentioned. Once the Pythian games were
held at Athens, on the advice of Demetrius Poliorcetes (Ol. 122. 3; see Plut.
Demetr. 40; Corsini, Fast. Att. iv. p. 77), because the Aetolians were in possession
of the passes around Delphi.
The Pythian games were, according to most legends, instituted by Apollo
himself (Athen. xv. p. 701; Schol. Argum. ad Pind. Pyth.); other traditions referred
them to ancient heroes, such as Amphictyon, Adrastus, Diomedes, and others. They
were originally, perhaps, nothing more than a religious panegyris, occasioned
by the oracle of Delphi, and the sacred games are said to have been at first only
a musical contest, which consisted in singing a hymn to the honour of the Pythian
god with the accompaniment of the cithara (Paus. x. 7, § 2; Strab. ix. p. 421).
Some of the poets, however, and mythographers represent even the gods and the
early heroes as engaged in gymnastic and equestrian contests at the Pythian games.
But such statements, numerous as they are, can prove nothing; they are anachronisms
in which late writers were fond of indulging. The description of the Pythian games
in which Sophocles, in the Electra, makes Orestes take part, belongs to this class.
The Pythian games must, on account of the celebrity of the Delphic oracle, have
become a national festival for all the Greeks at a very early period; and when
Solon fixed pecuniary rewards for those Athenians who were victors in the great
national festivals, the Pythian agon was undoubtedly included in the number, though
it is not expressly mentioned (Diog. Laert. i. 55).
Whether gymnastic contests had been performed at the Pythian games
previous to Ol. 47, is uncertain. Boeckh supposes that these two kinds of games
had been connected at the Pythia from early times, but that afterwards the gymnastic
games were neglected; but, however this may be, it is certain that about Ol. 47
they did not exist at Delphi. Down to Ol. 48 the Delphians themselves had been
the agonothetae at the Pythian games; but in the third year of this Olympiad,
when after the Crissaean war the Amphictyons took the management under their care,
they naturally became the agonothetae (Strab. ix. p. 421; Paus. x. 7, § 3). Some
of the ancients date the institution of the Pythian games from this time (Phot.
Cod. p. 533, ed. Bekker), and others say that henceforth they were called Pythian
games. Owing to their being under the management of the Amphictyons, they are
sometimes called Amphiktuonika athla (Heliod. Aeth. iv. 1). From Ol. 48. 3, the
Pythiads were occasionally used as an era, and the first celebration under the
Amphictyons was the first Pythiad. Pausanias expressly states that in this year
the original musical contest in kitharoidia was extended by the addition of auloidia,
i. e. singing with the accompaniment of the flute, and by that of flute-playing
alone. Strabo in speaking of these innovations does not mention the auloidia,
but states that the contest of cithara-players (kitharistai) was added, while
Pausanias assigns the introduction of this contest to the eighth Pythiad. One
of the musical contests at the Pythian games in which only flute and cithara-players
took part, was the socalled nomos Puthikos, which, at least in subsequent times,
consisted of five parts, viz. anakrousis, ampeira, katakeleusmos, iamboi kai daktuloi,
and suringes. The whole of this nomos was a musical description of the fight of
Apollo with the dragon and of his victory over the monster (Strabo). A somewhat
different account of the parts of this nomos is given by the Scholiast on Pindar
(Argum. ad Pyth.) and by Pollux (iv. 79, 81, 84).
Besides these innovations in the musical contests which were made
in the first Pythiad, such gymnastic and equestrian games as were then customary
at Olympia were either revived at Delphi or introduced for the first time. The
chariot-race with four horses was not introduced till the second Pythiad (Paus.
x. 7, § 3). Some games on the other hand were adopted which had not yet been practised
at Olympia, viz. the dolichos and the diaulos for boys. In the first Pythiad the
victors received chremata as their prize, but in the second a chaplet was established
as the reward for the victors (Paus. and Schol. ad Pind.). The Scholiasts on Pindar
reckon the first Pythiad from this introduction of the chaplet, and their system
has been followed by most modern chronologers, though Pausanias expressly assigns
this institution to the second Pythiad. (See Clinton, F. H. p. 195; Krause, Die
Pyth. Nem., &c. p. 21, &c.) The auloidia, which was introduced in the first Pythiad,
was omitted at the second and ever after, as only elegies and threnoi had been
sung to the flute, which were thought too melancholy for this solemnity. The tethrippos,
or chariotrace with four horses, however, was added in the same Pythiad. In the
eighth Pythiad (Ol. 55. 3) the contest in playing the cithara without singing
was introduced; in Pythiad 23 the footrace in arms was added; in Pythiad 48 the
chariot-race with two full-grown horses (sunoridos dromos) was performed for the
first time; in Pythiad 53 the chariot-race with four foals was introduced. In
Pythiad 61 the pancratium for boys, in Pythiad 63 the horse-race with foals, and
in Pythiad 69 the chariot-race with two foals were introduced (Paus.). Various
musical contests were also added in the course of time; and contests in tragedy
as well as in other kinds of poetry, and in recitations of historical compositions,
are expressly mentioned (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 27, 2; Plunt. Sympos. ii. 4).
Works of art, as paintings and sculptures, were exhibited to the assembled Greeks,
and prizes were awarded to those who had produced the finest work (Plin. xxxv.
§ 35). The musical and artistic contests were at all times the most prominent
feature of the Pythian games, and in this respect they even excelled the Olympic
games.
Previous to Ol. 48 the Pythian games had been an ennaeteris, that
is, they had been celebrated at the end of every eighth year; but in Ol. 48. 3,
they became, like the Olympia, a penteteris, i. e. they were held at the end of
every fourth year, and a Pythiad therefore, ever since the time that it was used
as an era, comprehended a space of four years, commencing with the third year
of every Olympiad (Paus. l. c.; Diod. xv. 60; compare Clinton, F. H. p. 195).
Others have, in opposition to direct statements, inferred from Thucydides (iv.
117, v. 1) that the Pythian games were held towards the end of the second year
of every Olympiad. Respecting this controversy, see Krause, l. c. p. 29, &c. As
for the season of the Pythian games, they were in all probability held in the
spring, and most writers believe that it was in the month of Bysius, which is
supposed to be the same as the Attic Munychion. Boeckh (ad Corp. Inscript. n.
1688), however, has shown that the games took place in the month of Bucatius,
which followed after the month of Bysius, and that this month must be considered
as the same as the Attic Munychion. The festival was probably timed to coincide
with the spring meetings of the Amphictyons at Delphi (Aeschin. c. Ctes. § 254).
The games lasted for several days, as is expressly mentioned by Sophocles (Elect.
690, &c.), but we do not know how many. When ancient writers speak of the day
of the Pythian agon, they are probably thinking of the musical agon alone, which
was the most important part of the games, and probably took place on the 7th of
Bucatius. It is quite impossible to conceive that all the numerous games should
have taken place on one day.
The concourse of strangers at the season of this panegyris must have
been very great, as undoubtedly all the Greeks were allowed to attend. The states
belonging to the amphictyony of Delphi had to send their theori in the month of
Bysius, some time before the commencement of the festival itself (Boeckh, Corp.
Inscr.). The theories sent by the Athenians were always particularly brilliant
(Schol. ad Aristoph. Av. 1585). As regards sacrifices, processions, and other
solemnities, it may be presumed that they resembled in a great measure those of
Olympia. A splendid, though probably in some degree fictitious, description of
a theoria of Thessalians may be read in Heliodorus (Aeth. ii. 34).
As to the order in which the various games were performed, scarcely
anything is known, with the exception of some allusions in Pindar and a few remarks
of Plutarch. The latter (Symp. ii. 4; comp. Philostr. Apoll. Tyan. vi. 10) says
that the musical contests preceded the gymnastic contests, and from Sophocles
it is clear that the gymnastic contests preceded the horse and chariot races.
Every game, moreover, which was performed by men and by boys, was always, as at
Olympia, first performed by the latter (Plut. Symp. ii. 5).
We have stated above that, down to Ol. 48, the Delphians had the management
of the Pythian games; but of the manner in which they were conducted previous
to that time nothing is known. When they came under the care of the Amphictyons,
especial persons were appointed for the purpose of conducting the games and of
acting as judges. They were called Epimeletai (Plut. Symp. ii. 4, vii. 5), and
answered to the Olympian Hellanodicae. Their number is unknown. There must, however,
have been at least three: one for the musical, gymnastic, and equestrian contests
respectively (Krause, l. c. p. 44). In later times it was decreed by the Amphictyons
that king Philip with the Thessalians and Boeotians should undertake the management
of the games (Diod. xvi. 60), but Krause thinks this was a purely honorary office,
the real work of presiding remaining in the hands of the Amphictyons; and afterwards,
even under the Roman emperors, the Amphictyons again appear in the possession
of this privilege (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 27). The epimeletai had to maintain
peace and order, and were assisted by mastigophoroi, who executed any punishment
at their command, and thus answered to the Olympian alutai (Luc. adv. Indoct.
9, &c.).
The prize given to the victors in the Pythian games was from the time
of the second Pythiad a laurel chaplet (to phuton tes daphnes); so that they then
became an agon stephanites, while before they had been an agon chrematites. The
laurel sprays of which the chaplet was composed were brought by boys whose parents
were both alive (paides amphithaleis) from the Vale of TempS, accompanied on the
way by a fluteplayer (Plut. peri mous. c. 14). (Paus. x. 7, § 3; Schol. in Argum.
ad Pind. Pyth.) In addition to this chaplet, the victor here, as at Olympia, received
the symbolic palm-branch, and was allowed to have his own statue erected in the
Crissaean plain. (Plut. Symp. viii. 4; Paus. vi. 15, § 3, 17, § 1; Justin. xxiv.
7, 10.) That sometimes apples were presented to victors in the great Pythian games
as prizes is clear from many passages in later writers. (Cf. Luc. Anach. 9, 10,
13, 16; Liban. Eloqu. Rom. t. ii. 716 R.; Paus. vi. 9, 1; Schol. Pind. Pyth. Arg.
p. 298 B.)
The time when the Pythian games ceased to be solemnised is not certain,
but they probably lasted as long as the Olympic games, i. e. down to A.D. 394.
In A.D. 191 a celebration of the Pythia is mentioned by Philostratus (Vit. Soph.
ii. 27), and in the time of the Emperor Julian they still continued to be held,
as is manifest from his own words (Jul. Epist. pro Argiv. p. 35 a).
Pythian games of less importance were celebrated in a great many other
places where the worship of Apollo was introduced; and the games of Delphi are
sometimes distinguished from these lesser Pythia by the addition of the words
en Delphois. But as by far the greater number of the lesser Pythia are not mentioned
in the extant ancient writers, and are only known from coins or inscriptions,
we shall only give a list of the places where they were held:--Ancyra in Galatia,
Aphrodisias in Caria, Antiochia, [p. 530] Carthaea in the island of Ceos (Athen.
x. pp. 456, 467), Carthage (Tertull. Scorp. 6), Cibyra in Phrygia, Delos (Dionys.
Perieg. 527), Emisa in Syria, Hierapolis in Phrygia, Magnesia, Megara (Schol.
ad Pind. Nem. v. 84, Ol. xiii. 155; Philostr. Vit. Soph. i. 3), Miletus, Neapolis
in Italy, Nicaea in Bithynia, Nicomedia, Pergamus in Mysia, Perge in Pamphylia,
Perinthus on the Propontis, Philippopolis in Thrace, Side in Pamphylia, Sicyon
(Pind. Ol. xiii. 105, with the Schol.; Nem. ix. 51), Taba in Caria, Thessalonice
in Macedonia, in Thrace, Thyatira, and Tralles in Lydia, Tripolis on the Maeander
in Caria. (Krause, Die Pythien, Nemeen und Isthmien, pp. 1-106.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΗΡΑΙΟΝ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΑΡΓΟΣ - ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ
Ηραία. Αγώνες προς τιμήν της θεάς Ήρας που διεξάγονταν στο ιερό της στην ευρύτερη περιοχή των Μυκηνών, στην Πρόσυμνα, οκτώ χιλιόμετρα βορειοανατολικά του Άργους. Τα Ηραία τελούνταν ήδη από τη Γεωμετρική-Αρχαϊκή εποχή, αρχικά κάθε τρία χρόνια και στη συνέχεια κάθε πέντε, στα τέλη Ιουνίου-αρχές Ιουλίου. Οι αγώνες ήταν γυμνικοί (δρόμος, στάδιο, οπλίτης, δόλιχος, πένταθλο), ιππικοί και αρματοδρομίες, καθώς και μουσικοί και δραματικοί. Στους νικητές δινόταν βραβείο ένα στεφάνι μυρτιάς και χάλκινα έπαθλα, όπως ασπίδες, τρίποδες, λέβητες και υδρίες. Εξαιτίας των χάλκινων επάθλων, τα Ηραία ονομάζονταν και "χάλκεος αγών". Την περίοδο του 4ου-3ου αιώνα π.Χ. οι αγώνες ονομάζονταν "Εκατόμβοια", ενώ από τα μέσα του 3ου αιώνα π.Χ. γιορτάζονταν στο Άργος μαζί με τα Νέμεα και αποκαλούνταν "Ηραία τα εν Άργει". Από τον 1ο αιώνα μ.Χ. τα Ηραία αναφέρονται ως "η εξ Άργους ασπίς", από τη χάλκινη ασπίδα-έπαθλο των νικητών, που είχε ιδιαίτερα θρησκευτικό νόημα για την πόλη. Μάλιστα, στην ακρόπολη του Αργους, τη Λάρισα, υπήρχε ιερός οχυρός χώρος με το όνομα Ασπίδα.
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Heraea (Heraia) is the name of festivals celebrated in honour of Hera in all the
towns of Greece where the worship of this divinity was introduced. The original
seat of her worship, from which it spread over the other parts of Greece, was
Argos; whence her festivals
in other places were, more or less, imitations of those which were celebrated
at Argos (Muller, Dor. ii.
10,1).
The Argives had three temples of Hera: one (Heraeon)
lay between Argos and Mycenae,
45 stadia from Argos; the
second lay on the road to the Acropolis,
and near it was the stadium in which the games and contests at the Heraea were
held (Paus. ii. 24,2); the third was in the city itself (Paus. ii. 22,1). Her
service was performed by the most distinguished priestesses of the place; one
of them was the high-priestess, and the Argives counted their years by the date
of her office (Thucyd. ii. 2). The Heraea of Argos
were celebrated every fifth year, and, according to the calculation of Boeckh
(Abhandl. der Berl. Akad. von 1818-19, p. 92 ff.), in the middle of the second
year of every Olympiad.
One of the great solemnities which took place on the occasion, was
a magnificent procession to the great temple of Hera, between Argos
and Mycenae. A vast number
of young men--for the festival is called a panegyris--assembled at Argos,
and marched in armour to the temple of the goddess. They were preceded by one
hundred oxen (hekatombe, whence the festival is also called hekatombaia). The
high-priestess accompanied this procession, riding in a chariot drawn by two white
oxen, as we see from the story of Cleobis and Biton related by Herodotus (i. 31)
and Cicero (Tuscul. i. 47, § 113). The hundred oxen were sacrificed, and their
flesh distributed among all the citizens (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152, and ad
Nem. x. 39). The sacrifice itself was called lecherna (Hesych. s. v.) or the bed
of twigs (Comp. Welcker on Schwenck's Etymologische Andeutungen).
The games and contests of the Heraea took place in the stadium, near
the temple on the road to the Acropolis.
A brazen shield was fixed in a place above the theatre, which was scarcely accessible
to any one, and the young man who succeeded in pulling it down received the shield
and a garland of myrtle as a prize. Hence Pindar (Nem. x. 41) calls the contest
agon chalkeos. It seems that this contest took place before the procession went
out to the Heraeon, for Strabo (viii. p. 556) states that the victor went with
his prizes in solemn procession to that temple. This contest was said to have
been instituted, according to some traditions, by Acrisius and Proetus (Aelian,
V. H. iii. 24), according to others by Archinus (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152;
Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.52, n. 1).
The Heraea or Hecatombaea of Aegina were celebrated in
the same manner as those of Argos (see Schol. ad Pind. Isthm.
viii. 114; Muller, Aeginet. p. 149; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 52, n. 19).
The Heraea of Samos, which
island also derived the worship of Hera from Argos
(Paus. vii. 4,4), were perhaps the most brilliant of all the festivals of this
divinity. A magnificent procession, consisting of maidens and married women in
splendid attire, and with floating hair (Asius, ap. Athen. xii. p. 525), together
with men and youths in armour (Polyaen. Strat. i. 23, vi. 45), went to the temple
of Hera (Heraeon). After
they arrived within the sacred precincts, the men deposited their armour; and
prayers and vows were offered up to the goddess. Her altar consisted of the ashes
of the victims which had been burnt to her. (Paus. v. 13,5).
The Heraea of Elis were celebrated
every fifth year, or in the fourth year of every Olympiad. (Corsini, Dissert.
iii. 30.) The festival was chiefly celebrated by maidens, and conducted by sixteen
matrons who wove the sacred peplus for the goddess. But before the solemnities
commenced, these matrons sacrificed a pig, and purified themselves in the well
Piera (Paus. v. 16,5). One of the principal solemnities was a race of the maidens
in the stadium, for which purpose they were divided into three classes, according
to their age. The youngest ran first and the oldest last. Their only dress on
this occasion was a chiton, which came down to the knee, and their hair was floating.
She who won the prize received a garland of oliveboughs, together with a part
of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera, and might dedicate her own painted likeness
in the temple of the goddess. The sixteen matrons were attended by as many female
attendants, and performed two dances; the one called the dance of Physcoa, the
other the dance of Hippodameia. Respecting further particulars, and the history
of this solemnity, see Paus. v. 16,2; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 3.
Heraea were celebrated in various other places; e. g. in Cos
(Athen. xiv, v), at Corinth
(Eurip. Med. 1379; Philostrat. Her. xix. 14), at Athens
(Plut. Quaest. Rom. vii), at Cnosus
in Crete (Diod. v. 72), at
Pellene in Achaia
(Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 156; ad Nem. x. 82; Aristoph. Av. 1421; Krause, Gymn.
i. pt. 2, p. 715; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 51, n. 28.)
ΘΕΣΠΙΑΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΒΟΙΩΤΙΑ
Αγώνες προς τιμήν του Ερωτος.
Erotia or erotidia, the most solemn of all the festivals celebrated in the Boeotian town of Thespiae. It took place every fifth year, and in honour of Eros, the principal divinity of the Thespians. Respecting the particulars nothing is known, except that it was solemnised with contests in music and gymnastics (Plut. Amat. 1; Paus. ix. 31,3; Athen. xiii). At this festival married couples made up any quarrels they might have. The worship of Eros seems to have been established at Thespiae from the earliest times; and the ancient symbolic representation of the god, a rude stone (argos lithos), continued to be looked upon with particular reverence even when sculpture had attained the highest degree of perfection among the Greeks, and when Thespiae possessed the world-renowned statue of Eros (Paus. ix. 27,1; compare Schol. ad Pind. Olymp. vii. 154; Ritschl, in the Rhein. Mus. vol. ii. p. 106)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eros or Erotidia. The most solemn of all the festivals celebrated in the Boeotian town of Thespiae. It took place every fifth year, and in honour of Eros, the principal divinity of the Thespians. Respecting the particulars nothing is known, except that it was solemnized with contests in music and gymnastics ( Amat.1; Pausan. ix. 31. 3; Athen. xiii. p. 561). At this festival married couples made up any quarrels they might have. The worship of Eros seems to have been early established at Thespiae, where the ancient symbolic representation of the god--a rude stone--was long looked upon with reverence (Pausan. ix. 27. 1).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Jan 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
After the decline of Ascra, the inhabitants of Thespiae attended to the worship of the Muses and to the arrangements for the musical contests in their honour that took place once in five years.
ΙΣΘΜΙΑ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΛΟΥΤΡΑΚΙ ΠΕΡΑΧΩΡΑΣ
Καθιερώθηκαν από το 582 π.Χ. Οι Κορίνθιοι υποστήριζαν ότι τα καθιέρωσε ο βασιλιάς τους Σίσυφος, προς τιμήν του Μελικέρτη-Παλαίμωνα, που ξεβράστηκε στις ακτές της Ισθμίας. Οι Αθηναίοι, πάλι, διαφωνούσαν, λέγοντας ότι ιδρυτής των Ισθμίων ήταν ο Θησέας. Τα Ισθμια γίνονταν κάθε δύο χρόνια την άνοιξη. Το βραβείο των νικητών ήταν ένας κλάδος πιτύος (πεύκου).
Ισθμια. Αγώνες προς τιμήν του Ποσειδώνα, που διεξάγονταν στο ιερό του στην Ισθμία κάθε δύο χρόνια, την άνοιξη, για τρεις μέρες. Στο πλαίσιο της άποψης ότι η ίδρυση των πανελλήνιων αγώνων ανάγεται σε ταφικούς αγώνες, τα Ίσθμια έχουν συνδεθεί με το θάνατο του Μελικέρτη, που πνίγηκε στη θάλασσα μαζί με τη μητέρα του Ινώ, και απαντά και με το όνομα "Παλαίμων". Κατά το πρώτο ήμισυ του 6ου αιώνα π.Χ., οι Κορίνθιοι πρόσθεσαν γυμνικούς και ιππικούς αγώνες στους εορτασμούς που γίνονταν από τον 7ο κιόλας αιώνα στην Ισθμία. Οι αγώνες συνεχίστηκαν καθόλη τη διάρκεια της Ρωμαϊκής εποχής υπό τον έλεγχο της Κορίνθου, εκτός από την περίοδο 146-44 π.Χ., όταν η Κόρινθος έχασε τα πολιτικά δικαιώματά της και την ευθύνη των αγώνων ανέλαβε η Σικυώνα. Τα Ίσθμια ξεκινούσαν μετά την προσφορά θυσίας στον Ποσειδώνα και γεύματος στους πιστούς. Οι αθλητικοί αγώνες διεξάγονταν στο στίβο και οι μουσικοί στο θέατρο. Στους νικητές δινόταν αρχικά ένα στεφάνι από πεύκο και από τις αρχές του 5ου αι. π.Χ. από αγριοσέλινο (γρίηλον), ενώ στους Ρωμαϊκούς χρόνους και από τα δύο.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται τον Ιούνιο 2005 από την ακόλουθη ιστοσελίδα, με φωτογραφίες, του Ιδρυματος Μείζονος Ελληνισμού
Isthmia. One of the four great Hellenic festivals. It was celebrated at the Isthmus
of Corinth; and though inferior to the splendour of Olympia, it probably surpassed
the Nemea in brilliancy (cf. Themist. Orat. xv. p. 229, xxviii. p. 413, ed. Dind.;
and Aristid. Isthm. eis poseid. iii. p. 41, Dind. vol. i.). Indeed, when one considers
the natural advantages of Corinth as a centre of commerce, it is rather surprising
that the Isthmian games did not attain higher importance than those of Olympia.
Pindar describes the scene of the Isthmia by a variety of poetic expressions,
e. g. tan haliermea Isthmou deirada (Pind. Isth. i. 9), isthmion napos (Isth.
vii. 63), pontou gephur' akamantos (Nem. vi. 40), &c. A [p. 1024] sacred enclosure
planted with pines, within which was the temple of the Isthmian Poseidon, surrounded
the scene of the games (Strab. viii. 380). Pausanias saw here a theatre and a
stadium of white marble (lithou leukou), but does not speak of the hippodrome,
whence it may perhaps be inferred that it had disappeared or gone to ruin before
the time of his visit (Paus. ii. 1, 7). A late inscription, belonging probably
to Hadrian's reign, refers to the restoration of several edifices here which had
fallen into decay. In it are mentioned kataluseis, or lodging-places, for the
athletes who came to the Isthmian games from all parts of the world (tois apo
tes oikoumenes epi ta Isthmia paragenomenois athletais); also enkriterioi oikoi,
in which it is likely that the admissibility of intending candidates was discussed
and determined; and a portico with vaulted chambers attached (stoa sun kekamaromenois
oikois), in which probably those who intended to compete made ready and waited
during the interval before their turn to engage came on (Boeckh, C. I. n. 115,
p. 573, vol. i.). The kraneion, a gymnasium standing in an enclosure of the same
name planted with cypresses, might have been used by the athletes in training
for the games (Pans. ii. 2, 4; Plut. Alex. 14; Athen. xiii. 6, 589; Diog. Laert.
vi. 77, p. 351).
For information respecting the origin of the games, there remains
to us nothing but obscure traces of primitive cults, which kept their seat in
the Isthmus even into historic times. The myth which seems to be of greatest antiquity
ascribes the institution of the festival to Poseidon and Helios, when Castor won
the prize in the stadium, Kalais in the diaulos, Orpheus in playing on the cithara,
Herakles as pammachos (i. e. as pancratiast), Polydeukes in boxing, Peleus in
wrestling, Telamon in discus-throwing, and Theseus in the armour-race. In horseracing,
Phaethon was victorious with the riding-horse, and Neleus with the four-horse
chariot. On this occasion there was also a ship-race, in which the Argo obtained
the prize (Dion. Chrysost. Orat. Corinth. xxxvii. t. ii. p. 107). In this myth
nearly all the potentates of prehistoric Hellas are observed grouped in one tableau.
Another legend represents the Isthmian games as founded by Poseidon
to honour the memory of Melikertes, son of Athamas king of Orchomenos and Ino,
who cast herself with Melikertes into the sea, becoming thereupon a Nereid with
the name Leukothea, while her son became the sea-deity Palaemon (Schol. ad Pind.
Isthm. p. 514 seq. B; Ovid. Met. iv. 521 seqq.).
According to another tradition, the Nereids appeared to Sisyphos,
and commanded him to found the games in honour of Melikertes. A modification of
this myth states that the corpse of the son of Ino lay unburied upon the shore
of the Isthmus; that the Corinthians were, in consequence, sorely pressed by famine;
and that, consulting the oracle as to the means of relief, they were directed
to inter the dead youth and establish the games in memory of him.
Yet another myth informs that Theseus founded the Isthmia in grateful
commemoration of his victory over the wicked giant Sinis Pityokamptes (Schol.
ad Pind. Isthm. p. 514 B). Now, since both Sinis and Theseus were children of
Poseidon, the institution of the festival by the latter might be looked upon as
an act of atonement offered by him to his offended father; and this view would
help us to understand the statement that the Melikertes festival took rank rather
as a mystic rite than as a popular assembly, the cynosure of sightseers (Plut.
Thes. 25, teletes echon mallon e theas kai panegurismou taxin). The other legends
as to the origin of the Isthmia need not detain us. In almost all we see that,
as the mythic history of the Olympic games takes us back to Zeus, so that of the
Isthmian refers us ultimately to Poseidon. Plut. (l. c.) says that Theseus founded
the latter in emulation of Herakles, who had established the former. Later accounts
represent Theseus as having confirmed, by the institution of the games, a friendly
political relationship between Athens and Corinth. According to Hellanikos, and
Andron of Halicarnassus, Theseus made a covenant with the Corinthians by which
Athenian theoroi should receive at the Isthmia so much standing-ground (proedria)
as could be covered by the sail of the theoric vessel (Plut. l. c.). The inscription
of the Parian marble numbers 995 years backwards from its own time to the institution
of the Isthmian games by Theseus.
In the time of the Cypselids at Corinth, the celebration of these
games was suspended for seventy years (Solin. 12). Solon offered a reward of a
hundred drachmae to every Athenian isthmionikes, from which it is evident that
in his time the Isthmia had obtained wide celebrity as a periodic festival. It
is noteworthy that even the destruction of Corinth by Mummius in 146 B.C. did
not break the continuity of the games. They flourished under the Roman empire,
and Corinthian coins of the reigns of Hadrian, Verus, M. Aurelius, and Commodus,
frequently bear the inscription ISTHMIA. In the reign of Julian these, like the
other great Hellenic games, were zealously celebrated, but they ceased to exist
probably about Olymp. 293, when Christianity became the established religion of
the Roman empire.
Of the four great Pan-Hellenic festivals, two--the Olympia and Pythia--were
penteteric, i.e. recurring after intervals of four years: while two--the Nemean
and Isthmian--were trieteric, i.e. recurring after intervals of two years. Hence
Pliny (H. N. iv. § 5) and Solinus (c. 9) are in error when they represent the
Isthmia as quinquennial. Cf. Pindar, Nem. vi. 40, where he uses the words: en
amphiktionon taurophonoi t rieteridi Poseidanion an temenos. Eusebius places the
first historic Isthmiad in Olymp. 49, 3 (Chron. libr. post. p. 125, interp. Hieron.
ed. Seal. ii.). The Isthmia occurred in the first and third years of each Olympiad.
As to the season in which they were held, so much alone is certain (cf. Boeckh,
Explic. ad Pind. Olymp. ix. p. 183) that the Isthmia which fell in the first year
of an Olympiad took place in summer (Thucyd. viii. 10; Curt. iv. 5, 11), and that
those which fell in the third took place in spring (Xen. Hell. iv. 5; Liv. xxxiii.
32, 33). Dodwell argued from Pindar, Olymp. ix. 83, with Schol., that the former
were celebrated on the 12th of the Attic month Hecatombaeon, which corresponded
with the penultimate month of the Corinthian year (Dodw. de Cycl. vi. 3, p. 283
ff.). Corsini held that this summer festival occurred on the 12th of the Corinthian
Panemos, which, according to him, coincided with the Attic Hecatombaeon; according
to Boeckh, with Metageitnion. But Boeckh (ad Pind. l. c.) shows the inconclusiveness
of their reasoning.
The programme of the Isthmian games included gymnic equestrian and
musical contests, the gymnic being probably the oldest. The Isthmian contests
no doubt resembled in the main those of the other three great festivals. They
were open to boys, men, and youths, well grown but not quite matured to manhood
(ageneioi). Mention is on record of isthmionikai who obtained prizes in the stadium
(for men and boys), the pancratium (for men and ageneioi), and the pentathlum
(Dion Chrysost. Diog. e isthm. Orat. ix. p. 291, vol. i. Reisk., and Krause, Pyth.
Nem. Isthm. pp. 209 ff.). In equestrian contests we hear only of victories with
the four-horse chariot and the riding-horse, but we cannot, from absence of reference
to other equestrian contests, infer that there were none except these.
Pausanias (i. 2, v. 2) mentions a general truce which prevailed during
the Isthmian games (isthmikai spondai), and dated from the mythic age. In historic
times this truce was regularly proclaimed throughout Hellas by heralds called
spondophoroi, whose persons were sacred, but who were not obeyed, however, if
the festival was not at the time under legitimate management (cf. Xen. Hell. iv.
5, 2; Diod. xiv. 86, p. 709; Pans. iii. 10, 1).
The Eleans alone of the Hellenic states sent no theoroi to these games;
nor did any from Elis, except the people of Lepreum, present themselves as candidates
for Isthmian honours (Paus. l. c. and vi. 16, 2).
We have little or no information as to the special rules which regulated the celebration of the Isthmia, but we may suppose them to have been similar to the rules observed at the Olympia, Nemea, and Pythia (vid. Aristid. peri homon., Or. xlii. p. 781; Themist. Or. xv. p. 229; Krause, Olympia, § 15, 144-156). We know, however, that the same person might here compete in as many as three contests on one and the same day (Pans. vi. 15, 3). We gather from Plutarch (Sympos. v. 2) that women were admitted to poetical competitions. The beginning of the games was announced by a herald, who, advancing into the middle of the scene, proclaimed silence with a trumpet, and then in a set form of words declared the festival to have begun (Liv. xxxiii. 32; Themist. l. c.).
The Isthmia were naturally even from prehistoric times under the control
of the Corinthians (cf. Pans. v. 2, 1; 22, 3; Plut. Thes. 25). In Pindar they
alone are referred to as the presidents (cf. Nem. ii. 20). But in Olymp. 96 the
games were held by the Laconizing Corinthian exiles, under the protection of Agesilaus,
who interrupted the celebration of the festival by the Argives and those of the
Corinthians who had submitted to them. As soon as he withdrew, the Argives celebrated
the games over again. But in Olymp. 98. 2, by the peace of Antalkidas, the Corinthians
were freed from the Argive yoke, and recovered control of the Isthmia. When Corinth
was destroyed by Mummius (B.C. 146), the management of the festival passed to
the Sicyonians, who retained it until the restoration of Corinth by Julius Caesar,
when the agonothesia returned to its original possessors (Pans. ii. 2, 2). We
have no account of the number of presidents of the games (agonothetai), who were
chosen apparently for their wealth and nobility. It is supposable that, like the
Hellanodikae at Olympia, they wore a distinctive robe of office; and we know from
Dion Chrysost. (Orat. ix. Diog. e isthm. p. 291, vol. i. ed. R.) that their heads
were adorned with crowns.
The prize of victors at the Isthmia, like that won at each of the
other three great festivals, had during the historic period no intrinsic value,
its symbolic worth being thereby immeasurably enhanced. In Homeric times, such
prizes always possessed intrinsic worth, and it is a mere anachronism when some
myths describe the primitive Isthmia as an agon stephanites. The victor's meed
in historic times was a wreath of parsley (selinon: cf. Pind. Nem. iv. 88; Olymp.
xiii. 31). It has been thought that the Nemean differed from the Isthmian wreath
in that the former was made of green or fresh, while the latter was made of dry
parsley (Schol. Pind. Olymp. xiii. 45); but this view lacks proof. Tradition has
it that the original parsley-wreath was succeeded in prehistoric times by a wreath
of pine; but in the classical period we hear only of the former being awarded,
as it continued to be in the time of Timoleon (cf. Diod. xvi. 679 ; Plut. Tim.
26). Nor was it until probably long after the restoration of Corinth by Julius
Caesar that the pine-wreath supplanted it. But under the Empire isthmionikae are
regularly represented as crowned with the pine, called simply he pitus, like the
Olympian garland, ho kotinos (vid. Plut. Symp. v. 3, 1-3; Pans. v. 21, 5, vi.
13; Luc. Anach. 9, 16). While parsley was suited to an agon epitaphios, the pine
was characteristic of the worship of Poseidon (cf. Plut. Symp. l. c.). A Corinthian
coin of the reign of Verus shows the pine-wreath, and from this onward to the
abolition of the festival the wreath of the isthmionikae continued to be woven
of pine. Here, as in the other great games, the victor received with the crown
a palm branch in token of his victory (Plut. Symp. viii. 4, 1; Pans. viii. 48,
2). At these games Flamininus (and Nero afterwards) declared the autonomy of Hellas
(Liv. xxxiii. 32; Suet. Ner. 22, 24). Rhetoricians, poets, and other writers brought
their productions under public notice at the Isthmia (Dion Chrysost. Diog. e peri
aretes, pp. 277, 278, vol. i. R.). According to Dion Chrysost. (Diog. e isthm.
Orat. ix. p. 289, vol. i. R.), visitors came from Italy, Sicily, Libya, Thessaly,
the Ionian States, and even the Borysthenes, to be present at the great Isthmian
festival.
As the Olympia, Pythia, and Nemea lent their names to minor festivals,
so the name Isthmia was applied to other games than those held at the Isthmus
of Corinth. The number of inferior Isthmia, however, was not as large as that
of the inferior copies of the other great games. Coins and inscriptions remain,
which refer to Isthmia held at Ancyra in Galatia. Isthmia at Nicaea in Bithynia
are mentioned on a coin of this town, struck in the time of Valerianus. [p. 1026]
The Isthmia at Syracuse are known to us only from the isolated statement of a
schol. to Pind. Olymp. xiii. 158, which, however, is credible from the fact that
Syracuse was founded by Corinth. Several ancient authors whose writings are lost
treated the subject of the Isthmian games. Both Plutarch and Athenaeus refer to
a work on this subject written by the epic poet Euphorion (Plut. Sympos. v. 3,
2, 3; Athen. iv. 182). For further information, the reader may be referred to
Krause (Pyth., Nem., Isthm.), whose work has been chiefly followed in the present
article.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Isthmia (ta Isthmia). One of the four great national festivals of the Greeks, held on the Isthmus of Corinth, in a grove of pine-trees sacred to Poseidon, near the shrines of the Isthmian Poseidon and of Melicertes. From B.C. 589, they were held in the first month of spring, in the second and fourth years of each Olympiad. According to legend, the Isthmian Games were originally funeral games in memory of Melicertes (q.v.); another tradition relates that they were established by Theseus either in honour of Poseidon, or in commemoration of his victory over Sciron and Sinis. In any case, the Athenians were specially interested in the festival from the earliest times. It was alleged that, from the days of Theseus downwards, they had what was called the proedria, the right of occupying the most prominent seats at the games, and, in accordance with a law attributed to Solon, they presented to those of their citizens who were victors in the contests a reward amounting to 100 drachmae. The only occasion when Socrates was absent from Athens, except with the army, was to attend this festival. The inhabitants of Elis were completely excluded from the games, being debarred from either sending competitors or festal envoys. The Corinthians had the presidency, which was transferred to the Sicyonians after the destruction of Corinth (B.C. 146), but at the rebuilding of Corinth (B.C. 46) it was restored to that city. The contests included gymnastic exercises, horseraces, and competitions in music. The former two differed in no essential way from the Olympian Games; in the third, besides musicians, poets of either sex contended for the prize. Besides the customary palm, the prize in Pindar's time consisted of a wreath of dry selinon (often translated "parsley," but more probably identical with the "wild celery," apium graveolens). The selinon was a symbol of funeral games. After the destruction of Corinth, a crown of pine needles was substituted for it. The games long continued to be held, even under the Roman Empire. (Cf. Plut. Timoleon, 26; Sympos. v. 3, 1-3).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Η σπουδαιότητα της Ισθμίας αποδεικνύεται εκτός των άλλων και από το
γεγονός ότι στο ιερό της διεξαγόταν μία από τις τέσσερις μεγάλες Πανελλήνιες εορτές,
τα Ίσθμια. Κατά την τοπική παράδοση ιδρυτής τους θεωρείτο ο Σίσυφος, όμως σύμφωνα
με μία άλλη εκδοχή καθιερώθηκαν από το Θησέα προς τιμήν του Ποσειδώνα. Πανελλήνια
σημασία απέκτησαν την εποχή των Κυψελιδών.
Τα Ίσθμια τελούνταν κάθε δύο χρόνια και κατά τη διεξαγωγή τους ίσχυαν
οι λεγόμενες “Ισθμιάδες σπονδές”, δηλαδή ειρηνική περίοδος για τις
πόλεις που συμμετείχαν. Η οργάνωσή τους ακολούθησε το πρότυπο των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων:
περιλάμβαναν αγωνίσματα όπως ο δρόμος , το άλμα, ρίψεις, πένταθλο, παγκράτιο,
ιππικοί αγώνες και αρματοδρομίες. Από τον 5ο αι. π.Χ προστέθηκαν αγώνες μουσικής
και απαγγελίας καθώς και διαγωνισμοί ζωγραφικής. Οι νικητές έπαιρναν ως έπαθλο
ένα στεφάνι από πεύκο.
Μέχρι τα μέσα του 2ου αι π.Χ τα Ίσθμια βρίσκονταν υπό την εποπτεία
των Κορινθίων και είχαν αποκτήσει μεγάλη φήμη. Οταν το 146π.Χ η Κόρινθος
λεηλατήθηκε, την ευθύνη των αγώνων ανέλαβε η Σικυώνα.
Η οργάνωσή τους ανατέθηκε και πάλι στους Κορινθίους μετά το 46π.Χ.
Στον αρχαιολογικό χώρο της Ισθμίας λειτουργεί σήμερα ένα μουσείο,
όπου φυλάσσονται ενδιαφέροντα ευρήματα από το χώρο και την ευρύτερη περιοχή.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται το Νοέμβριο 2003 από τουριστικό φυλλάδιο του Δήμου
Λουτρακίου - Περαχώρας.
ΚΑΛΤΕΖΕΣ (Χωριό) ΒΑΛΤΕΤΣΙ
Σε απόσταση περιπου 2,5 χλμ. από το ομώνυμο χωριό Καλτεζές, βρίσκονται τα ερείπια της αρχαίας πολιτείας της Παλαιοχώρας.
Ανατολικά του χωριού έχει διατηρηθεί το τοπωνύμιο της "Ελένης το Πηγάδι". Λέγεται ότι εκεί είναι πιθανό να τελούνταν τα "Ελένεια", αγώνες καλλιστείων κατά την αρχαιότητα.
ΝΕΜΕΑ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΑ
Νέμεα. Σύμφωνα με την παράδοση, τα Νέμεα ξεκίνησαν το 573 π.Χ. και διεξάγονταν κάθε δύο χρόνια, τη δεύτερη πανσέληνο μετά το θερινό ηλιοστάσιο, προς τιμήν του Οφέλτη, γιου του βασιλιά Λυκούργου, που βρήκε φρικτό θάνατο από δάγκωμα φιδιού. Αν και αργότερα προστάτης των αγώνων ανέλαβε ο Δίας, τα Νέμεα συνέχισαν να έχουν ένα νεκρικό χαρακτήρα, που τον φανέρωναν τα μαύρα ιμάτια που φορούσαν οι Ελλανοδίκες και το άλσος κυπαρισσιών γύρω από το ιερό του Δία. Όπως στα Ολύμπια, έτσι και στα Νέμεα δεν περιλαμβάνονταν μουσικοί αγώνες. Αρχικά, η πόλη των Κλεωνών είχε τον έλεγχο των αγώνων, αλλά αργότερα ανέλαβε τη διοργάνωσή τους το Αργος. Το έπαθλο για τους νικητές ήταν ένα στεφάνι από αγριοσέλινο.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται τον Ιούνιο 2005 από την ακόλουθη ιστοσελίδα, με φωτογραφίες, του Ιδρυματος Μείζονος Ελληνισμού
Nemea was a valley in Argolis, between Kleonae and Phlius. It was the reputed
scene of many famous mythical events. Here (it was said) Argos had watched Io:
and here Heraklees slew the lion. Pausanias (ii. 15, 2) relates that in his time
the den of the Nemean lion was pointed out in a mountain range, a little less
than two miles from Nemea. And here too, in historic times, stood a splendid temple
of Nemean Zeus, with a sacred enclosure (alsos, not to be rendered grove ), in
which the Nemean games (Nemea or Nemeia) were held (Strab. viii. p. 377). Pindar
describes the locality of these games by a variety of imaginative expressions:
e. g. Nemeaiou en poluumnetoi Dios alsei (Nem. ii. 4, 5); askiois Phliountos hup'
ogugiois oresin (Nem. vi. 45, 46); chortois en leontos (Olymp. xiii. 44). The
valley of Nemea from its situation belonged naturally to the people of Kleonae,
who for a long time were presidents of the games (agonothetai). But, before Olymp.
53, 1, the Argives obtained possession of the temple and the presidency at the
games. At a later time the Kleonaeans recovered the right of presiding, but did
not retain it (Pind. Nem. x.; Pausan. ii. 15, 3).
In prehistoric times we find the institution of the Nemean festival
connected with the expedition of the Seven against Thebes (Apollodor. iii. 6,
4), or with the slaying of the Nemean lion by Herakles (Schol. Pind. Nem.). Writers
who held the former opinion uniformly describe the festival as an agon epitaphios,
established to commemorate the youth Archemoros, who was killed by a serpent (Apollodor.
l. c.), but differ as to the particular Archemoros whose death was thus honoured.
Some represented him to have been the son of Lycurgus, king of Nemea, while others
(among whom was Aeschylus) related that he was the son of Nemea, daughter of Asopus
(Schol. Pind. Nem.). Apollodorus in the passage referred to gives the names of
the victors, together with the contests, in which they were victorious at the
first Nemean games. The second celebration of these games is attributed by Pausanias
(x. 25, 2, 3) to the Epigoni.
As regards the first historic occurrence of the festival, we have
but scanty evidence. In its local character it had no doubt been in existence
from immemorial antiquity; but not until long after the Olympic games had become
famous did those of Nemea rise to the rank of a Pan-Hellenic festival. Eusebius
dates the first Nemead from Olymp. 53, 2: but it is probable from the dissertation
of G. Hermann, whose conclusions are supported by Boeckh, that the series of historical
Nemeads began in the winter of Olymp. 51 (Boeckh, C. I. i. n. 34, p. 53). The
Nemean games, like the Isthmian, in this respect were biennial (agon trieterikos),
i. e. two complete years elapsed between each festival. Accordingly they fell
twice within the Olympic period, occurring alternately in winter and summer in
the second and fourth years respectively of each Olympic penteteris. We read in
the Schol. to Pindar's Nemean odes that they took place on the 12th of the month
Pan[ecedil]mos (meni panemoi dodekatei), but such authority helps us but little
in settling the matter.
The games comprised musical, gymnic, and equestrian contests (agon
mousikos, gumnikos, hippilos). (Plut. Philop. 11; Pausan. viii. 50, 3; Schol.
Pind. Nem.) The gymnic contests at Nemea, as regards the subjects of competition,
corresponded closely with those at Olympia. The following are expressly mentioned:--The
simple foot-race (gumnon stadion) for men and boys; the wrestling bout (pale)
for men and boys; the pentathlon for men and boys; the pagikration for men and
boys (Pind. Nem. passim; Herod. vi. 92, ix. 75). That boxing (pugmachia) was a
subject of competition may be inferred from Pausan. viii. 40, 3. We learn further
from Pausanias (ii. 15, 2) and Pindar that, besides the simple foot-race, the
Nemean games included the armour-race (hoplites dromos) and the long race (ho
dolichos--notice accent). In the equestrian contests we know that Alcibiades,
Chromios of Aetna, and Polykles of Sparta (Pausan. i. 22, 6) were victorious.
That the games occupied more than one day may be inferred from Liv.
xxvii. 31, where he uses the words per dies festos in reference to them.
The Argives, as has been said above, ultimately supplanted the Kleonaeans
as presidents of the Nemean festival, but they occasionally delegated this function
to military chieftains, like Philip of Macedon or Titus Quintius Flamininus (Liv.
xxvii. 30, xxxiv. 41). In a late inscription the officers who actually presided
are referred to as Hellanodikae (Hellanodikai). Boeckh conjectured that these
were twelve in number, while those who discharged the like duty at Olympia, and
bore the same title, numbered only ten (Boeckh, C. I 1126, p. 581).
Like the other great Pan-Hellenic festivals, the Nemean was an agon
stephanites, i. e. one in which the victor obtained a wreath in token of his victory.
The Nemean wreath was, according to some accounts, at first woven of olive-sprays
(elaia), the garland of green parsley (chlora selina) having replaced it afterwards;
according to others, the parsley wreath, was the original prize (as it continued
to be throughout historical [p. 228] times) on account of its special fitness,
as an emblem of mourning, to be associated with the memory of Archemoros. But
a different myth, already alluded to, represents Herakles, when he instituted
the games after overcoming the lion, as having also appointed the parsleywreath
to be the victor's reward. And this latter account seems to have been present
to the mind of Pindar, for he speaks of the wreath as botana leontos (Nem. vi.
71, 72).
During the celebration of each Nemean festival a cessation of hostilities
(ekecheiria, spondai) between belligerents was an imperative duty (cf. en hieromeniai
Nemeadi, Pind. Nem. iii. 2, with schol.). A sacred embassy, too, was on these
occasions sent by each of the several Hellenic states to Nemea, with offerings
to Nemean Zeus (Demosth. Meid. p. 552, § 115).
Historians, as well as late coins and inscriptions, testify that the
(still so called) Nemean games came to be regularly held in Argos (Polyb. v. 101,
5; Diod. xix. 64; Liv. xxx. 1; Boeckh, C. I. 234, p. 356). On a comparatively
early occasion, indeed, Argos had been the scene of the festival. For the circumstances,
vid. Plut. Arat. 28. Local festivals, named after the great Nemean, were established
in many places, e. g. at Aetna in Sicily (Schol. Pind. Olymp. xiii. 158) and at
Megara (Schol. Pind. Olymp. vii. 157). That Nemea were also instituted at Anchialos
in Thrace may be inferred from a medal stamped under Caracalla, bearing the name
NEMAIA (instead of the usual NEMEIA); and, from the fact of its bearing also the
word XEOPSEPIA, the further inference has been drawn that the Thracian Nemea were
founded in honour of Sept. Severus. (For more detailed information respecting
Nemea, see Krause, Pythien, Nemeen, u. Isthmien, whose guidance has been mainly
followed in the present article.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Nemea, (ta Nemea or Nemeia). The Nemean Games; one of the four Greek national festivals, which was celebrated in the valley of Nemea in the territory of the Argive town Cleonae. In historic times the festival was held in honour of Zeus, who had here a temple with a sacred grove. Originally it is said to have consisted of funeral games, instituted by the Seven during their expedition against Thebes, in memory of the boy Archemorus as an agon epitaphios. Heracles afterwards changed it into a festival in honour of Zeus. From about B.C. 575 on wards, athletic competitions were added to the festival, after the model of those at Olympia; and, like the latter, it was only gradually that it developed into a general Hellenic celebration. It was held twice in a period of four years--once in August, every fourth year; once in winter, every second or first Olympic year. It is more probable, however, that the so-called "Winter Nemea" were only local games held in Argos, and that the Panhellenic Nemea were celebrated in alternate years at the end of every first and third Olympic year, at a time corresponding to our July. The question is discussed by Unger in the Philologus, but Droysen, in Hermes, considers it still unsettled. The management of the festival was originally possessed by the Cleonaeans, but soon passed, together with the possession of the sanctuary, into the hands of the Argives. The games, which lasted more than one day, consisted of gymnastic, equestrian, and musical contests; the prize was a palm-branch and a garland of fresh selinon, often rendered "parsley," but more probably identical with the "wild celery."
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
City of Argolis,
in northeastern Peloponnese,
southwest of Corinth.
In this city were held every two years (in July the second and fourth
year of each Olympiad) the Nemean games, in honor of Zeus. These games were fourth
in fame among the panhellenic games after the Olympic (also to Zeus), the Pythian
(to Apollo) and the Isthmian (to Poseidon).
Nemea was the site of the first of Heracles' 12 labors, his fight
against the lion, and some ascribed to him the creation of the games. But the
more “official” origin was ascribed to Adrastus, the king of Argos
who led the ill-fated expedition of the Seven against Thebes
to try and help Polynices, one of Oedipus's sons, regain the kingship his brother
Eteocles refused to hand him over when time came. Reaching Nemea on their way
toward Thebes, Adrastus and
his companions asked water to Hypsipyle, the exiled queen of the island of Lemnos,
who had once been the wife of Jason but was now a slave at the service of Lycurgus,
the king of the place, serving as a nurse to Opheltes, his baby son. To help them,
the nurse, forgetting an oracle stating that the baby should not be put on the
ground until he could walk, laid the baby for a minute on the grass near a fountain,
where he was killed by the snake guarding it. The games were then instituted by
Adrastus as part of Opheltes' funerals and as a propitiatory ceremony to the his
memory and the seven princes took part in their first occurrence.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΗΛΕΙΑ
Ηταν αγώνας δρόμου μεταξύ δεκαέξι παρθένων οι οποίες αγωνίζονταν κατά ηλικία. Ετρεχαν με τα μαλλιά λυτά και φορώντας χιτώνα κοντό που άφηνε το δεξί ώμο τους ακάλυπτο μέχρι το στήθος. Οι νικήτριες έπαιρναν στεφάνι ελιάς και ένα κομμάτι από αγελάδα που είχε θυσιαστεί για την Ηρα. Επίσης ανέθεταν εικόνες με το όνομά τους. Σύμφωνα με μία παράδοση τον πρώτο αγώνα παρθένων διοργάνωσε η ίδια η Ιπποδάμεια από ευγνωμοσύνη στην Ηρα για το γάμο της με τον Πέλοπα. Κατά άλλους τα πρώτα Ηραία διοργανώθηκαν από δεκαέξι γυναίκες που είχαν επιλεγεί από οχτώ πόλεις της Πίσας και οχτώ της Ηλιδας για να λύσουν τις διαφορές μεταξύ των κατοίκων. Οι ίδιες αυτές γυναίκες ύφαιναν και τον πέπλο της θεάς και χόρευαν σε δύο ομάδες το χορό της Φυσκόας και το χορό της Ιπποδάμειας (Παυσ. 5,16,2-6).
ΠΕΛΛΑΝΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΞΥΛΟΚΑΣΤΡΟ
Αγώνες στους οποίους συμμετείχαν ντόπιοι αθλητές και τα έπαθλα ήταν χρηματικά (Παυσ. 7,27,4).
ΤΕΓΕΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΚΑΔΙΑ
(ta alaia). Games annually celebrated at Tegea in honour of Athene Alea.
ΑΓΡΥΛΗ (Αρχαίος δήμος) ΑΘΗΝΑ
These were held in the spring at Agrae, a place on the Ilissus,
southeast of the Acropolis. Initiation of Heracles. (Vase from Panticapaeum.)
There is no doubt that they were held in the month Anthesterion, when there were
the first signs of returning vegetation just after field-work began. The exact
date cannot be fixed, but Mommsen's suggestion is most probable, that the chief
day was the 20th, the same day of the month as the Greater Mysteries were held
on in Boedromion, to which the Lesser Mysteries had many points of similarity,
even in matters connected with the calendar--e. g. the same length of the mystery
truce. Mommsen supposes that the 19th was a day of preparation, and the 20th and
21st the special mystery days. These Lesser Mysteries were considered as a prelude
to the Greater (Schol. on Aristoph. Plut. 845), being on a much smaller scale;
but initiation in the Lesser was generally required before the candidate could
present himself for initiation into the Greater.
The mysteries at Agrae consisted probably to a large extent
of purifications, for which the water of the Ilissus was much used. They were
held more especially in honour of Persephone, called Pherrephatta here, than of
Demeter. It appears that the carrying off of Persephone was the most important
representation in these mysteries. Again we hear that at Agrae the fate of Dionysus
was pourtrayed (mimema ton peri ton Dionuson, Steph. Byzant. s. v. Agrai). The
death of Dionysus-Zagreus took place on the 13th of Anthesterion, the day on which
the festival of the Chytri was held; so perhaps on the ninth day after, the 21st
(for funeral rites on the ninth day after death, the enata, see Aesch. Ctesiph.
225), the funeral ceremony may have been held and his violent death related in
a drama. A great many, especially strangers, were initiated into these mysteries
who did not proceed to initiation into the regular Eleusinia; the legend, too,
said it was for the purpose of initiating Heracles, who was a stranger and according
to the primitive regulations could not be initiated into the Eleusinia, that these
Lesser Mysteries were established.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The Mysteries at Agrae (ta en Agrais). These were held in the spring at Agrae, a place on the Ilissus, S.E. of the Acropolis. There is no doubt they were held in Anthesterion, when there were the first signs of returning vegetation just after field-work began. The exact date cannot be fixed, but Mommsen's suggestion is most probable, that the chief day was the 20th, the same day of the month as the Greater Mysteries were held on in Boedromion--to which the Lesser Mysteries had many points of similarity, even in matters connected with the calendar, e. g. the same length of the mystery truce. Mommsen supposes that the 19th was a day of preparation, and the 20th and 21st the special mystery days. These Lesser Mysteries were considered as a prelude to the Greater (Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 845, esti ta mikra hosper prokatharsis kai proagneusis ton megalon), being on a much smaller scale, but initiation in the Lesser was generally required before the candidate could present himself for initiation into the Greater (Plat. Gorg. 497 C; Plut. Dem. 26). At Eleusis there were temples to Artemis Propylaea, to Triptolemus and to Poseidon, as well as to Demeter; similarly at Agrae there was a temple to Demeter, and altars to Artemis and Poseidon, and a statue of Triptolemus (Mommsen, p. 377). The mysteries at Agrae consisted probably to a large extent of purifications, for which the water of the Ilissus was much used (Polyaen. v. 17). They were held more especially in honour of Persephone, called Pherrephatta here, than of Demeter (Schol. on Aristoph. Plut. 845, yet cf. Bekk. Anecd. 326). It appears that the carrying off of Persephone was the most important representation in these mysteries. Again we hear that at Agrae the fate of Dionysus was pourtrayed (mimema ton peri ton Dionuson, Steph. Byz. s. v. Agrai). The death of Dionysus-Zagreus took place on the 13th of Anthesterion, the day on which the festival of the Chytrae was held: so perhaps on the ninth day after, the 21st (for funeral rites on the ninth day after death, the enata, see Aeschin. Ctesiph. § 225), the funeral ceremony may have been held and his violent death related in a drama (Mommsen, p. 378). A great many, especially strangers, were initiated into these mysteries who did not proceed to initiation into the regular Eleusinia: the legend, too, said it was for the purpose of initiating Heracles, who was a stranger and according to the primitive regulations could not be initiated into the Eleusinia, that these Lesser Mysteries were established (Schol. on Aristoph. Plut. 845, 1013). A representation of the initiation of Heracles on a vase found at Panticapaeum is given in Baumeister's Denkmaler, p. 475. For the appearance of Aphrodite, cf. Themist. Or. xx. p. 288, Dind. There is a very similar one on a Pourtales vase in the British Museum, which Baumeister also alludes to (cf. Wieseler, ii. 112).
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Agroteras Thysia, a festival celebrated at Athens in honour of Artemis, surnamed
Agrotera (from agra, chase), in consequence of a vow made before the battle of
Marathon. It was solemnised, according to Plutarch (De Malign. Herod. 26), on
the sixth of the month of Boedromion, and consisted in a sacrifice of 500 goats,
which continued to be offered in the time of Xenophon (Xenoph. Anab. iii. 2, 12).
Aelian (V. H. ii. 25) places the festival on the sixth day of Thargelion, and
says that 300 goats were sacrificed; but as the battle of Marathon, which gave
rise to this solemn sacrifice, occurred on the sixth of Boedromion, Aelian's statement
appears to be wron. (Plut. de Glor. Athen. 7).
This festival is said to have originated in the following manner :
When the Persians invaded Attica, Callimachus, the polemarch, or, according to
others, Miltiades, made a vow to sacrifice to Artemis Agrotera as many goats as
there should be enemies slain at Marathon. But when the number of enemies slain
was so great that an equal number of goats could not be found at once, the Athenians
decreed that 500 should be sacrificed every year. This is the statement made by
Xenophon; but other ancient authors give different accounts. The Scholiast on
Aristoph. (Equit. 666) relates that the Athenians, before the battle, promised
to sacrifice to Artemis one ox for every enemy slain; but when the number of oxen
could not be procured, they substituted an equal number of goats. It is not improbable
that annual processions from Athens to the temple of Hecate at Agrae, in remembrance
of the victory of Marathon, may have been connected with the sacrifice to Artemis
Agrotera. (Plut. de Malign. Herod. 26)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΑΘΗΝΑΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΕΛΛΑΔΑ
A festival celebrated in Athens on the 14th Scirophorion (June
to July) to Zeus as the protector of the city. It was also called Buphonia, from
the sacrifice of an ox connected with it. A labouring ox was led to the altar
of Zeus in the Acropolis, which was strewn with wheat and barley. As soon as the
ox touched the consecrated grain he was punished by a blow on the neck from an
axe, delivered by a priest of a particular family, who instantly threw away the
axe and took to flight. In his absence the axe was brought to judgment in the
Prytaneum, and condemned, as a thing polluted by murder, to be thrown into the
sea. To kill a labouring ox, the trusty helper of man, was rigidly forbidden by
custom. In the exceptional sacrifice of one at this festival the ancient custom
may be regarded as on the one hand excusing the slaughter, and on the other insisting
that it was, nevertheless, equivalent to a murder.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A very ancient festival celebrated at Athens, which at different times seems to have had a different character, for at first it was solemnized in honour of Athene, surnamed Ergane, and by the whole people of Athens, whence it was called Athenaia or Pandemos. At a later period, however, it was celebrated only by artisans, especially smiths, and in honour of Hephaestus, whence its name was changed into chalkeia. It was held on the thirtieth day of the month of Pyanepsion. Menander composed a comedy called Chalkeia, a fragment of which is preserved in Athenaeus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
An ancient festival originally held in honour of Athene at Athens, and of an agrarian character.
A festival of the Dioscuri, or Anakes, held at Athens
Παναθήναια. Η μεγαλύτερη γιορτή της Αθήνας τελούνταν κάθε τέσσερα χρόνια προς τιμήν της πολιούχου Αθηνάς και, σύμφωνα με την αθηναϊκή παράδοση, η ίδρυσή της αποδίδεται στον Εριχθόνιο ή πιθανότατα στο Θησέα. Η αναδιοργάνωσή της, ωστόσο, οφείλεται σε πρωτοβουλία του Πεισιστράτου, στη δεκαετία 570-560 π.Χ. Κατά την Αρχαϊκή και Κλασική περίοδο η αίγλη των Παναθηναίων ήταν ανάλογη με εκείνη των άλλων φημισμένων πανελλήνιων αγώνων (Ολύμπια, Πύθια, Νέμεα και Ίσθμια). Στα Ελληνιστικά και Ρωμαϊκά χρόνια η γιορτή αποτελούσε ένα από τα ελάχιστα στοιχεία της αθηναϊκής παρουσίας στα ιστορικά δρώμενα της εποχής. Το τέλος της τέλεσης των Παναθηναίων τοποθετείται γύρω στις αρχές του 5ου αιώνα μ.Χ.
Την Κλασική περίοδο, η γιορτή διεξαγόταν στο δεύτερο μισό του Αυγούστου για οκτώ ημέρες και περιλάμβανε αγώνες μουσικών και ραψωδών, αθλητικούς και ιππικούς, καθώς και άλλες εκδηλώσεις. Τα Παναθήναια, σε αντίθεση με τους υπόλοιπους πανελλήνιους αγώνες, ήταν χρηματίτες και όχι στεφανίτες, με τους νικητές να λαμβάνουν ακριβά έπαθλα (π.χ. ελαιόλαδο σε αμφορείς) και όχι απλά στεφάνια.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται τον Ιούνιο 2005 από την ακόλουθη ιστοσελίδα, με φωτογραφίες, του Ιδρυματος Μείζονος Ελληνισμού
Panathenaia (Panathenaea), (ta Panathenaia). The most ancient and most important of Athenian
festivals. It was celebrated in honour of Athene, the patron deity of Athens.
Related to have been founded in early times by Erichthonius, it is said to have
been originally named only Athenaea, and to have first received the name of Panathenaea
at the time when Theseus united all the inhabitants of Attica into one body. In
memory of the union itself was kept the festival of the sunoikia, or sunoikesis,
on the 16th of Hecatombaeon (July-August), which may be regarded as a kind of
preparatory solemnity to the Panathenaea. There was a festival of the ordinary
or lesser Panathenaea celebrated every year, and from the time of Pisistratus,
the great Panathenaea held every fifth year, and in the third year of every Olympiad,
from the 24th to the 29th of Hecatombaeon. Pisistratus, in the year B.C. 566,
added to the original chariot and horse-races athletic contests in each of the
traditional forms of competition. He, or his son Hipparchus, instituted the regulation
that the collected Homeric poems should be recited at the Feast of Rhapsodes.
In 446 Pericles introduced musical contests, which took place on the first day
of the festival, in the Odeum, which he had built. Competitions of cyclic choruses
and other kinds of dances, torch-races and trireme-races added to the splendour
of the festival. The care and direction of all these contests were committed to
ten stewards (athlothetai), who were elected by the people for four years, from
one great Panathenaic festival to the next. In the musical contests the first
prize was a golden crown; in the athletic, the prize was a garland of leaves from
the sacred olive-trees of Athene, together with large and beautiful vases filled
with oil from the same trees. Many specimens of these Panathenaic vases have been
found in Italy, Sicily, Greece, and at Cyrene. They have the figure of Athene
on one side and a design indicating the contest for which they are awarded on
the other. Most of them belong to the fourth century B.C., 367-318; the so-called
"Burgon Vase," in the British Museum, to the sixth century. The tribe
whose ships had been victorious received a sum of money, part of which was expended
upon a sacrifice to Poseidon.
The culminating-point of the festival was the 28th day of the
month, the birthday of the goddess, when the grand procession carried through
the city the costly, embroidered, saffron-coloured garment, the peplus (peplos).
This had been woven in the preceding nine months by Attic maidens and matrons,
and was embroidered with representations from the battle of the gods and giants.
It was carried through the city, first of all, as a sail for a ship moving on
wheels, and was then taken to the Acropolis, where it adorned one of the statues
of Athene Polias. The procession is represented in a vivid manner in the well-known
frieze of the Parthenon. It included the priests and their attendants, leading
a long train of animals festally adorned for sacrifice; matrons and maidens bearing
in baskets the various sacrificial implements; old men in festal attire, with
olive-branches in their hands, whence came their name, thallophoroi; warriors,
with spear and shield, in splendid array; young men in armour; the cavalry under
the command of both the hipparchoi; the victors in the immediately preceding contests;
the festal embassies of other States, especially of the colonies; and, lastly,
the aliens resident in Athens. Of these last the men bore behind the citizens
trays with sacrificial cakes, the women water-pots, and the maidens sunshades
and stools for the citizens' wives; while on the freedmen was laid the duty of
adorning with oak-leaves the market-places and streets through which the procession
moved. The feast ended with the great festal sacrifice of a hecatomb of oxen,
and with the general banqueting which accompanied it. At the yearly minor Panathenaea,
on the 28th and 29th of Hecatombaeon, contests, sacrifices, and a procession took
place, but all in a more simple style, under the direction of the hieropoioi.
In later times the festival was removed to the spring, perhaps in consequence
of Roman influence, in order to make it correspond to the Quinquatrus of Minerva.
Panathenaea (ta Panathenaia) was a very ancient festival in honour of Athena Polias
and Erechtheus, said to have been founded by Erechtheus or Erichthonius 729 years
before the first Olympiad (C. I. G. 2374, cf. p. 325), called at first Athenaea,
but after the sunoikismos by Theseus Panathenaea (Plut. Thes. 24; Suid. s. v.
Panathenaia). Pisistratus renewed it with increased splendour, and attached more
especial importance therein to the worship of his protecting divinity, Athena.
1. The Greater and Lesser Panathenaea.
The Greater Panathenaea was a penteteris celebrated every fourth year, and was
merely an extended and more magnificent performance of the Lesser Panathenaea,
which was always from of old held every year (cf. Hom. Il. ii. 551). As each fourth
year came round the Lesser was incorporated in the Greater. The procession and
the hecatomb always remained the basis of the latter, but the chariot-race also
appears to have been considered as belonging to the original festival. Erechtheus
is said to have ridden at it himself (C. I. G. l. c.). Pisistratus may be virtually
considered as the second establisher of the Greater Panathenaea, though we hear
that the performance under the Archon Hippoclides in 566 B.C. was attended by
a large concourse of strangers and was widely celebrated, especially as on that
occasion gymnastic contests were first introduced. Indeed Marcellinus (Vit. Thuc.3)
says the Panathenaea was established in the archonship of Hippoclides. The increased
splendour of the Greater festival of course diminished the importance of the Lesser:
so, though the adjective megala is often found attaching to the Greater (C. I.
G. 380, 1068), still generally Panathenaia alone is used for the Greater, the
Lesser one being styled mikra.
The statement in the Arg. to Dem. Mid. 510, that the Lesser festival
was a trieteris, is disproved both by such evidence as ta Panathenaia ta kat'
eniauton and also by the fact that inscriptions on vases point to Panathenaea
having been held in every single Olympic year. The Greater Panathenaea were celebrated
every third Olympic year (e.g. C. I. G. i. 251, by the Archon Charondas in 110.
3; Lys. Accept. Mun. Def.1, by the Archon Glaucippus in 92. 3); therefore they
were held in the same years as the Pythian games. Solon, we know, took a Pythian
calendar to regulate the Athenian one, and Pisistratus in many points followed
closely in Solon's steps.
2. The date of the Panathenaea.
The principal day was the third from the end of Hecatombaeon (about August 13th).
Proclus (in Plat. Tim.) says so expressly of the Greater: and this agrees with
Schol. on Hom. Il. viii. 39, where Athena is said to have been born on that day.
But Proclus says that the Lesser Panathenaea came immediately after the Bendideia,
accordingly on the 21st of Thargelion (about June 8th). But the Greater and Lesser
Panathenaea are undoubtedly connected in that the former is but an amplification
of the latter so that a priori there is a presumption that they are held at the
same time. Further C. I. G. 157 obviously follows the calendar, and it puts the
Panathenaea after the sacrifice to Eirene on Hecatombaeon 16th. According to Demosthenes
(Timocrates), the Panathenaea are just approaching on Hecatombaeon 11th; but these
are certainly the Lesser Panathenaea. The argument that the list in Lysias (op.
cit.4) is necessarily in chronological order is disproved by such lists as Isaeus
(de Dicaeog. hered. 36), and Andoc.] contr. Alc. 42, which can be seen from comparison
to be certainly not both in chronological order.
The evidence for a Panathenaea in the spring is Himerius, who gives
as a title to his third speech, eis Basileion Panathenaiois, archomenou tou earos:
cf. Verg. Ciris, 21 ff. (probably composed in Hadrian's time); but this refers
to the Roman Quinquatria, which were called Panathenaea after the disappearance
of the older festival (Dionys. Hal. ii. 70).
3. The Musical Contest.
This was only held at the Greater Panathenaea. Pisistratus was of the gens of
the Philaidae, who lived in Brauron, where there was a contest of rhapsodes from
of old (Schol. on Aristoph. Av. 873). Hence he but transferred to the capital
the custom of his village. He introduced recitations of the Homeric poems, which
were better regulated by Hipparchus: cf. Plat. Hipp. 228 B; Ael. V. H.. viii.
2. The poems were now sung in much longer portions than before, and probably both
the Iliad and the Odyssey as the Neleidae are especially celebrated in the latter
. In later times other poets (e. g. Choerilus of Samos, fl. 420 B.C.) obtained
the privilege of being recited at the Panathenaea (Suidas, s. v. Choirilos).
The musical contest proper was introduced by Pericles, who built the
new Odeum for the purpose (Plut. Pericl. 13). Previously the recitations of the
rhapsodes were in the old unroofed Odeum. There is a very important inscription
(C. I. A. ii. 965) concerning these musical contests. The part referring to the
rhapsodists is probably lost. Then follow five prizes for the kitharoidoi. For
the first an olive crown set with gold (stephanos thallou chrusous), value 1000
drachmas and 500 drachmas in silver: for the second, probably a crown value 700,
for the third 600, for the fourth 400, and for the fifth 300. Next two prizes
andrasi auloidois: for the first a crown value 300, for the second one value 100.
Next andrasi kitharistais: for the first it appears a crown valued at 500 drachmas,
or 300 drachmas in money; for the second probably 200, and for the third 100.
The fact that we find andrasi added proves that there were contests of boys too
(cf. C. I. G. 2758, Col. i.). The auleta also got prizes, but the inscription
does not record what they were. Note that the prizes in the musical contests are
reckoned in money, not in kind, as in the older gymnastic and equestrian contests.
The first who won a victory in these musical contests was Phrynis in Ol. 83. 3
(446 B.C.): see Schol. on Aristoph. Nub. 971 (alter Kalliou to Kallimachou). Plutarch
appears to have written a treatise on the Panathenaic music (de Mus. 8). There
were not any dramatic representations at the Panathenaea. When we consider the
long recitations of the rhapsodes and the musical contests proper, we may allow
perhaps three days for this part of the ceremony on a liberal computation, certainly
not less than one and a half days.
4. The Gymnastic Contest.
There is frequent mention of this contest at the Greater Panathenaea (C. I. G.
251, Rang. 849, 18; Dem. de Cor.116--a passage, by the way, which shows that proclamations
in honour of benefactors were made at the Greater Panathenaea at the gymnastic
contest), none for the Lesser: besides, it had nothing to do with the ritual;
it was a purely secular and late addition, said to have been first made by the
Archon Hippoclides in 566 B.C., or perhaps Pisistratus himself. The inscription
referred to above, C. I. A. ii. 965, also gives details as to the gymnastic contests.
The competitors were divided into paides, ageneioi, and andres, the paides being
those from 12 to 16 years of age, the ageneioi from 16 to 20, and the andres above
20. Thus neither a pais nor an ageneios could compete as such twice. In later
times (Rang. 964) the paides were still further divided e. g. into tes protes
helikias, tes denteras (cf. C. I. G. 1590, paidon ton presbuteron, paidon ton
neoteron), the paides tes trites being doubtless the ageneioi. There is then an
event ek panton, which means an all-comers' race, but for boys, as is plain from
its position before andras. The boys and striplings had their events first: then
there was an interval (if a whole night did not intervene); and on re-assembling
the men's events took place. According to C. I. A. ii. 965, the paides and ageneioi
have five contests,--stadion, pentathlon, pale, pugme, pankration. According to
Rang. 963 (belonging to the late period of the Diadochi), the paides have six,
while the ageneioi still have only five. Perhaps the dolichos, which was added,
was for all below the class of andres. The men's contests were, according to x.
i. a. 966 (= Rang. 962), of 190 B.C., dolichos, stadion, diaulos, hippios (=a
double diaulos), pentathlon, pale, pugme, pankration, hoplites (= race in armour).
Note the order of the events, though in Plato's time the stadion came first (Legg.
viii. 833 A): cf. C. I. A. ii. 965. The races were run in heats (taxeis) of four
each (Paus. vi. 13, 4); the victors in the heats afterwards running together.
There were prizes for the first and second in the deciding heat in the ratio of
5: 1 (= ox: sheep, cf. Plut. Sol. 23): see C. I. A. l. c. The prizes consisted
of oil from the moriai in the Academia (see Olea=olive),
given in special prize amphorae, which were called amphoreis Panathenaikoi (Athen.
v. 199). The oil was meant to be sold, and could be exported free of duty (ouk
esti d'exagoge elaiou ex Athenon ei me tois nikosi, Schol. on Pind. Nem. x. 64).
The number of amphorae given, according to the inscription referred to, was about
1450, and the value (1 amphora worth 6 drachmas) about 1 talent 2700 drachmas.
The gymnastic games probably lasted two days, certainly not less than one.
5. The Equestrian Contest.
There is plenty of evidence for an equestrian contest at the Greater Panathenaea,
none for the Lesser; though there may have been a kind of ceremonial race, more
as a matter of worship than as a contest in which the victors got substantial
prizes. None of the evidences for Athlothetae at the Lesser Panathenaea are absolutely
conclusive, yet we may perhaps suppose that there was an equestrian contest on
a small scale at this festival. To understand thoroughly the many events of this
division at different times, the reader must study the inscriptions in C. I. A.
965 b=Rang. 960 (380 B.C.), 966 = Rang. 962 (190 B.C.), 968 (166 B.C.), 969 (162
B.C.), C. I. G. 1591 (250 B.C.), and above all the elaborate table of the comparison
of these inscriptions in Mommsen (Taf. IV.). The multifarious details can only
be set forth in such a table, and any one who wants to study them very closely
must be referred to it. Here we can merely give an idea of the plan, noticing
that the events appear to have increased in number as time went on. The first
and chief event, the one which legend said Erechtheus introduced, was that of
the apobates (cf. tes apenes kai tes kalpes dromos at Olympia in Paus. v. 9, 1
and 2). A charioteer (heniochos egbibazon or zeugei ebibazon) and a companion,
as in the Iliad, occupy the chariot. The companion (here called apobates, not
paraibates) leaps out (hence his name) and again up (hence sometimes we find him
also called anabates), partly helped by the driver (who thus gets his title egbibazon),
partly by kinds of wheels called apsbatikoi trochoi. The son of Phocion (Plut.
Phoc. 20) took part in this contest, so it must not be inferred from its absence
in C. I. A. ii. 965 that it did not exist in 380 B.C. It is really broken off
the inscription. The second division in Mommsen's table is. ordinary riding and
driving, without any relation to ritual or war. Here the horses are divided into
foals and full-grown horses; they are yoked either singly, or two or four together;
and the races are divided into diauloi and akampioi. Then there are various permutations
and combinations that may be made of these (e.g. sunoridi polikei, keleti teleioi,
harmati teleioi in C. I. A. ii. 968): but there is no diaulos ever for a single
horse, only for a yoke or a pair, and not even for these in the case of foals.
The third division consists of what we may call military competitions, and they
are much the same as the second division, only there do not appear so many combinations
(e.g. ib. harmati polemisterioi, hippoi polemistei). There is no need to suppose
that these contests were exclusively confined to the cavalry. The fourth refers
to the procession in honour of Athena, and always consisted of four horses zeugei
pompikoi diaulon or akampion. The fifth was of javelin-throwers from horseback,
a contest which soon disappeared. Notice further that several events are for all
comers (ek panton): cf. C. I. A. 968, 42 ff., as opposed to those for Athenians
only (ton politikon).
The inscription C. I. A. ii. 965 b, of which the beginning is lost
containing the apobates, gives the following, which Mommsen classifies thus:
1st Class. [apobates,]
2nd Class. hippon polikoi zeugei (40:8).
hippon
zeugei adephagoi (140:40); i. e. teleioi (see Hesych. s. v. adephagos); was probably
a slang word for the great expense. such splendid racehorses entailed.
3rd Class. hippoi keleti nikonti (16:4).
hippon
zeugei nikonti (30:6).
(It is specially noted in the inscription that these are polemisteriois.)
4th Class. zeugei pompikoi nikonti (4:2)
5th Class. aph' hippon akontizonti (5:1).
(In brackets we have given the number of jars of oil awarded for first and second prizes.) The amateurs who took part in the contests of the second class are the best rewarded; and it was to encourage them to spend their money on keeping horses that these events were made the most distinguished. In C. I. A. ii. 966, 41, king Ptolemy Epiphanes appears as victor among them in the diaulos with a chariot.
The place for both the gymnastic and equestrian contests was perhaps
the Eleusinium (Kohler to C. I. A. ii. 2, p. 392), or the deme Echelidae, W. of
the Piraeus (Steph. Byz. s. v. Echelidai: Etym M. s. v. Enechelido, 340, 53).
It took up a day probably, though possibly only half a day.
6. The Smaller Contests.
(a) That called Euandria (euandria) was a means by which the leaders of the procession
were chosen. It was a leitourgia (Andoc. Alcib. 2) and he who performed it chose
out of his tribe a certain number -perhaps about twenty--four, the number of a
chorus- of the tallest and best looking members, and arrayed these with proper
festal garments. A member of another tribe did the same, and probably only two
tribes contended, as no second prize appears in C. I. A. ii. 965. From this contest
strangers were expressly excluded. Sauppe and Kohler consider that there were
two companies who contended in each case in the Euandria, one of seniors, the
other of juniors; perhaps the contest of the seniors was called euandria in the
special sense, and that of the juniors euoplia..
(b) The Pyrrhic dance (see Pyrricha),
performed at both the Greater and Lesser Panathenaea (Lys. Accept. Mun. Def.1,
4). With the Euandria and the Lampadedromia
it belonged to the more strictly religious part of the festival (cf. Aristoph.
Nub. 988 and Schol.). Athena was said to have danced the Pyrrhic dance after her
victory over the Giants (Dionys. Hal. vii. 72). As belonging to the religious
part of the festival, the prize was an ox for sacrifice, and bore the special
title of niketerion (cf Xen,. Cyr. viii. 3, 33, where the ox alone is called niketerion,
not the goblets. There were Pyrrhic dancers of all three ages -paides, ageneioi,
and andres. A relief published by Beule presents eight armed youths performing
the Pyrrhic dance. A full body of Pyrrhicists would then be twenty-four, the number
of a comic chorus. They wear a light helmet, carry a shield on their left arms,
but are otherwise naked. How the victory was gained in the Pyrrhic dance and the
Euandria is not stated; probably by decision of a judge. The. figure on the left
of the relief may be perhaps. the judge.
(c) The Lampadedromia
the prize of which in C. I. A. ii. 965 was a hydria of oil (cf. Schol. in Pind.
Nem. xv. 61), value 30 drachmas.
7. The Pannychis.
This was the night of the 28th (the day being reckoned from sunset to sunset).
The Lampadedromia
was the first event in it. Then followed during the greater part of the night
litanies (ololugmata) by the elder priestesses, which were originally prayers
and thanksgivings for the harvest, and subsequently songs of joy for the birth
of Athena. Mommsen thinks that possibly the conclusion of the Eumenides may have
reference to the ceremonies of the Panathenaic pannychis. There were also dances
by the younger priestesses, and towards morning songs by cyclic choruses (cf.
Lys. op. cit. 2) of youths and men (neon t'aoidai choron te molpai, Eur. Heracl.
779, a passage comprising many features of the Panathenaea, which, however, must
not be taken as expressing the order in time, only the order in importance of
the several events). The hieropoioi got next to nothing for the expenses of the
Pannychis, only 50 drachmas, and this had to compensate much other outlay besides.
8. The Procession and Sacrifices.
The procession was most splendid. It comprised the victors in the games of the
preceding days, the pompeis or leaders of the sacrifices, both Athenian and those
of strangers (for the colonies and cleruchies used to send sacrifices to the Panathenaea,
e. g. Brea, C. I. A. i. 31), a large quota of cavalry (for Demosthenes, Phil.
i. 26, speaks of hipparchoi: cf. Schol. on Aristoph. Nub. 386), the chief officers
of the army, taxiarchoi and strategoi, dignified elders (thallophoroi, Xen. Symp.
4, 17), bearing olive branches (thalloi), doubtless with their metoikoi as skaphephoroi
following, in later times the ephebi splendidly equipped: while of women there
was a long train of kanephoroi (see Canephorus),
with the wives and daughters of the metoikoi as their skiadephoroi and diphrophoroi
(see Metoeci):
then the Athenian people, generally marshalled according to their demes. Though
the frieze of the Parthenon reproduces some points, especially the genuine Athenian
element of the Panathenaic festival, still it must not be supposed that it reproduces
all the details; e. g. the metoikoi, of whom we have most specific, evidence,
do not appear. For another service of the female metoikoi at the Panathenaea,
see Hydriaphoria.
One of the most striking features of the procession was the Peplus,
worked by ergastinai, superintended by two arrephoroi and certain priestesses,
which was destined for the ancient statue of Athena Polias, according to certain
prescriptions of the Delphic god. Pisistratus probably intended that a new peplus
should be brought every four years; the Elean maidens wove a peplus for the goddess
only once in every four years (Paus. v. 16, 2); but in republican Athens a new
peplus was made each year (Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 566). In the time of the Diadochi
portraits of some of these were placed where the figures of the gods should have
been (Plut. Demetr. 10). The peplus was suspended like a sail from the yards on
the mast of the Panathenaic Ship (Schol. on Hom. Il. v. 734), which was an actual
ship, very large and beautiful. The marvellous appearance of a ship going through
the streets was effected by subterranean machines (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 1,
5; Paus. i. 29, 1), of which we should very much like to have further information.
The Athenians had become a seafaring people, and they wished to signify it: the
time of the agrarian Athena was passed. On the peplus were represented the aristeia
of the goddess, especially her victory over Enceladus and the Giants (Schol. on
Eur. Hec. 466; Suidas, s. v. Peplos). It was considered a great sight for the
populace (Plaut. Merc. prol. 67).
The procession, marshalled mainly in the ,outer Ceramicus, partly
inside the town, passed through the market-place to the Eleusinium at the east
end of the Acropolis (cf. Schol. to Aristoph. Eq. 566), turned round this to the
left, and passed along the Pelasgicon, north of the Acropolis, and so reached
the Propylaea (Philostr. l. c; cp. Xen. Hipp. 3, 2). Then some of the members
performed the sacrifice to Athena Hygiaea, while others offered a prelimiuary
sacrifice on the Areopagus. Prayers accompanied these offerings, and we hear of
prayers being offered for the Plataeans at the Greater Panathenaea (Herod. vi.
111). On entering the Acropolis, which was only allowed to genuine Athenians,
there was the sacrifice of one cow to Athena Nike; after this followed the. hecatomb
to Athena Polias, on the large altar in the eastern part of the Acropolis. In
earlier times the hecatomb was offered at the Erechtheum. After the procession
followed the hestiasis. The flesh of the victims was given, according to demes,
to a certain fixed number out of each deme. The skaphephoroi supplied bread and
cakes.
9. The Boat-race
was a supplementary event on the 29th of Hecatombaeon, the day on which ships
are to be drawn down to the sea (Hes. Op. 815). It was held every four years in
the Piraeus in honour of Poseidon (identified with Erechtheus) and Athena. The
difference of locality forbids our associating it with the Sunian regatta, though
this was also held only once in four years (Herod. vi. 87; Lys. op. cit. 5). In
connexion with this part of the festival the orator Lycurgus, in whose family
was the priesthood of Poseidon Erechtheus, established three cyclic choruses in
honour of that god, with valuable prizes.
10. The Calendar of the Panathenaea.
For the Lesser Panathenaea (which was the nucleus of the Greater) the chief day
of the festival was the 28th of Hecatombaeon; it comprised the pannychis, the
procession, the sacrifices, and the feasting: and the 27th sufficed for the horseraces
(when there were any), the Euandria and the Pyrrhic dances. At the Greater Panathenaea
these days were allotted to the same events. But the day on which the festival
began will vary according as we allow a longer or shorter period for the three
chief contests: thus the Musical contest might last three days or 1 1/2 days,
the Gymnastic two days or one day, and the Equestrian one day or half a day. According,
then, to the longer period, the Panathenaea would begin on the 21st; according
to the shorter, on the 24th. The longer period has the advantage that it leaves
the afternoons free for prelections or dinner-parties (Xen. Symp. init.). The
shorter will suit Thucyd. v. 47 better.
11. The Officials of the Festival.
(1) The ten Athlothetae, one chosen from each tribe. They held office for four
years, and their function, as Pollux says (viii. 93), was to arrange the musical,
gymnastic, and equestrian contests at the Panathenaea. We find in inscriptions
that they received subsidies from the tamias of the sacred chest of Athena (C.
I. A. i. 188).
(2) The Hieropoioi (see Hieropoei),
who managed the Lesser Panathenaea (Rang. 814, 32). They appear to have had nothing
to do with the specially Greater festival.
(3) The Gymnasiarchae (see Gymnasium),
who especially superintended the Lampadedromia.
(4) The Demarchs (see Demarchi),
who marshalled the people in demes for the procession and for the hestiasis (Schol.
on Aristoph. Nub. 37; Suidas, s. v.). Concerning those who had perquisites in
connexion with the festival, such as the manteis and archons in the kreanomiai.
12. Panathenaea outside Athens
may perhaps be inferred from Panathenaia en Athenais in C. I. G. 1068. We are
told that Themistocles established Panathenaea in Magnesia (Ath. xii. 533), and
in Teos there was a guild of Panathenaistae (C. I. G. 3073). The cleruchs no doubt
celebrated the festival abroad.
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Boedromia, a festival celebrated at Athens on the seventh day of the month of Boedromion, in honour of Apollo Boedromios. (Muller, Dor. ii. 8, § 5.) The name Boedromios, by which Apollo was called in Boeotia and other parts of Greece (Pans. ix. 17, § 1; Callimach. Hymn. Apoll. 69), seems to indicate that by this festival he was honoured as a martial god, who either by his actual presence or by his oracles afforded assistance in the dangers of war. The origin of the festival is, however, traced by different authors to different events in Grecian story. Plutarch (Thes. 27) says that Theseus, in his war against the Amazons, did not give battle till after he had offered a sacrifice to Phobos; and that, in commemoration of the successful battle which took place in the month of Boedromion, the Athenians, down to his own time, continued to celebrate the festival of the Boedromia. According to Suidas, the Etymol. Magn. and Euripides (lon. 59), the festival derived its name and origin from the circumstance that when, in the reign of Erechtheus, the Athenians were attacked by Eumolpos, Xuthos or (according to Philochorus in Harpocration, s. v.) his son Ion came to their assistance, and procured them the victory. Respecting the particulars of this festival, nothing is known except that sacrifices were offered to Artemis. (Comp. Spanheim, ad Callim. Hymn. in Apoll. 69.)
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Boedromia. A festival celebrated at Athens on the seventh day of the month of Boedromion, in honour of Apollo Boedromios (Muller, Dor. ii. 8. 5). The name Boedromios, by which Apollo was called in Boeotia and other parts of Greece, seems to indicate that by this festival he was honoured as a martial god, who either by his actual presence or by his oracles afforded assistance in the dangers of war. The origin of the festival is, however, traced by different authors to different events in Grecian story. See Plutarch, Theseus, 27.
Chloeia (chloia), a festival celebrated at Athens in honour of Demeter Chloe,
or simply Chloe, whose temple stood near the Acropolis (Hesych. s. v. chloia;
Paus. i. 22, 3; Athen. xiv. p. 618; Soph. Oed. Col. 1600, with the Scholiast).
It was solemnised in spring, on the sixth of Thargelion, when the blossoms began
to appear (hence the names chloe and chloeia), with the sacrifice of a goat and
much mirth and rejoicing (Eupolis, apud Schol. ad Soph. Oed. Col. l. c.)
Diasia, a great festival celebrated at Athens, without (outside) the walls of the city (exo tes poleos), in honour of Zeus, surnamed Meilichios (Thuc. i. 126). It was the greatest of the Athenian festivals of Zeus, before the time of Solon, and was of a propitiatory character. The whole people took part in it, and the wealthier citizens offered victims (hiereia), while the poorer classes burnt such incense as their country furnished (thumata epichoria), which the scholiast on Thucydides erroneously explains as cakes in the shape of animals (Compare Xen. Anab. vii. 8, 4; Lucian, Tim. 7; Aristoph. Nub. 402). The diasia took place on the 23rd of the month of Anthesterion (Schol. ad Aristoph. l. c.) with feasting and rejoicings, and was, like most other festivals, accompanied by a fair (Aristoph. Nub. 841). It was this festival at which Cylon was enjoined by an oracle to take possession of the acropolis of Athens; but he mistook the oracle, and made the attempt during the celebration of the Olympian games (Compare Pollux, i. 26; Suidas, s. v.). The etymology of diasia given by most of the ancient grammarians (from Dios and ase) is false; the name is a mere derivative from Dios, as Apollonia from Apollon.
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Hephaestia. A festival at Athens, celebrated annually, in honour of Hephaestus.
Scirophoria (ta Skirophoria). An Athenian festival celebrated on the 12th of the month Scirophorion (June-July), called after it. It was in honour of Athene (or, according to some, Demeter and Kore), who was worshipped under the name of Sciras near Sciron, a spot on the Sacred Way leading from Athens to Eleusis. It had its name from the large white sunshade (skiron) beneath which the priestess of Athene (the patron goddess of the city), the priest of Erechtheus, and the priest of Helios went to Sciron to sacrifice. The sunshade was a symbol of heavenly protection against the rays of the sun, which began to burn more intensely during the month of the festival. This protection was invoked with special reason, for the dry limestone rock was thinly covered by a meagre surface of soil in the neighbourhood of Athens, and particularly near Sciron itself. In this, as in other festivals of invocation, there were also expiatory offerings; and hence they carried in the procession the hide of a ram that had been sacrificed to Zeus as the mild and gracious deity.
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ΑΘΜΟΝΟΝ (Αρχαίος δήμος) ΑΤΤΙΚΗ
Οι κάτοικοι του δήμου Αθμονίας είχαν πάρει τη λατρεία της Αμαρυσίας Αρτέμιδος από τους κατοίκους της Ευβοϊκής πόλης Αμάρυνθος, οι οποίοι είχαν και γιορτή προς τιμήν της (Παυσ. 1,31,5).
Amarynthia, Amarysia (Amarunthia, Amarusia), a festival of Artemis Amarynthia or Amarysia, celebrated, as it seems, originally at Amarynthus in Euboea, with extraordinary splendour; but it was also solemnised in several places in Attica, such as Athmone (Paus. i. 31, § 3); and the Athenians held a festival, as Pausanias says, in honour of the same goddess, in no way less brilliant than that in Euboea. (Hesych. s. v. Amarusia; comp. Schol. ad Pind. Olymp. xiii. 159.) The festival in Euboea was distinguished for its splendid processions; and Strabo himself (x. p. 448) seems to have seen, in the temple of Artemis Amrynthia, a column on which was recorded the splendour with which the Eretrians at one time celebrated this festival. The inscription stated that the procession was formed of three thousand heavy-armed men, six hundred horsemen, and sixty chariots.
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ΑΛΕΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Ηταν γιορτή που γινόταν κάθε δύο χρόνια στο Ναό του Διονύσου. Σύμφωνα με δελφικό χρησμό κατά τη διάρκεια της γιορτής μαστιγώνονταν γυναίκες (Παυσ. 8,23,1).
ΑΛΙΦΕΙΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΗΛΕΙΑ
Οι προκαταρκτικές θυσίες γίνονταν προς τιμήν του Μυίαγρου, ήρωα που θα τους απάλλασε από τις μύγες (Παυσ. 8,26,7).
ΑΜΑΡΥΝΘΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΧΑΛΚΙΔΑ
Amarynthus is a town in Euboea, the inhabitants of which worship Amarysia, while the festival of Amarysia which the Athenians celebrate is no less splendid than the Euboean (Paus. 1.31.5)
Amarynthia, (Amarunthia). A festival of Artemis Amarynthia or Amarysia, celebrated originally at Amarynthus, in Euboea, and afterwards at several
places in Attica, such as Athmone.
Amarynthia or Amarysia (Amarunthia or Amarusia), a festival of Artemis Amarynthia or Amarysia, celebrated, as it seems, originally at Amarynthus in Euboea, with extraordinary splendour; but it was also solemnised in several places in Attica, such as Athmone (Paus. i. 31, § 3); and the Athenians held a festival, as Pausanias says, in honour of the same goddess, in no way less brilliant than that in Euboea. (Hesych. s. v. Amarusia; comp. Schol. ad Pind. Olymp. xiii. 159.) The festival in Euboea was distinguished for its splendid processions; and Strabo himself (x. p. 448) seems to have seen, in the temple of Artemis Amrynthia, a column on which was recorded the splendour with which the Eretrians at one time celebrated this festival. The inscription stated that the procession was formed of three thousand heavy-armed men, six hundred horsemen, and sixty chariots.
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ΑΜΥΚΛΑΙ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΣΠΑΡΤΗ
Ηταν γιορτή, που γινόταν γύρω από τον τάφο του Υακίνθου, με θυσία για τον Απόλλωνα και εναγισμούς στο βωμό του Υακίνθου. Ολοι οι Λακεδαιμόνιοι θεωρούσαν υποχρέωσή τους να παρευρεθούν, γι΄αυτό και σε περίπτωση πολέμου έκαναν ανακωχή σαράντα ημερών και γύριζαν στις Αμύκλες, όπου κι αν βρίσκονταν (Παυσ. 4,19,4).
Hyacinthia. A festival, celebrated for three days in the summer of each year, at Amyclae, in honour of Apollo and his unhappy favourite Hyacynthus. Muller gives strong reasons for supposing that the Hyacinthia was originally a festival of Demeter. Like other festivals in honour of nature, the festival of the Hyacinthia, celebrated by the Spartans at Amyclae for three days in July, down to the time of the Roman emperors, was connected with the expression of grief at the death of vegetation, of joy over the harvest, and of cheerful trust in the re-awakening of nature. On the first day, which was dedicated to silent mourning, sacrifice to the dead was offered at the grave of Hyacinthus, which was under the statue of Apollo in the temple at Amyclae. The following day was spent in public rejoicing in honour of Apollo, in which all the populace, including the slaves, took part. They went in festal procession with choruses of singing boys and girls, accompanied by harps and flutes, to the temple of Apollo, where games and competitions, sacrifices and entertainments to one another took place, and a robe, woven by the Spartan women, was offered to the god.
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Hyacynthia (Huakinthia), a great national festival, celebrated every year at Amyclae by the Amyclaeans and Spartans. The festival dated from pre-Dorian times, but, like the Carneia, had been taken over by the Dorians; and was held in honour of the Amyclaean Apollo and of the youthful hero Hyacinthus, whom he accidentally struck dead with a quoit. This Amyclaean Apollo, however, with whom Hyacinthus was associated, must not be confounded with Apollo, the national divinity of the Dorians. (Muller, Orchom. p. 327; Dor. ii. 8, § 15.) This Hyacinthus is unmistakably a personification of the drying up of vegetation by the heat of summer: the quoit (diskos) is the sun's disc, Apollo the god who hurls it (Schomann, Alterth. ii. 404). The Hyacinthia lasted for three days, and began on the longest day of the Spartan month Hecatombeus (the Attic Hecatombaeon, Hesych. s. v. Hekatombeus: Manso, Sparta, iii. 2, p. 201; called also Huakinthios from this festival, Stein on Herod. ix. 7). On the first day of the Hyacinthia sacrifices were offered to the dead, and the death of Hyacinthus was lamented. Nobody wore any garlands or sung paeans at the sacrifices, nor was any wheaten bread offered: plain sacrificial cakes, apparently unleavened, were the order of the day, and great abstinence was practised. This serious and melancholy character was foreign to all the other festivals of Apollo. The second day, however, was wholly spent in public rejoicings and amusements. Amyclae was visited by numbers of strangers (paneguris axiologos kai megale, Didymus ap. Ath. iv. p. 139 e), and boys played the cithara or sang to the accompaniment of the flute, and celebrated in anapaestic metres the praise of Apollo, while others, in splendid attire, performed a horse-race in the theatre. This horse-race is probably the agon mentioned by Strabo in connexion with the Hyacinthia (vi. p. 278). After this race there followed a number of choruses of youths conducted by a choropoios (Xen. Ages. 2, § 17), in which some of their national songs (epichoria poiemata) were sung. During the songs of these choruses dancers performed some of the ancient and simple movements with the accompaniment of the flute and the song. The Spartan and Amyclaean maidens, after this, riding in chariots made of wickerwork (kanathra), and splendidly adorned, went in solemn procession. Numerous sacrifices were also offered on this day, and the citizens kept open house for their friends and relations; and even slaves were allowed to enjoy themselves. (Didymus, ap. Ath. iv. p. 139.) One of the favourite meals on this occasion was called kopis. and is described by Molpis (ap. Ath. iv. p. 140) as consisting of cake, bread, meat, raw herbs, broth, figs, dessert, and the seeds of lupine. Some ancient writers, when speaking of the Hyacinthia, apply to the whole festival such epithets as can only be used in regard to the second day; for instance, when they call it a merry or joyful solemnity. Macrobius (Sat. i. 18, § 2) states that the Spartans wore chaplets of ivy at the Hyacinthia as at a Bacchic rite, which can only be true if it be understood of the second day. The incorrectness of these writers is however in some degree excused by the fact, that the second day formed the principal part of the festive season, as appears from the description of Didymus, and as may also be inferred from Xenophon (Hell. iv. 5, § 11; compare Ages. 2, § 17), who makes the paean the principal part of the Hyacinthia. The third day's ceremonies are not specially described (Schomann, l. c.), but, according to the tradition, were of a solemn character, resembling those of the first day. The great importance attached to this festival by the Amyclaeans and Lacedaemonians is seen from the fact, that the Amyclaeans, even when they had taken the field against an enemy, always returned home on the approach of the season of the Hyacinthia, that they might not be obliged to neglect its celebration (Xen. Hell. iv. 5, § 11 Paus. iii. 10, § 1), and that the Lacedaemonians on one occasion concluded a truce of forty days with the town of Eira, merely to be able to return home and celebrate the national festival (Paus. iv. 19, § 3); and that in a treaty with Sparta, B.C. 421, the Athenians, in order to show their good--will towards Sparta, promised every year to attend the celebration of the Hyacinthia. (Thuc. v. 23.)
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ΑΜΦΙΣΣΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΑΡΝΑΣΣΙΔΑ
Ο Παυσανίας αναφέρει ότι τελούνταν μυστήρια προς τιμήν των ονομαζομένων Ανάκτων παίδων (δηλ. βασιλοπαίδων), που μπορεί να ήταν οι Διόσκουροι ή οι Κουρήτες ή οι Κάβειροι (Παυσ. 10,38,7).
ΑΝΤΙΣΣΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΕΣΒΟΣ
The city of Antissa had been accustomed to celebrate the festival
of Dionysus with great magnificence. Year by year great provision was made for
the occasion, and costly sacrifices were prepared. Now one year the city found
itself in need of funds; and shortly before the festival, on the proposal of a
citizen named Sosipolis, the people after vowing that they would next year offer
to Dionysus a double amount, collected all that had been provided and sold it.
In this way they realized a large sum of money to meet their necessity.
On one occasion the people of Lampsacus were expecting to be attacked
by a large fleet of triremes. The price of barley meal being then four drachmae
for a bushel and a half, they instructed the retailers to sell it at six drachmae.
Oil, which was at three drachmae for six pints, was to be sold at four drachmae
and a half, and wine and other commodities at a proportionate increase. In this
way the retailer got the original price, It happened that certain aliens residing
in the city had lent money on the security of citizens' property. As these aliens
did not possess the right of holding such property, the people offered to recognize
the title of anyone who chose to pay into the treasury one third of the amount
secured.
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Heraea (Heraia) is the name of festivals celebrated in honour of Hera in all the
towns of Greece where the worship of this divinity was introduced. The original
seat of her worship, from which it spread over the other parts of Greece, was
Argos; whence her festivals
in other places were, more or less, imitations of those which were celebrated
at Argos (Muller, Dor. ii.
10,1).
The Argives had three temples of Hera: one (Heraeon)
lay between Argos and Mycenae,
45 stadia from Argos; the
second lay on the road to the Acropolis,
and near it was the stadium in which the games and contests at the Heraea were
held (Paus. ii. 24,2); the third was in the city itself (Paus. ii. 22,1). Her
service was performed by the most distinguished priestesses of the place; one
of them was the high-priestess, and the Argives counted their years by the date
of her office (Thucyd. ii. 2). The Heraea of Argos
were celebrated every fifth year, and, according to the calculation of Boeckh
(Abhandl. der Berl. Akad. von 1818-19, p. 92 ff.), in the middle of the second
year of every Olympiad.
One of the great solemnities which took place on the occasion, was
a magnificent procession to the great temple of Hera, between Argos
and Mycenae. A vast number
of young men--for the festival is called a panegyris--assembled at Argos,
and marched in armour to the temple of the goddess. They were preceded by one
hundred oxen (hekatombe, whence the festival is also called hekatombaia). The
high-priestess accompanied this procession, riding in a chariot drawn by two white
oxen, as we see from the story of Cleobis and Biton related by Herodotus (i. 31)
and Cicero (Tuscul. i. 47, § 113). The hundred oxen were sacrificed, and their
flesh distributed among all the citizens (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152, and ad
Nem. x. 39). The sacrifice itself was called lecherna (Hesych. s. v.) or the bed
of twigs (Comp. Welcker on Schwenck's Etymologische Andeutungen).
The games and contests of the Heraea took place in the stadium, near
the temple on the road to the Acropolis.
A brazen shield was fixed in a place above the theatre, which was scarcely accessible
to any one, and the young man who succeeded in pulling it down received the shield
and a garland of myrtle as a prize. Hence Pindar (Nem. x. 41) calls the contest
agon chalkeos. It seems that this contest took place before the procession went
out to the Heraeon, for Strabo (viii. p. 556) states that the victor went with
his prizes in solemn procession to that temple. This contest was said to have
been instituted, according to some traditions, by Acrisius and Proetus (Aelian,
V. H. iii. 24), according to others by Archinus (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152;
Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.52, n. 1).
The Heraea or Hecatombaea of Aegina were celebrated in
the same manner as those of Argos (see Schol. ad Pind. Isthm.
viii. 114; Muller, Aeginet. p. 149; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 52, n. 19).
The Heraea of Samos, which
island also derived the worship of Hera from Argos
(Paus. vii. 4,4), were perhaps the most brilliant of all the festivals of this
divinity. A magnificent procession, consisting of maidens and married women in
splendid attire, and with floating hair (Asius, ap. Athen. xii. p. 525), together
with men and youths in armour (Polyaen. Strat. i. 23, vi. 45), went to the temple
of Hera (Heraeon). After
they arrived within the sacred precincts, the men deposited their armour; and
prayers and vows were offered up to the goddess. Her altar consisted of the ashes
of the victims which had been burnt to her. (Paus. v. 13,5).
The Heraea of Elis were celebrated
every fifth year, or in the fourth year of every Olympiad. (Corsini, Dissert.
iii. 30.) The festival was chiefly celebrated by maidens, and conducted by sixteen
matrons who wove the sacred peplus for the goddess. But before the solemnities
commenced, these matrons sacrificed a pig, and purified themselves in the well
Piera (Paus. v. 16,5). One of the principal solemnities was a race of the maidens
in the stadium, for which purpose they were divided into three classes, according
to their age. The youngest ran first and the oldest last. Their only dress on
this occasion was a chiton, which came down to the knee, and their hair was floating.
She who won the prize received a garland of oliveboughs, together with a part
of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera, and might dedicate her own painted likeness
in the temple of the goddess. The sixteen matrons were attended by as many female
attendants, and performed two dances; the one called the dance of Physcoa, the
other the dance of Hippodameia. Respecting further particulars, and the history
of this solemnity, see Paus. v. 16,2; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 3.
Heraea were celebrated in various other places; e. g. in Cos
(Athen. xiv, v), at Corinth
(Eurip. Med. 1379; Philostrat. Her. xix. 14), at Athens
(Plut. Quaest. Rom. vii), at Cnosus
in Crete (Diod. v. 72), at
Pellene in Achaia
(Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 156; ad Nem. x. 82; Aristoph. Av. 1421; Krause, Gymn.
i. pt. 2, p. 715; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 28.)
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Agrionia, a festival which was celebrated chiefly at Orchomenus, in Boeotia, in honour of Dionysus, surnamed Agrionios, i. e. the wild or boisterous. . .
Agrionia of a similar kind were celebrated also at Thebes and at Argos (Hesych. s. v. Agriania, which seems to be only another form for Agrionia). At Thebes the festival was celebrated with games and contests, while at Argos it was a festival of the dead (nekusia).
Agrania. A festival celebrated at Argos, in memory of one
of the daughters of Proetus, who had been afflicted with madness.
(agriania). Probably the same festival as the agrania, and celebrated in Argos and Thebes.
And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus came to Argos,
and there again, because they did not honor him, he drove the women mad, and they
on the mountains devoured the flesh of the infants whom they carried at their
breasts. (Apollod. 3.5.2)
And Acrisius had a daughter Danae by Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaemon,
and Proetus had daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboea. When
these damsels were grown up, they went mad,(1) according to Hesiod,
because they would not accept the rites of Dionysus, but according to Acusilaus,
because they disparaged the wooden image of Hera. In their madness they roamed
over the whole Argive land, and afterwards, passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese,
they ran through the desert in the most disorderly fashion. But Melampus, son
of Amythaon by Idomene, daughter of Abas, being a seer and the first to devise
the cure by means of drugs and purifications, promised to cure the maidens if
he should receive the third part of the sovereignty. When Proetus refused to pay
so high a fee for the cure, the maidens raved more than ever, and besides that,
the other women raved with them; for they also abandoned their houses, destroyed
their own children, and flocked to the desert. Not until the evil had reached
a very high pitch did Proetus consent to pay the stipulated fee, and Melampus
promised to effect a cure whenever his brother Bias should receive just so much
land as himself. Fearing that, if the cure were delayed, yet more would be demanded
of him, Proetus agreed to let the physician proceed on these terms. So Melampus,
taking with him the most stalwart of the young men, chased the women in a bevy
from the mountains to Sicyon with shouts and a sort of frenzied dance. In the
pursuit Iphinoe, the eldest of the daughters, expired; but the others were lucky
enough to be purified and so to recover their wits.(2) Proetus
gave them in marriage to Melampus and Bias and afterwards begat a son, Megapenthes.
(Apollod. 2.2.2)
Commentary:
1. Compare Bacch. 10.40-112, ed. Jebb; Hdt. 9.34; Strab. 8.3.19;
Diod. 4.68; Paus. 2.7.8; Paus. 2.18.4; Paus. 5.5.10; Paus. 8.18.7ff.; Scholiast
on Pind. N. 9.13 (30); Clement of Alexandria, Strom. vii.4.26, p. 844, ed. Potter;
Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Azania; Verg. Ecl. 6.48ff.; Ov. Met. 15.325ff.; Pliny,
Nat. Hist. xxv.47; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.48; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb.
iii.453; Vitruvius viii.3.21. Of these writers, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and,
in one passage (Paus. 2.18.4), Pausanias, speak of the madness of the Argive women
in general, without mentioning the daughters of Proetus in particular. And, according
to Diodorus Siculus, with whom Pausanias in the same passage (Paus. 2.18.4) agrees,
the king of Argos at the time of the affair was not Proetus but Anaxagoras, son
of Megapenthes. As to Megapenthes, see Apollod. 2.4.4. According to Virgil the
damsels imagined that they were turned into cows; and Servius and Lactantius Placidus
inform us that this notion was infused into their minds by Hera (Juno) to punish
them for the airs of superiority which they assumed towards her; indeed, in one
place Lactantius Placidus says that the angry goddess turned them into heifers
outright. In these legends Mr. A. B. Cook sees reminiscences of priestesses who
assumed the attributes and assimilated themselves to the likeness of the cow-goddess
Hera. See his Zeus, i.451ff. But it is possible that the tradition describes,
with mythical accessories, a real form of madness by which the Argive women, or
some portion of them, were temporarily affected. We may compare a somewhat similar
form of temporary insanity to which the women of the wild Jakun tribe in the Malay
Peninsula are said to be liable. "A curious complaint was made to the Penghulu
of Pianggu, in my presence, by a Jakun man from the Anak Endau. He stated that
all the women of his settlement were frequently seized by a kind of madness--presumably
some form of hysteria-- and that they ran off singing into the jungle, each woman
by herself, and stopped there for several days and nights, finally returning almost
naked, or with their clothes all torn to shreds. He said that the first outbreak
of this kind occurred a few years ago, and that they were still frequent, one
usually taking place every two or three months. They were started by one of the
women, whereupon all the others followed suit." See Ivor H. N. Evans, "Further
Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of Pahang," Journal of the Federated Malay
States Museums, ix:1, January 1920, p. 27 (Calcutta, 1920).
2. According to Bacch. 10.95ff., ed. Jebb, the father of the
damsels vowed to sacrifice twenty red oxen to the Sun, if his daughters were healed:
the vow was heard, and on the intercession of Artemis the angry Hera consented
to allow the cure.
Hecatombaea (Hekatombaia). A festival celebrated in honour of Here by the Argives and people of Aegina. It received its name from hekaton and bous, being a sacrifice of a hundred oxen, which were always offered to the goddess, and the flesh distributed among the poorest citizens. There were also public games, first instituted by Archinus, a king of Argos, in which the prize was a shield of brass with a crown of myrtle
Anthesphoria. A flower-festival ... were also solemnized in honour of other deities, especially in honour of Here, surnamed Antheia, at Argos.
ΑΣΙΝΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΚΟΡΩΝΗ
Γινόταν κάθε δύο χρόνια προς τιμή του Δρύοπα, που τον θεωρούσαν γιο του Απόλλωνα (Παυσ. 4,34,11).
ΒΙΣΤΩΝΙΑ (Αρχαία περιοχή) ΕΛΛΑΔΑ
Ο Ορφέας ανακάλυψε τα Διονυσιακά Μυστήρια (Απολλ. 1,3,2).
Dionysia (Dionusia). Dionysus as well as Apollo had a share at Delphi as one of
the chief Hellenic gods. Dionysus was the god of the peasantry, the bestower of
the fullest festive enjoyment in the free conditions of a life led according to
Nature (Curtius, Hist. of Greece, ii. 78). Hence we are not surprised to meet
his festivals everywhere. Thebes is said to have been his birthplace (Paus. ix.
12, 3), whence his worship spread to Corinth and Sicyon (lb. ii. 2, 7); to Euboea,
where he was educated; and Naxos, where he was united with Ariadne. In Athens
his worship is said to have been introduced by Amphictyon (Ath. ii. 38); that
is, that it belonged to the Ionic Amphictyony. For other legends connected with
the introduction of Dionysiac worship into Attica, see Suidas, Melanaigida Dionuson,
Apatouria: Hesych., s. v. Heleutheros: Steph. Byz Semachidai: Paus. i. 2, 5; 38,
8: Schol. on Ach. 243; and especially Ribbeck, Anfange und Entwichelung des. Dionysuskultes
in Attika. No less old in Attica was the worship of the Icarian Dionysus (Dict.
Mythology, s. v. Icarius). In historic times we find Dionysia held at Delos, Tenos,
Syrus, Ceos, Amorgos, Paros, Astypalaea (Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. 65, 11); at
Miletus, Teos, Smyrna (ib. 66, 9), and at Corcyra in the west (lb. 68, 1): cf.
Preller, Griech. Myth. i.3 557 sqq.
But there had been another form of the worship of Dionysus, quite
un-Hellenic, and a scandal in their eyes (psogos es Hellenas megas, Eur. Bacch.
778), which was wildly orgiastic. In very early times, it originated in Thrace
and Macedonia, whence it spread into Asia Minor, where it united with the Oriental
mysteries of Cybele, and then reacted on the Hellenic ceremonies. The mystic forms
of the Bacchic worship for the most part go back to Orpheus. These, which are
known as the trieteric festivals of Dionysus, i. e. occurring every other year
(trieterides, Eur. Bacch. 133; Verg. Aen. iv. 302), first gained ground, in Greece
proper, in Boeotia, coming perhaps across the sea by the islands; for, as Preller
has shown (in Pauly, ii. 1065), such orgiastic rites are found in a vast number
of the islands. And, like a fire, they soon spread all through Greece. There were
revels in Parnassus (Soph. Ant. 1126), in Phocis (Paus. vi. 26, 1), Messenia,
Arcadia, even Sparta (Ael. V. H. iii. 42): see Preller, l. c. 1066. The festivals
were held on mountains, with blazing torches (Eur. Bacch. 133, 146), in dark winter
nights (Ov. Fast. i. 394). The votaries were in large part women, and were known
by many names,--Maenads, Thyiads, Clodones, Mimallones, Bassarides, &c. They were
clothed in fawn skins [NEBRIS],
carried thyrsi [THYRSUS],
and in their ecstasies used to hunt wild animals, tear them in pieces, and sometimes
eat them raw. In very early times, human sacrifice seems to have been offered
to Dionysus Zagreus (Paus. ix. 8, 2), and Themistocles before the battle of Salamis
sacrificed three young Persian prisoners to Dionysus Omestes (Plut. Them. 13).
The splendours of trieteric Bacchic revelry in excelsis are brilliantly depicted
in the choruses and messengers' speeches of the Bacchae; cf. also Preller in Pauly,
ii. 1064-1067.
But the genuine Hellenic worship of Dionysus was of a more cheerful
and less frantic nature. It was simple, if somewhat coarse, enjoyment. When the
vintage was over and the must had fermented, Dionysus, the god of the grape, was
honoured by the country folk with the best they could offer, with sacrifices of
oxen and goats, those enemies of the god who used to eat his vines: and, in their
hearty and natural revelry, they used to march about in procession, and dance
and sing, and dress themselves up in odd costumes. Many writers, such as Preller,
K. O. Muller, &c., tell us how the worshipper was filled with an intense desire
to fight, to conquer, and to suffer in common with the god. Such ideas did certainly
arise in connexion with the cult of Dionysus; but most probably they were later
additions, coming from the mysteries and partly belonging to the trieteric votaries
of Dionysus as Zagreus. Of the Attic Dionysia we have most knowledge. These, which
we now [p. 638] proceed to describe, though mainly Hellenic and natural wine-feasts,
had suffered somewhat from the influence of the Thracian and Asiatic mysteries,
and exhibit a strange compound of what is ridiculous and grotesque with what is
solemn and serious. The country Dionysia alone remained free from the influence
of the mystic Bacchic rites (August Mommsen, Heortologie, p. 77). But regular
trieteric revels are not found in Attica (Schomann, Alterth. ii.3 503).
The Attic festivals are generally allowed to be four in number,--the
country Dionysia, the Lenaea, the Anthesteria, and the Great Dionysia; for O.
Gilbert's view (Die Festzeiten der attischen Dionysien, 1872), that the first
three are parts of the same festival, is demolished by Schomann (op. Cit. ii.3
597-599).
I. The Lesser or Country Dionysia
(ta mikra or ta kat agrous) were very ancient wine-feasts, celebrated
in the various demes throughout Attica, from about the 8th to 11th of Poseideon
(= about Dec. 19-22), under the presidency of the demarchs. As A. Mommsen (op.
cit. 324 ff.) points out, we must not suppose with Kannegiesser, Boeckh, and Preller,
that they were vintage-feasts: for (a) Poseideon is too late for the vintage,
which was usually about the equinox, sometimes extending to the beginning of November,
but not later (Plin. H. N. xviii. § 319) ; (b) the Lesser Dionysia are called
theoinia (Harpocr. s. v.), i. e. festivals of theoinos: cf. Aesch. Fragm. 397,
pater theoine mainadon zeukterie, which Tzetzes (ad Lycophr. 1247) explains as
theos oinou heuretes, and which may be explained as the god himself turning into
wine (cf. houtos theoisi spendetai theos gegos, Eur. Bacch. 284); (c) intoxication
is one of the marks of the Dionysiac festival, and must cannot intoxicate, it
needs fermentation. The country Dionysia, then, was a wine-feast, and we find
it celebrated with dramatic performances in Collytus, Piraeus, Salamis, Eleusis,
Aixone, Phlya, Myrrhinus, &c. (see A. Muller, Griech. Buhnenalt. 317, 318). We
have an excellent picture of the coarse sort of thing it was in the Acharnians,
240 ff. There is a procession: the daughter of Dicaeopolis marches in front as
kanephoros, and the slave Xanthias carries behind an erect phallus, to which Dicaeopolis
sings a rollicking song, &c.
II. The Lenaea
(Aenaia or ta en Aimnais, Hesych., Suid.; or Dionusia epi Aenaioi,
C. I. G. 157, 11) was a town-festival. Preller (op. cit. ii. 1060) supposes that
the Lenaea and the country Dionysia were originally one feast, but were separated
after the temple of the Lenaeon in Limnae got included within the city; the Lenaea
was then put off a month later, to allow the country folk to celebrate their festival
in their separate districts, and afterwards to bring their wine to the city and
enjoy the festivity there also. Mommsen, however (op. cit. 338), holds that Limnae
was included in the city long before Athens knew anything about Dionysia. He thinks
(p. 46; cf. 73) that the Lenaea was originally a trieteric festival, held in the
intercalary month as a sort of makeshift, not to let the month be entirely without
a feast. A difficulty still attaches to the name Aenaia, which certainly points
to a vintage-feast: but Aenai are Bacchae, votaries intoxicated by the god accordingly
the word is not derived from lenos in the sense of a wine-press, but in that of
a vat ; for the produce of the wine-press is not, as we have seen, intoxicating
at that stage. The festival was certainly celebrated during historical times in
Gamelion (Bekk. Anecd. 235, 6; Schol. on Hes. Op. 506), but there is great uncertainty
as to the exact days. After a full discussion, Mommsen decides (op. cit. pp. 332-337)
for 8th to 11th (=about Jan. 28-31), though Boeckh (C. I. G. 523, 21) considers
the kittoseis Dionusou of the 19th refer to the Lenaea. Another name for the festival
or part of it was probably Ambrosia [AMBROSIA],
though this matter is not quite decided. At the Lenaea there was a great feasting
and a procession (Law of Evagoras, ap. Dem. Mid. 517, § 10), during which there
was plenty of jesting ex hamaxon (Schol. on Aristoph. Eq. 547), though this jesting
appears to have been a feature introduced into the Lenaea from the Anthesteria
(Phot. p. 565, 14). It was a cheerier and less pompous festival than the great
city Dionysia, for strangers did not take part in it (Aristoph. Ach. 504). Dithyrambs
were sung on the first day, and the victor got an ivy crown (Mommsen, op. cit.
p. 342).
III. The Anthesteria.
About the date of the Anthesteria, there can be no doubt. It consisted
of three days, called the Eithoigia, the Choes, and the Chutroi. The Eithoigia
was held on the 11th of Anthesterion (=about March 2nd): see Plut. Symp. iii.
7, 1; viii. 10, 3; the Choes on the 12th, and the Chutroi on the 13th (Harpocr.
184, 24, and 186, 9). The whole festival is sometimes called by one of its days,
viz. the chief one, the Choes (Preller, op. cit. ii. 1062: cf. Phot. 269; Thuc.
ii. 15, 5; and Mommsen, p. 348).
(1) The Pithoigia
was the preliminary opening of the winecasks, and general preparation
for the Choes. Among our paternal customs, says the Scholiast on Hes. Op. 370,
is a festival called Pithoigia, during which it is not lawful to debar either
slave or hired labourer from the enjoyment of the wine; but when we (i.e. the
masters) have sacrificed, we must give all a share of the good gifts of Dionysus.
Indeed, during all the days of the Anthesteria, the rustic slaves had leisure,
and a verse tells of the somewhat brusque reminder to them that the feast is over:
thuraze, Kares:ouket Anthesteria (Zenob. Cent. iv. 33). The schoolboys appear
to have got holidays during the Anthesteria (Theophr. Char. 30 (17)); and some
days prior to this Christmas of the Athenians, there was a regular fair at Athens,
bringing a conflux of foreign traders (cf. Aristoph. Ach. 719 ff.; and Mommsen,
p. 352). The fastening of a rope round the temple in Limnae doubtless took place
on the afternoon of the Pithoigia (perischoinisai, Poll. viii. 141), though Alciphron
seems to refer it to the Chutroi, to which festival it probably at first and in
essence belonged, but afterwards it was effected before the first event of the
Choes. During the afternoon the procession assembled, those taking part in it,
especially the children, who were allowed to join from three years old upwards
(for did not Eurysaces, son of Ajax, take part in the festival in times long past?
Philostr. Heroic. 314, 11), gaily adorned with crowns and flowers.
(2) The Choes
At six o'clock the next day, the Choes began. The procession started,
no doubt with torches, the common people following [p. 639] in waggons. It originally
represented the entry of the Wine-god as the Liberator (Eleuthereus), from without
the city into the little temple of the Ceramicus (Paus. i. 29, 2),--though Preller
(Gr. Myth. i.3 556) attributes this procession to the Greater Dionysia, considering
Mommsen's reference of it to the Anthesteria certainly erroneous, --and his incorporation
into the city, by union with the noblest woman of the land, the wife of the king.
The marriage does not appear in the Orphic theology; but there were many mystic
accretions. All this part of the ceremony was symbolical. It was a marriage procession,
and the votaries of the god--the Horae, Nymphae, Bacchae--led him along with curious
pipings and moanings, and songs which tell the deeds of Orpheus and the stories
of the gods (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. p. 158, Kayser). Anon he is joined by the Basilinna,
accompanied by fourteen venerable priestesses (gerairai or gerarai), and she is
solemnly betrothed to the god in secret. Within the temple in Limnae, which is
opened on this day only in the year, she administers by the Sacred Herald to the
priestesses a vow, which declares the most spotless purity of life, and exact
scrupulousness in attending to the festivals of the Theoinia and the Iobakcheia
(i.e. Greater Mysteries), and which the priestesses swear to, laying their hands
on their baskets; afterwards she offers a mystic sacrifice, wherein she prays
for all blessings for the state, and then remains for the night in the cella of
the temple (see Dem. c. Neaer. pp. 1370-1, § § 74-78; and Mommsen, op. cit. pp.
358-360). Preller (in Pauly, ii. 1062) compares this sacrifice to the Roman Augurium
Salutis (Cic. de Div. i. 4. 7, 105), and the mystic marriage with Dionysus to
that of the Doge of Venice to the Adriatic. The next morning was given to rest,
and in the early afternoon the drinking began. The state had given money to the
poor to buy wine and provisions (Plut. Reip. ger. praec. 25; Boeckh, Sthh.3 i.
280). All salaries had been paid, even those of the poor Sophists (Ath. x. p.
437). Guests are invited, the hosts supplying all the accessories, such as tables,
crowns, cushions, &c., while the guests brought their own kistai containing food,
and choes of wine (Aristoph. Ach. 1085 ff.). The place of festivity was perhaps
the neighbourhood of the theatre in the Lenaean region (Mommsen, p. 363). At the
proclamation of the herald, contests in drinking took place, and whoever drank
up his chous of wine first got a prize (Aristoph. Ach. 999 ff. From this on to
the end of the play, the scene is laid during the Choes). The amusement of the
Ascoliasmos (askoliazontas pinein) is remarked by Alciphron (iii. 51, 3) to be
un-Attic. Strangers took part in the festival, of whom there were great numbers
in Athens, owing to the fair and the mysteries at Agrae, which occurred shortly
after. The festival was administered by the Archon Basileus, as it had been by
king Pandion originally (Schol. on Ach. 961). But, besides all the revelry, there
is a note of solemnity. If a libation is poured out to the Jolly God, there is
another to Hermes Chthonius (Schol. Ach. 1076). Photius (269, 21) tells us that
the Choes was a miara hemera, on which the souls of the dead used to walk on earth
(cf. the mundus patens of the Romans, Marquardt, Staatsverw. iii. 352). Eustathius
(ad Il. xxiv. 526) says that the Pithoigia also was apophras. The mythical origin
of this drinking on an unlucky day was the device of king Pandion, whereby Orestes,
still pursued by the Erinnyes, might yet take part in the festivity (see Schol.
on Ach. 961). The pursuing Erinnyes are like the shades which walked this day
on earth (Voigt in Roscher's Lexikon der Myth. i. 1072). On into the evening and
night the revelry continues: but there is a touch of seriousness in the last act
of the festival. The drinker winds his garland round his chous, brings it to the
priestess at Limnae, and, pouring out the remnants of the wine as a libation,
offers the crown to the god, and in so doing makes his libation and offering to
the dead (Ath. x. p. 437; cf. Aristoph. Fragm. 480 Meineke=488 Kock; Plut. Aristid.
21; Mommsen, p. 365).
(3) the Chytri (Chutroi)
We are now at the Chytri (Chutroi), a feast to the dead, where everything
is solemn and serious. The administration was probably in the hands of the king
archon. The feast got its name because food, mostly vegetables, were brought in
pots (chutrai), as sacrifices to the Shades and to Hermes Chthonius (Schol. on
Ran. 218); the story was that the offering was first made by the survivors to
the shades of those who perished in Deucalion's flood. There is no question but
that it was celebrated on the 13th of Anthesterion (Harpocr. 186, 9); and if Didymus
(ap. Schol. on Ach. 1076) says that the Chytri and the Choes were celebrated on
one day, the explanation is that the revelry of the Choes extended into the night
of the 13th (Mommsen, 346). The first ceremony was bringing water (Etym. M. p.
744, hudrophoria heorte Hatheneisi penthimos epi tois en toi kataklusmoi apolomenois);
then into a pit, about a cubit deep, outside the Lenaean district but in the neighbourhood,
into which legend said the waters of the Flood passed away, there was poured ground
corn and honey kneaded together (Paus. i. 18, 7). Then fourteen altars were erected
(hidrusin, Alciphr. ii. 3, 11, and Meineke ad loc.), on which the Gerairai offered
pots of panspermia after women solemnly carrying them thither on their heads (Etym.
M. 227; Schol. on Plutus, 1197, 1198; Ach. 1076; Ran. 218). None of the offerings
were eaten. There were no doubt cyclic choruses at the Chytri (Aristoph. Ran.
212 ff.); but the chutrinoi agones were certainly contests of actors, not dramas
[COMOEDIA].
On the whole the Anthesteria was in essence a feast of drinking, when
the year's wine was brought into the city; Mommsen (p. 370) thinks it may have
been originally celebrated to Kronos and Zeus Kronion, but certainly in historical
times to Dionysus Eleuthereus. It mainly represented the introduction of the Dionysiac
cult into Athens and its incorporation with the Athenian religion, and was grafted
on to a festival of the dead. But all the ceremonies cannot be understood without
bringing in the Orphic theology, which tells how Zeus made his son Dionysus king
of all things for a day (see Lobeck, Aglaoph. 552), and the subsequent death of
Dionysus (as the Chytri of mourning follow the Choes of joy) at the hands of the
giants, who cut him into fourteen pieces (hence fourteen altars), and so on. For
details, see Mommsen, pp. 371-373.
IV. The Greater or City Dionysia
(ta megala or ta en astei were probably celebrated from the 9th to
13th of Elaphebolion (= about March 28-April 2). Mommsen (pp. 58-60) thinks that
these Dionysia must have been introduced either in the time of the Pisistratidae.
or in that of Cimon and Pericles, probably the latter. They took the place of
an earlier lyrical festival to Apollo. The 8th was the ASCLEPIEIA
and the proagon (Aeschin. Ctesiph. 63, § 67). At this the poets, choregi, actors,
and chorus appeared before the public in festal attire, but not in theatrical
costume (Schol. to Aeschin. l. c.), and formally announced the dramas which were
going to be enacted, and solicited the kind attention and favour of the audience
(hence Ulpian on Dem. Androt. 611, § 59, proagones eisi logoi hoi proeutrepizontes
hemin ton dikaston ten akoen): cf. A. Muller, Gr. Buhnen-alterthumer, pp. 363-366.
On the 9th there was the procession (pompe and the carouse (komos); on the 10th
the lyrical contest of boys and men. (We should probably insert kai hoi andres
the law of Evagoras, Dem. Mid. 517, § 10: see Bergk in Rhein. Mus. xxxiv. p. 31.)
From the 11th to the 13th were dramatic performances, and on the beginning of
the 14th the Pandia. This is Mommsen's (pp. 387-391) arrangement as opposed to
K. F. Hermann's (Gottesdienstl. Alterth. § 59, 5, 6), who puts the 15th as the
last day of the Dionysia. Mommsen bases his order mainly on the fact that the
Peace of Nicias was ratified on the 14th (Thuc. iv. 118), which can hardly have
been a feast-day; also the 14th was the full moon, and the Pandia was probably
a full-moon feast; festivals moreover seldom passed beyond the full moon: and
besides Calidorus in Plautus (Pseud. i. 3, 87), on the day before the Dionysia,
in asking Ballio to wait six days, virtually asks him to wait till the festival
was over. The Dionysia were great holidays. During them prisoners were released
on parole (Ulpian on Dem. Androt. 614, § 68), and no one was allowed to seize
the goods of a debtor (Law ap. Dem. Mid. 518, § 10). Even Plato thought it allowable
to get drunk during the festivals of the god of wine (Legg. vi. 775 C). As to
the ceremonial, early on the 9th (i. e. at night-fall) the image of Dionysus by
Alcamenes (Paus. i. 20, 3) was taken from its hearth and home (eschara) in the
Lenaeon, and brought into the theatre, by the Ephebi (according to an inscription
in Mommsen, p. 392), who gave a bull for sacrifice in the temple after the pompe.
The image was set up in the orchestra (Dio Chrys. xxxi. p. 386, Dindorf). The
priest of Dionysus had doubtless important functions in the setting up of it.
Later on, when day had come, there was the pompe, which was of a much more dignified
and orderly nature than that of the Anthesteria or Lenaea. It was partly on foot,
partly on carts, but apparently there were no waggons. (Mommsen, p. 396.) In the
agora a cyclic chorus danced round the altar to the twelve gods (Xen. Hipp. 3,
2). The goal of the procession was the Lenaeon. Strangers took part in the festival,
of whom there were considerable numbers in Athens, as the allies used to come
and pay their tribute in Elaphebolion (Boeckh, Staatshaushaltung, i.3 218; Schol.
on Ach. 504.). The State gave victims (C. I. G. 157), and sometimes other bodies
did so likewise: e. g. the Ephebi, as we have seen. On the morning of the 10th
the lyrical contests for choruses of boys and men began [CHOREGUS].
We have a splendid dithyramb of Pindar's composed for the Dionysia (Fragm. 75,
ed. Bergk). A komos by the victorious competitors followed. It is in relation
to this part of the feast that Dionysus was honoured as melpomenos (Paus. i. 2,
5; 31, 6). From the 11th to 13th dramas were exhibited, a tragic trilogy in the
morning and a comedy in the afternoon. The administration of the feast was in
the hands of the Archon Eponymus, assisted by epimeletai (Poll. viii. 89; cf.
Dem. Mid. 519, § 15). For a full account of the dramatic performances held on
the different festivals to Dionysus, see COMOEDIA,
TRAGOEDIA,
THEATRUM;
and for minor festivals connected with Dionysus, see BRAURONIA,
OSCHOPHORIA.
On the whole subject of the Dionysia, see Boeckh, Vom Unterschiede
der Lenaen, Anthesterien, und laindlichen Dionysien, in the Abhandlungen der Akad.
der Wiss. zu Berlin, 1816-1817; C. F. Hermann, Gottesd. Alterthumer, § § 57-59;
Preller in Pauly, ii. 1056-1067, and his Griech. Mythologie, i.3 544-593; August
Mommsen, Heortologie der Athener, pp. 323-373, 387-398; Schomann, Alterth. ii.3
487-504; Voigt in Roscher's Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Romischen
Mythologie, i. 1069-1075. Many illustrations depicting Bacchic worship are to
be found in Mr. Sandys' edition of the Bacchae.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΒΟΙΩΤΙΑ (Αρχαία περιοχή) ΕΛΛΑΔΑ
A peculiar festival held by the Boeotians in honour of Here.
The goddess had, according to the story, once quarrelled with Zeus and hidden
herself on Mount Cithaeron. Her husband then spread the report that he was going
to marry another wife, and had an image of oak-wood decked out in bridal attire
and carried over Cithaeron on a chariot with a numerous train amid the singing
of marriage hymns. Here, in her jealousy, threw herself upon her supposed rival,
but, on discovering the trick, reconciled herself, with laughter, to Zeus, took
her seat on the chariot, and founded the festival in memory of the incident. The
feast was celebrated every seven years by the Plataeans alone and called the Little
Daedala. But every sixtieth year all the cities of the Boeotian federation kept
it as the Great Daedala. At the Little Daedala, guided by the note of a bird,
they fixed on a tree in a grove of oaks and cut a figure out of it, which they
dressed in bridal attire and took, as in marriage procession, to the top of Cithaeron.
Here they offered a goat to Zeus and a cow to Here, and burned the image with
the offering. At the Great Daedala the images made at the Little Daedala were
distributed by lot among the cities of the Boeotian confederacy, and the same
proceedings were then repeated.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΒΡΑΥΡΩΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΤΤΙΚΗ, ΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΚΗ
Brauronia. An Attic festival held every fifth year in the
little town of Brauron, in honour of Artemis Brauronia. At Brauron, Orestes and
Iphigenia on their return from Tauris were supposed to have landed and to have
left the statue of the Tauric goddess. The festival was under the superintendence
of ten hieropoioi; and the chief solemnity consisted in the circumstance that
Attic girls between the ages of five and ten years, dressed in crocus-coloured
garments, went in solemn procession to the sanctuary, where they were consecrated
to the goddess. During this act, the hieropoioi sacrificed a goat, and the girls-performed
a propitiatory rite in which they imitated bears. This rite may have simply arisen
from the fact that the bear was sacred to Artemis, especially in Arcadia; but
a tradition preserved in Suidas relates its origin as follows: In the Attic town
of Phanidae a bear was kept, which was so tame that it was allowed to go about
quite freely, and received its food from and among men. One day a girl ventured
to play with it, and, on treating the animal rather harshly, it turned round and
tore her to pieces. Her brothers, enraged at this, went out and killed the bear.
The Athenians thereupon were visited by a plague; and when they consulted the
oracle, the answer was given that they would rid themselves of the evil which
had befallen them if they would compel some of their citizens to make their daughters
propitiate Artemis by a rite called arkteuein, for the crime committed against
the animal sacred to the goddess. The command was more than obeyed; for the Athenians
decreed that from thenceforth all women, before they could marry, should have
once taken part in this festival, and have been consecrated to the goddess. Hence
the girls themselves were called arktoi, the consecration arkteia, the act of
consecrating arkteuein, and to celebrate the festival arkteuesthai.
There was also a quinquennial festival called Brauronia, which
was celebrated by men and dissolute women, at Brauron, in honour of Dionysus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Brauronia, a festival celebrated in honour of Artemis Brauronia, in the Attic
town of Brauron (Herod. vi. 138), where, according to Pausanias (i. 23, 9; 33,
1; iii. 16, 6; viii. 46, 2), Orestes and Iphigeneia, on their return from Tauris,
were supposed by the Athenians to have landed, and left the statue of the Taurian
goddess. It was held every fifth year, under the superintendence of ten hieropoioi
(Pollux, viii. 9, 31) ; and the chief solemnity consisted in the circumstance
that the Attic girls between the ages of five and ten years, dressed in crocus-coloured
garments, went in solemn procession to the sanctuary (Suidas, s. v. Arktos; Schol.
on Aristoph. Lysistr. 646), where they were consecrated to the goddess. During
this act the hieropoioi sacrificed a goat, and the girls performed a propitiatory
rite in which they imitated bears. This rite may have arisen simply from the circumstance
that the bear was sacred to Artemis, especially in Arcadia; but a tradition preserved
in Suidas (s. v. Arktos) relates its origin as follows : In the Attic town of
Phauidae a bear was kept, which was so tame that it was allowed to go about quite
freely, and received its food from and among men. One day a girl ventured to play
with it, and, on treating the animal rather harshly, it turned round and tore
her to pieces. Her brothers, enraged at this, went out and killed the bear. The
Athenians now were visited by a plague; and when they consulted the oracle, the
answer was given that they would get rid of the evil which had befallen them if
they would compel some of their citizens to make their daughters propitiate Artemis
by a rite called arkteuein, for the crime committed against the animal sacred
to the goddess. The command was more than obeyed; for the Athenians decreed that
from thenceforth all women, before they could marry, should have taken part once
in this festival, and have been consecrated to the goddess. Hence the girls themselves
were called arktoi, the consecration arkteia, the act of consecrating arkteuein,
and to celebrate the festival arkteuesthai. (Hesych. and Harpocrat. s. v.; Schol.
on Aristoph. l. c.) But as the girls when they celebrated this festival were nearly
ten years old, the verb dekateuein was sometimes used instead of arkteuein.
There was also a quinquennial festival called Brauronia, which was celebrated
by men and dissolute women, at Brauron, in honour of Dionysus (Aristoph. Pax,
870, with the note of the Scholiast; and Suidas, s. v. Brauron). Whether its celebration
took place at the same time as that of Artemis Brauronia, must remain uncertain,
although the very different characters of the two festivals incline us rather
to believe that they were not celebrated at the same time. According to Hesychius,
whose statement however is not supported by any ancient authority, the Iliad was
recited at the Brauronian festival of Dionysus by rhapsodists.
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ΓΟΡΤΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΟ
Ellotia (Hellotia). A festival of the same name was celebrated in Crete in honour of Europa. The hellotis, from which the festival derived its name, was, according to Seleucus, a myrtle garland twenty cubits in circumference, which was carried about in the procession at the festival of the Ellotia.
ΓΥΘΕΙΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΑΚΩΝΙΑ
Carneia were also celebrated at Gythion
ΔΗΛΟΣ (Νησί) ΚΥΚΛΑΔΕΣ
Delia (ta Delia). The name of festivals and games celebrated at the
great assemblage in the island of Delos, the centre of an amphictyony, to which
the Cyclades and the neighbouring Ionians on the coasts belonged. This amphictyony
seems originally to have been instituted simply for the purpose of religious worship
in the common sanctuary of Apollo, the theos patroios of the Ionians, who was
believed to have been born at Delos. The Delia, as appears from the Hymn to Apollo,
had existed from very early times, and were celebrated every fifth year, and as
Boeckh supposes, with great probability, on the sixth and seventh days of Thargelion,
the birthdays of Apollo and Artemis. The members of the amphictyony assembled
on these occasions (etheoroun) in Delos, in long garments, with their wives and
children, to worship the god with gymnastic and musical contests, choruses, and
dances. That the Athenians took part in these solemnities at a very early period
is evident from the Deliastae (afterwards called theoroi) mentioned in the laws
of Solon.. The sacred vessel (theoris), moreover, which they sent to Delos every
year, was said to be the same which Theseus had sent after his return from Crete.
The Delians, during the celebration of these solemnities, performed the office
of cooks for those who visited their island, whence they were called Eleodutai.
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..In fact it is admitted that there is no record of death more nobly borne. For he (Socrates) was forced to live for thirty days after the verdict was given, because it was the month of the Delia (The festival was held in the month Thargelion, our May) and the law did not allow any public execution to take place until the sacred embassy had returned from Delos. During this interval, as all his intimate acquaintances could see, he continued to live exactly as before; and, in truth, before that time he had been admired above all men for his cheerfulness and serenity. How, then, could man die more nobly? Or what death could be nobler than the death most nobly faced? What death more blessed than the noblest? Or what dearer to the gods than the most blessed?
This extract is from: Xenophon, Memorabilia. Cited Mar 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlink
Delia, the name of festivals and games celebrated at the great panegyris in the
island of Delos, the centre of an amphictyony, to which the Cyclades and the neighbouring
Ionians on the coasts belonged. (Hom. Hymn. in Apoll. 147, &c.) This amphictyony
seems originally to have been instituted simply for the purpose of religious worship
in the common sanctuary of Apollo, the theos patroios of the Ionians, who was
believed to have been born at Delos. The Delia, as appears from the Hymn on Apollo
(compare Thuc. iii. 104; Pollux, ix. 61), had existed from very early times, and
were celebrated every fifth year (Pollux, viii. 104), and as Boeckh supposes,
with great probability, on the sixth and seventh days of Thargelion, the birthdays
of Apollo and Artemis. The members of the amphictyony assembled on these occasions
(etheoroun) in Delos, in long garments, with their wives and children, to worship
the god with gymnastic and musical contests, choruses, and dances. That the Athenians
took part in these solemnities at a very early period, is evident from the Deliastae
(afterwards called theoroi) mentioned in the laws of Solon (Athen. vi. p. 234);
the sacred vessel (theoris), moreover, which they sent to Delos every year, was
said to be the same which Theseus had sent after his return from Crete. (See the
commentators on Plato, Crito, p. 43 C.) The Delians, during the celebration of
these solemnities, performed the office of cooks for those who visited their island,
whence they were called Eleodutai (Athen. iv. p. 173).
In the course of time the celebration of this ancient panegyris in
Delos had ceased, and it was not revived until Ol. 88, 3, when the Athenians,
after having purified the island in the winter of that year, restored the ancient
solemnities, and added horse-races which had never before taken place at the Delia.
(Thuc. l. c.) After this restoration, Athens being at the head of the Ionian confederacy
took the most prominent part in the celebration of the Delia; and though the islanders,
in common with Athens, provided the choruses and victims, the leader (architheoros),
who conducted the whole solemnity, was an Athenian (Plut. Nic. 3; Wolf, Introd.
ad Demosth. Lept. p. xc.), and the Athenians had the superintendence of the common
sanctuary. [AMPHICTYONES]
From these solemnities, belonging to the great Delian panegyris, we
must distinguish the lesser Delia, which were celebrated every year, probably
on the 6th of Thargelion. The Athenians on this occasion sent the sacred vessel
(theoris), which the priest of Apollo adorned with laurel branches, to Delos.
The embassy was called theoria, and those who sailed to the island, theoroi: and
before they set sail a solemn sacrifice was offered in the Delion, at Marathon,
in order to obtain a happy voyage. (Muller, Dor. ii. 2, § 14.) During the absence
of the vessel, which on one occasion lasted thirty days (Plat. Phaed., p. 58 B;
Xen. Mem. iv. 8, § 2), the city of Athens was purified, and no criminal was allowed
to be executed. The lesser Delia were said to have been instituted by Theseus,
though in some legends they are mentioned at a much earlier period, and Plutarch
(Thes. 23) relates that the ancient vessel used by the founder himself, though
often repaired, was preserved and used by the Athenians down to the time of Demetrius
Phalereus. (Boeckh, P. E. p. 214, &c. 2nd edit.; Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, vol.
iii. p. 217; A. Mommsen, Heortol. pp. 84 and 402 ff.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΕΛΕΥΣΙΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΤΤΙΚΗ, ΔΥΤΙΚΗ
Mysteria (musteria). Though the term musteria is that which has survived, still
it was only one and that a late one, and perhaps the least common of the terms
used by the Greeks to express their mystic rites. The word orgia is found in the
Homeric Hymn to Demeter, ll. 274, 476, derived from eorga (cf. Lat. operari),
which signifies to perform ritual, and it was only in later times that it came
to connote ecstatic worship. The term musteria is derived from muein, used of
closing the lips or eyes; mustes, according to Petersen, means with eyes shut,
as opposed to epoptes. Musteria is applied both to the objects of secret worship
(Themist. Or. iv. 55) and also the secret ritual; aporreta is similarly used.
According to Lobeck mustikon is anything recondite, enigmatical, indirect, allegorical;
in fact, what is purposely not simple, plain, and straightforward. Again there
is the term telete.. It is used of an ordinary festival (Pind. Nem. x. 34); as
applied to sacred worship, it signifies the consummation of the votary's progress
in his religion. (Cf. such phrases as telos gamoio, tele used for the magistrates
of the state, and telete taken by the philosophers to express complete knowledge
of the subject). Diutius initiant quam consignant, says Tertullian (contra Valentin.
1), translating pleiona chronon muousin e telousin: compare sphragis and teleiosis,
used for baptism. The Latins used initia, which signified an ideal beginning (initia
ut appellantur ita re vera principia vitae cognovimus, Cic. de Leg. ii. 1. 4,
36), -a sort of new birth, as Preller says. Thus then we have terms signifying
both the objective secret nature of the ritual and the subjective condition of
the votary.
1. The Kinds of Mysteries.
We can hardly consider under the head of mysteries those mystic usages which occur
here and there in certain festivals, such as the marriage of the basileus and
basilissa at the Dionysia;
nor the multitude of purifications and sin-offerings found in most religions,
all with more or less of a mystic meaning. Again the mystic worships performed
by private families are hardly to be reckoned either, and do not come under our
notice except in some few cases, such as the Orphic rites of the Lycomidae (see
Eleusinia). But the mysteries properly so called, viz. those which
were recognised by the state and required a regular initiation, may be divided
into
(1) those performed by a special sex, e. g. the Thesmophoria
celebrated by women only, as was also the worship of Dionysus in Laconia (Pans.
ii. 20, 3), of Cora in Megalopolis (ib. viii. 31, 8), Rhea in Thaumasion (ib.
36, 3), Dionysus on Parnassus (ib. x. 4, 3). Special mystic ceremonies for men
only are rarely found, such as that to Demeter, Cora, and Dionysus at Sicyon (ib.
ii. 11, 3).
(2) Those open to all Greeks, such as the Eleusinian and Samothracian mysteries.
It is often stated that the only gods who had a mystic worship were the Chthonian
ones; but this statement is not quite true, though the Chthonian gods are the
gods principally worshipped in mysteries, as might be inferred even a priori from
their very nature. But there are some Olympian gods to whom mystic worship was
performed, e. g. Zeus Idaeus (Eur. Cretes, Frag. 2), a mixture of Phrygian Cybele-worship
and Cretan or Thracian Zagreus worship, in honour of Zeus, celebrated (phaneros,
according to Diod. v. 77, i. e. during the day, not at night; the Argive Hera
(Paus. ii. 38, 2), even the Graces (ib. ix. 35, 3). Foreign mystic worships are
those of Cybele, which were wild and enthusiastic, with flutes, drums, and cymbals
(Herod. iv. 76); the trieteric worship of Dionysus; of Hecate at Aegina (Paus.
ii. 30, 2) and in the Zerynthian cave in Samothrace (Schol, on Lycophr. 77). This
goddess was especially worshipped in the Roman Empire just before it became Christian;
during which period too, and indeed earlier also, the mysteries of Isis, Sabazius,
and Mithras were much in vogue. For these the reader must be referred to the articles
Rhea, Hecate, Isis, Sabazius in Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, There is a good article on
Mitiras in the Dict. of Christian Biography. A remarkable Roman mystery confined
to women was that of the celebrated Bona Dea, which Cicero (Att. vi. 1, 26) calls
Romana mysteria. See Dict. of Myth. s. v. Bona
Dea.
As to the general character of the gods of the mysteries, we cannot
do better than quote Lenormant: Like all the worships of antiquity, the Eleusinian
mysteries were founded on the adoration of Nature, its forces and its phenomena,
conceived rather than observed, interpreted by the imagination rather than by
the reason, transferred into divine figures and histories by a kind of theological
poetry, which went off into pantheism on the one side and into anthropomorphism
on the other. The nature and concatenation of their rites and plays were connected
with precise beliefs; which tended to efface the distinction between the divine
personages of the poetical and popular mythology, in such a manner as to lead
to what has been called mustike theokrasia, and to reduce these gods who were
exoterically individuals to mere general abstractions. But the form under which
these beliefs were presented was such that, among the ancients themselves, some
have been able to find in it a kind of philosophy of nature or physiologia, and
others bring out of it euhemerism and with it atheism. So far we will go, emphasising
the fact, that this physiologia was of late growth in the mysteries; but no further.
However, to such students as do not easily get dizzy and who may wish to pursue
the subject into its details, we recommend Lenormant's articles on Bacchus, Ceres,
and the Cabiri, in Daremberg and Saglio; also chapter vi. of his Voie Sacree,
where his views issue in the purest pantheism, which he supposes to be the doctrine
taught by the Hierophant at Eleusis and to be the primitive Aryan dogma that lay
at the base of the mysteries.
2. The Origin of the Mysteries.
That they were mostly old Pelasgian worships, which were driven into the background
by the conquering races, and accordingly carried on as mysteries, is a very reasonable
view, and is supported by what Herodotus says of the Thesmophoria (ii. 171) and
the Cabiri (ii. 51). By the Pelasgians we mean what Curtius means (Hist. of Greece,
i. 35 ff.), viz. the first great body of emigrants westward from among the Phrygians,
that tribe which forms the link by which the Aryans of the West were connected
with the Asiatics proper. They are the primitive indigenous race of Hellas, the
dark background of history, children of the black earth (as the poets called Pelasgus),
who amidst all the changes of the ruling generations calmly clave to the soil,
leading their life unobserved under unchanging conditions, as husbandmen and herdsmen.
They brought with them their Phrygian forms of worship, as they passed through
Thrace into Hellas. Curtius represents their religion to have been of the purest
and noblest type -the worship of the Pelasgian Zeus upon the- mountain-tops, a
god without images or temples, a god unnamed except as the pure, the great, the
merciful, &c --and that Greek polytheism was a development in decadence as far
as spirituality went. When the fascination of Curtius's eloquence is passed, we
are unable to feel: that the religion which the Pelasgians brought from Phrygia
was much better than that of ordinary savages. Mr. Andrew Lang mentions several
points in which the Greek mysteries are in harmony with Australian, American,
and African practice: the mystic dances (cf. tous exagoreuontas ta musteria exorcheisthai
legousin hoi polloi, Lucian, de Salt. 15), the fastings, the elaborate and anxious
purifications; the use of the konos described by Lobeck as xularion hou exeptai
to spartion kai en tais teletais edoneito hina rhoizei, similar to the turndun
of the Australians, to call the votaries together; the plastering of initiates
with clay or dirt of some kind and washing it off to symbolise purification (cf.
Dem. de Cor. 313, 259, and Soph. Frag. 32, stratou kathartes kapomagmaton idris),
and the purifications by blood of swine mentioned in Aesch. Eum. 273 -an undoubted
savage custom, though not immediately connected with the mysteries- the use of
serpents in the mysteries, and so forth. Mr. Lang goes on to repeat again and
again in his gentle vein of satire how easy it is to think anything as a symbol
of anything, and wonders why the allegory should choose the practices of early
savage tribes. Nor is it any disgrace to the Greek race to allow this; rather
that the list of savage survivals is not many times as large and very much more
apparent. Most of the savage elements disappeared soon, and what remained became
blended with purer and later speculations.
This old religion was thrust into the background by the conquering
tribes, the gods of the latter becoming predominant and the stategods of the nation,
while the old religion for the most part gradually disappeared. But by some families
and tribes its ritual was in a large measure retained, and they probably formed
themselves into brotherhoods, like those of the Roman Church, and preserved their
rites doubtless with great strictness. Surely they were sodalities or confraternities
that lived the Orphic life. Now, the Greeks never persecuted doctrine, unless
indeed any doctrine was much blazed abroad and seemed likely to involve danger
to the state-worship; and no danger seemed to arise from the remnants of this
primitive worship. Indeed, they were sometimes adopted into the state-religion
on occasions. of religious terror, when a feeling of sin and need for purification
laid hold of the people. Thus it was that the mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace
were adopted. The gradual development of the Eleusinian worship (that mystic ritual
with which we are best acquainted), from its original Phrygian-Pelasgian beginnings
to its adoption into the Athenian religion, we, have attempted to sketch in outline
in Eleusinia § 1.
3. Silence enjoined on the Votaries.
This is an important feature in the mysteries; the votaries could not divulge
the mysteries to noninitiates. Its original reason doubtless lies in the separatism
of early worships, a fear lest any outsider should learn how to get the favour
of the god; and the reason why it was retained in later and more enlightened periods
was to enhance the solemnity of the ritual. Strabo says x. 717, 77 he krupsis
he mustike ton hieron semnopoiei to theion mimoumene ten phusin autou ekpheugousan
ten aisthesin. Every expression, says Renan, is a limit, and the only language
not unworthy of things divine is silence. It prevented familiarity breeding contempt,
as in the ordinary religion. Chrysippus, Etym. Mag. 751, thinks it was intended
for an ethical purpose, viz. to teach the government of the tongue, tes psuches
echouses herma kai pros tous amuetous siopan dunamenes.
4. The Ceremony.
Whatever is to be said specially about the initiated, the priests, and the ceremony,
we have endeavoured to set forth in the particular articles, especially Eleusinia.
There will be found some description of the mystic drama, such as it was in later
times when it was part of the state-religion and full of foreign accretions. It
was of a splendid, solemn, vague nature, such as fettered the imagination of the
votary; and, if it only put the worshipper in a certain state and did not teach
anything (tous tetelesmenous ou mathein ti dein alla pathein kai diatethenai,
as Aristotle says, ap. Synes. Orat.), yet it made a man here and there think of
things spiritual and proceed on the task of working out his own salvation. To
such a man further progress was possible and a higher and deeper knowledge open,
imparted by gradual stages, after due time being given to allow the awakened thought
and imparted knowledge to germinate and fructify. All this is very Eastern, but
it is none the less very rational. Among the peasants who attend a midnight mass,
how many are there who think of the mystery of the Incarnation? asks M. Renan.
Yet, if a man here and there does think about it, he can learn more about it from
his teachers. But to the majority of the worshippers (and everyone who spoke the
Greek language and was not stained with gross crime was welcome, no previous katechesis
being required) the impression of the whole, not the perception of each particular,
was the important part. We may allow that the whole drama of Eleusis would appear
a miserable travesty to us, even its fireworks; but we answer in the bold words
of Renan, You are not to ask for reason from the religious feeling. The spirit
bloweth where it listeth; and if it chooses to attach the ideal to this or to
that, what have you to say?
But was there any reality at the back of it all, any doctrine like
the Incarnation, symbolised by the midnight ceremonies? There certainly was in
later times. The reality which the priests then appear to have taught was some
kind of system of cosmogony: cf. Cic. de Nat. Deorum, i. 42, 119 (of the Samothracian
mysteries), quibus explicatis ad rationemque revocatis rerum magis natura cognoscitur
quam deorum; Clem. Alex. Stromat. v. 689, ta de megala [musteria] peri ton sumpanton
ou manthanein eti hupoleipetai, epopteuein de kai perinoein ten te phusin kai
ta pragmata. But the true value of the mysteries did not lie here, in this kind
of dogmatic teaching, but in the moral improvement apparent in the votaries (Diod.
v. 48), in the comfort they gave in the present life and the glad hopes for the
world to come (Isocr. Panegyr. 28).
5. Monotheism and Immortality.
It is generally supposed that the mysteries were the fountain from which Greek
philosophy derived the two great ideas of monotheism and immortality. The mystic
school of theological teaching is the Orphic; to it we must look for these ideas.
Now, as regards monotheism, we have attempted to show in Orphica
that the passages which refer to monotheism in the Jewish or Christian sense date
from Alexandrine times, and in the pantheistic sense are hardly much earlier:
even the celebrated Zeus kephale, Zeus messa, Dios d'ek panta tetuktai, supposed
to be alluded to by Plato (Legg. iv. 715 E), as Zeller shows, does not imply more
than Homer's line that Zeus is the father of gods and men, or Terpander's (650
B.C.) address, Zeu panton archa panton agetor. The Greeks with their personifying
of everything in nature came to have a feeling of the Divine pervading all nature,--one
and the same Nature-power, as Petersen puts it. This unity of the Divine element
which polytheism presupposes was made concrete in Zeus as king of the gods; and
so far all that exists and all that happens is ultimately referred to Zeus, but
it does not imply that Zeus is the ideal complex (Inbegriff) of all things. Zeller
goes on to contrast the polemic of Xenophanes against polytheism, with the syncretism
of the Stoics and Alexandrines, showing how the Greeks arrived at the idea of
the Divine unity less by way of syncretism than of criticism. But if the idea
of monotheism was naturally developed into a distinct form by Greek thought, and
that only in comparatively late times, it was thereafter adopted into the mysteries,
and especially some of the Orphic ones, and doubtless taught in them to those
who had gone through the various stages and shown themselves naturally fitted
to receive and understand it.
As to immortality, the case is different. Mr. Tylor has shown that
the doctrine of Transmigration migration was universal among savage and barbarian
races. This doctrine the Aryans probably brought with them into Europe. Herodotus
thinks it came from Egypt (ii. 123); but when we find similar notions among the
Indians from the earliest times even to the present day, and among the ancient
Druids in Gaul (Caes. B. G. vi. 14; Diod. v. 28; Amm. Marc. xv. 9 fin.), we may
infer that it was an original idea of the Aryan race, which gradually developed
into the purer doctrine of what we call a Future Life; we find a strange example
of this latter doctrine among the Thracians (Herod. iv. 94, 95). For the further
discussion of immortality in the Orphic doctrine, see Orphica
6. The modern Critics of the Mysteries.
Passing over such treatises as Warburton, On the divine Legation of Moses (ii.
133-234), and Sainte-Croix, Recherches sur les Mysteres du Paganisme (1784), the
first really great work on the mysteries was that by Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie
der alten Volker, 1810-1812, written by a genuinely religious Doctor in Theology
of the Roman Church. The title is certainly not a misnomer, for he finds symbolism
everywhere. He is in fact too symbolical. He does not distinguish the ideas of
different epochs, does not weigh evidence nor take sufficient thought of development
in religious ideas. After him followed J. H. Voss, a zealous Protestant, who attacked
Creuzer with unpardonable virulence and little success, especially in his Anti-Symbolik
(1824). Abuse of priests occupies a large portion of the work. In 1829 Lobeck's
great work, Aglaophamus, was published with the view of crushing the symbolical
school. Its learning is portentous, its satire grim and savage. But with all his
great gifts Lobeck had one thing wanting, the sense of things religious. Everything
is judged from the level of the intellect, but religion is of another order. The
whole book bears the character of a violent reaction, and so far is necessarily
unfair; and Lobeck sometimes quite forgets himself, as for example when he says
(p. 119) that the spectacles at Eleusis were seen with the eyes of the mind, not
with those of the body. K. O. Muller (art. Eleusinia in Ersch and Gruber), and
after him Preller (Demeter und Persephone, 1837; art. Mysteria in Pauly), make
accurate distinctions of times, places, and races. They allow a mystic character
to the worship of the Pelasgi, who adored Nature regarded as living and divine,
especially in their worship of the Chthonian divinities, the naturalism of the
Pelasgi being contrasted with the anthropomorphism of the Hellenes, as exemplified
in the Homeric Age; but hold that, when this warrior age passed away at the time
of Solon, there was a reaction in favour of the ancient cults. Francois Lenormant,
in his Voie Sacre Eleusinienne (1864) and in the articles in Daremberg and Saglio
mentioned above, is a strong symbolist; cf. also his articles in the Contemporary
Review for May, July, September 1881. Other works to be consulted with advantage
are Hermann, Die Gottesdienstlichen Alterthumer, 32, 55; Maury, Histoire des Religions
de la Grece antique, ii. chap. xi.; Renan, Les Religions de l'Antiquite, No. 1
of his Etudes d'Histoire religieuse; Ramsay, s. v. Mysteries, in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eleusinia, (ta Eleusinia). A title chiefly applied to a festival held
by the Athenians in the autumn, in honour of Demeter, Persephone, and Iacchus,
consisting of sacrifices, processions, and certain mystical ceremonies. It was
one of the most important festivals of Greece. The mythical origin of the Eleusinia
is contained in the Homeric hymn to Demeter, which tells how Persephone, while
gathering flowers, was, with the connivance of Zeus, carried off by the god of
the lower world, Hades or Polydegmon (the great receiver); and how her mother
Demeter, daughter of Rhea, searching distractedly for her child, is advised by
Hecate to consult Helios, who sees all things; and how Helios in pity tells her
that Zeus has granted to Hades to carry off her daughter to be his wife. Forthwith
Demeter changes herself into an old woman; and as she wanders forth disconsolate
through the world she comes to Eleusis, and sits down on the cheerless stone by
a well. The daughters of Celeus, the king of Eleusis, come to the well to draw
water. They bring her to their home, where Metanira, wife of Celeus, gives her
the latest born child, Demophoon, to nurse. But Demeter is still bowed down with
grief; she sits dignified but silent in her room, till the jests and raillery
of Iambe, the servant-maid, at last make her smile. She consents to take food
and drink, but will have no wine, only a mixture (kukeon) of water with barley-meal
and mint. Days go on, and the child Demophoon thrives beyond what mortal child
was wont, for a goddess was his nurse; she used to anoint him daily with ambrosia
and place him in the fire by night. But a little more time and the child would
have been immortal, when one night Metanira saw the nurse place him in the fire
and cried aloud with terror. Then the anger of Demeter blazed forth, and the aged
nurse transformed herself into the goddess, told who she was, what she had intended
to do, and how that the little faith of the mother had robbed the child of immortality,
and finally bade the people of Eleusis to erect a temple for her on the hill above
the fountain, when she herself would prescribe the services they must perform
in order to gain her favour. They did so, and Demeter dwelt there, shunning all
association with the other gods who had been parties to the carrying off of her
daughter. For a year Demeter dwelt there--a year of want, for nothing grew; and
the human race would have perished, had not Zeus agreed that Persephone should
return. Gladly did Persephone obey the summons of Hermes; but Hades persuaded
her to eat a pomegranate seed before she left, and that prevented her staying
away from him for a whole year. So Persephone returns, and great is the joy of
mother and daughter, in which the faithful Hecate sympathizes. Rhea is then sent
down by Zeus to her daughter and effects the reconciliation. The corn comes up
in abundance in the Rarian plain; Demeter returns to Olympus to dwell with the
gods, and prescribes to Celeus and to his sons Triptolemus, Diocles, and Eumolpus
the solemnities and divine services that were in future time to be paid her; and
hence the famous Eleusinian Mysteries were a [p. 579] direct appointment of the
great goddess Demeter herself.
Such was the story of the origin of the mysteries; but how the mysteries
came to be Athenian depends on another story, which concerns the union of Eleusis
with Athens. Erechtheus warred with the Eleusinians, who were helped by one Eumolpus,
a Thracian, son of Poseidon and founder of the mysteries. The difficulties connected
with the exact birthplace and genealogical position of Eumolpus we may pass over,
remembering that he is, according to this legend, a foreigner. Eleusis was conquered,
and to the Athenians fell the political headship, but to the family of Eumolpus
and the daughters of the Eleusinian king Celeus was assigned the highpriesthood
(hierophantia) of the Eleusinian worship. The other family which held a priesthood
in the mysteries, the Kerykes, were said to have been descended from Keryx, the
son of Eumolpus; though the family itself considered its ancestors to have been
Hermes and Aglauros, daughter of Erechtheus, and so genuine Athenians.
Mysteries were celebrated in honour of Demeter, Persephone, and Dionysus
in Asia Minor (e. g. at Cyzicus); in Egypt on Lake Mareotis; in Sicily at Gela
and elsewhere; in Boeotia at Plataea; in many parts of Arcadia; and in Messenia
at Andania. But the most splendid and important of all the Eleusinia were those
of Attica, which may be regarded as having consisted of two parts: (1) the Lesser
Mysteries at Agrae, and (2) the Greater Mysteries at Eleusis.
(1) The Lesser Mysteries at Agrae (ta en Agrais). These were held
in the spring at Agrae, a place on the Ilissus, southeast of the Acropolis. There
is no doubt that they were held in the month Anthesterion, when there were the
first signs of returning vegetation just after field-work began. The exact date
cannot be fixed, but Mommsen's suggestion is most probable, that the chief day
was the 20th, the same day of the month as the Greater Mysteries were held on
in Boedromion, to which the Lesser Mysteries had many points of similarity, even
in matters connected with the calendar--e. g. the same length of the mystery truce.
Mommsen supposes that the 19th was a day of preparation, and the 20th and 21st
the special mystery days. These Lesser Mysteries were considered as a prelude
to the Greater, being on a much smaller scale; but initiation in the Lesser was
generally required before the candidate could present himself for initiation into
the Greater. The mysteries at Agrae consisted probably to a large extent of purifications,
for which the water of the Ilissus was much used. They were held more especially
in honour of Persephone, called Pherrephatta here, than of Demeter. It appears
that the carrying off of Persephone was the most important representation in these
mysteries. Again we hear that at Agrae the fate of Dionysus was pourtrayed (mimema
ton peri ton Dionuson, Steph. Byzant. s. v. Agrai). The death of Dionysus-Zagreus
took place on the 13th of Anthesterion, the day on which the festival of the Chytri
was held; so perhaps on the ninth day after, the 21st (for funeral rites on the
ninth day after death, the enata, see Aesch. Ctesiph. 225), the funeral ceremony
may have been held and his violent death related in a drama. A great many, especially
strangers, were initiated into these mysteries who did not proceed to initiation
into the regular Eleusinia; the legend, too, said it was for the purpose of initiating
Heracles, who was a stranger and according to the primitive regulations could
not be initiated into the Eleusinia, that these Lesser Mysteries were established.
(2) The Greater Mysteries at Eleusis. Two days are fixed by definite
evidence--viz. the 16th Boedromion for the Halade mustai, and the 20th for the
Iacchus day. The fixing of other days depends on conjecture, but can be determined
with a considerable degree of certainty. A month before the middle of Boedromion--i.
e. the middle of Metageitnion--the spondophoroi used to announce the mystery truce
to the neighbouring States, so as to give the strangers time to make all arrangements
necessary for a visit to Athens. During the latter portion of this month the votary
who intended to be initiated used to betake himself to some private man who had
gone through all the grades of initiation, was examined by him as to his freedom
from sin, received instruction as to what purifications and offerings were necessary
to gain the favour of the goddesses, and submitted the actual offerings for his
inspection and approval. This instructor was the mustagogos. He certified to the
Hierophant the fitness of the applicant and introduced him, this proceeding being
apparently called sustasis. Sincere devotees appear to have fasted for nine days,
from the 13th to the 21st--i. e. ate nothing during the day, taking whatever food
they did take between sunset and sunrise, like the Mahomedans during Ramadan;
and votaries generally appear to have abstained from domestic birds, fish, pomegranates,
apples, and beans. On the 15th of Boedromion the formal assemblage (agurmos, Hesych.
s. v.) was held of those citizens and strangers who intended to take part in the
mysteries--though this assemblage does not appear to have been absolutely essential,
at least in late times. At the beginning of the 16th, in the evening (the day
is reckoned from sunset to sunset), Chabrias's distribution of wine to the people
in honour of his victory at Naxos used to take place; and the next morning began
the first formal act of the festival--viz. the prorresis or Halade mustai. A proclamation
was made by the Archon Basileus and by the Hierophant and Daduchus in the Stoa
Poecile (Schol. on Aristoph. Ran. 369), for the departure of all strangers and
all murderers; and then the order for purification given, "Ye mystae, to
the sea!" The "sea" was sometimes the Piraeus, though probably
only in time of Attica being occupied by enemies; but generally the Rheitoi, two
salt streams on the Sacred Road, one dedicated to Demeter, the other to Core,
which contained fish that the priests alone were allowed to eat. The next day,
the 17th, sacrifices (hiereia) were offered for the safety of the State by the
Archon Basileus and the epimeletai in the Eleusinium at Athens; and at all these
sacrifices the theoroi of foreign States seem to have taken part. The night of
the 18th may have been spent by the very devout in sleeping in the Temple of Aesculapius,
southwest of the Acropolis, or in the Iaccheum, also called the Temple of Demeter.
It was just where the road from the Piraeus entered Athens. The early morning
of that day till about 9 a.m. was devoted to ordinary business, as we find decrees
issued bearing that date. After this hour the Epidauria was celebrated in the
Temple of Demeter or Iacchus and in the Temple of Aesculapius. It was, as has
been seen, a supplementary sacrifice for those who came late, and legend said
it was instituted for the sake of Aesculapius, who himself came late for the mysteries.
Doubtless, however, the thought really lay in this, that Aesculapius was supposed
by his wondrous skill to have raised again Iacchus from the dead, and the festival
probably was incorporated in the Eleusinia when the worship of Epidaurus became
connected with that of Athens. Meanwhile there were being brought from Eleusis
certain religious objects--playthings, it was said, of the child Iacchus --bone
(astragalos), top (strobilos), ball (sphaira), apples (mela), tambourine (rhombos),
looking-glass (esoptron), fleece (pokos), fan (liknon), and such like, as is learned
from Clement of Alexandria. Phalli were perhaps also carried among these mystical
objects; but we must remember that the statue of Iacchus, as we shall see, which
was carried in procession to Eleusis on the 19th, was not kept at Eleusis during
the year, but at Athens, having been brought back some day shortly after the conclusion
of the mysteries; for there was no Iaccheum at Eleusis. The Athenian Ephebi met
this convoy at the Temple of Echo (evidence from inscriptions in Mommsen, p. 252),
and conveyed it to Athens by nightfall. In the early morning of the 19th, there
were occasionally decrees passed. In the forenoon the Iacchus procession started
from the Eleusinium and proceeded to the Iaccheum, where they got the statue of
Iacchus; perhaps then definitely organized the procession in the building assigned
for that purpose; and then passing through the Ceramicus left Athens by the Sacred
Gate, priests and people crowned with myrtle and ivy, the rich ladies till the
time of the orator Lycurgus riding in carriages. The statue of Iacchus was probably
that of a fair child crowned with myrtle and holding a torch, hence called phosphoros
aster in Aristophanes. There were many ceremonies to be performed as the procession
passed along the Sacred Way to Eleusis-- ceremonies which had to be given up during
the Peloponnesian War, while Attica was invaded by the Peloponnesians. One section
of the procession repaired to the Cephissus and took baths therein, another to
the bath by Anemocritus's statue near the tomb of Scirus the soothsayer, who came
from Dodona to Eleusis to assist the Eleusinians in the war against Erechtheus
and was slain. The Phytalidae sacrificed to Phytalus in Laciadae, where lay a
temple to the Mourning (Achea) Demeter, and to Core, with whose worship that of
Athene and Poseidon was joined. At the palace of Crocon, the Croconidae perhaps
bound small bands of saffron thread round the right wrist and right foot of each
mystes, which was considered as a protection from the evil eye.
Occasionally during the procession the majority of those who took
part in it indulged in flouts and gibes at one another, a proceeding called gephurismos,
the origin of which title is unknown, but is generally associated with the bridge
over the Cephissus. Chants in honour of Iacchus were sung constantly during the
procession, which swelled louder as when, near midnight, Iacchus arrived at Eleusis
amid the blaze of torches. That the procession did not arrive till late at night
is plain from the splendid chorus in the Ion, which sings of the torches and of
the moon and stars dancing in heaven at the sight. The journey from Athens to
Eleusis is really only four hours long, but the various ceremonies performed during
the course of the procession extended it to three or four times its normal length.
On the next morning certain sacrifices were performed, consisting probably in
part of swine, to Demeter. An inscription in Mommsen, p. 257, orders sacrifices
to be made by the hieropoioi to Hermes Enagonius, the Graces, Artemis, and certain
heroes, Telesidromus and Triptolemus. It is not known what these sacrifices were
at Eleusis; at Andania they were, besides others, a sheep to Persephone and a
sow to Demeter. In later times the Ephebi made supplementary sacrifices of cattle.
The bulls were brought unbound to the altar, and the Ephebi struggled with them
to hold them as they were being sacrificed.
The 22d and 23d were the musteriotides hemerai, and the ceremonies
celebrated thereon were pannuchides. During the evening of the 22d was probably
what was called lampadon hemera, which consisted of a symbol of search after Core
with torches, performed principally by and for the less highly initiated, who
conducted the search crowned with myrtle, wearing a fawn-skin, and holding a wand,
the mystagogues of the several initiates taking part in the search --the whole
proceeding being perhaps an interlude in the story of Demeter and Core, which
appears to have been represented in the temple on this night. After it, came with
much ceremonial the partaking of the kukeon, a mixture of mint, barley-meal, and
water. This was a cardinal feature in the ceremony, being, if we may so say, a
participation in the Eleusinian sacrament. It was in remembrance of Demeter being
refreshed after her long wandering and fruitless search. Thereafter followed what
was called the paradosis ton hieron: certain relics and amulets were given to
the votary to touch or kiss or even taste, the votary repeating, as the priest
tendered him the objects with a regular question, a formula (sunthema), given
by Clement of Alexandria. It appears that some kind of memento of this ceremony
was given by the priest to the votaries, which a sincere believer used to keep
in a linen cloth. The actual hiera themselves were kept in a chest (teletes enkumona
mustida kisten, Nonnus, Dionys. ix. 127) bound with purple ribbons, and consisted
among others of sesame cakes of particular shapes, pomegranates, salt, ferules,
ivy, poppy-seeds, quinces, etc.: the uninitiated were not allowed to see these
"even from the housetop".
Not very different appear to have been the ceremonies of the 23d.
There were many wand-bearers but few bacchants, as the superintendents of the
mysteries used to say, and it was for these latter, the more highly initiated
mystae of at least a year's standing, generally called epoptai, that the ceremonies
of the 23d were held, and they were the highest and greatest. Here, too, was probably
a paradosis ton hieron, the sacramental words used in receiving which being ek
tumpanou ephagon, ek kumbalou epion, ekernophoresa, hupo ton paston hupeduon.
All this undoubtedly points to the Phrygian worship of Sabazius, which was introduced
by the Orphics into the Eleusinian mysteries. On the afternoon of the 23d was
held that portion of the feast which was called plemochoai or plemochoe, a sacrifice
to the dead. The plemochoe was a broad-bottomed earthen jar, and two such were
used in the ceremony, one filled with wine and the other with water, the contents
of the one thrown to the east and of the other to the west, while mystic words
(hue kue) were spoken. This sacrifice formed a fitting conclusion to the mysteries
in the special sense, the musteriotides hemerai. It ended with a chairete to the
dead, which conclusion was called prochaireteria.
The next morning, the 24th, occurred perhaps the balletus, also called
tuptai, a sort of sham fight, enjoined, it seems, in the Homeric hymn. There was
a similar contest, called lithobolia, at the festival of Damia and Auxesia at
Troezen. On this same morning and afternoon were the agones stadiakoi. They were
called Eleusinia or Demetria, and the prize was some barley grown on the Rarian
Plain. There is no reason to suppose that these games were not annual. In early
times these games probably lasted two days; but in later times, on the 25th, the
theatrical representations of the Dionusou technitai were held, and we have some
inscriptions referring to the sacrifices offered by this guild. As time went on,
the 26th and 27th appear to have been devoted to such theatrical exhibitions,
held perhaps for the purpose of keeping the visitors in the country. The people
do not appear to have returned to Athens in a regular procession, though Lenormant
thinks they did, and that the gephurismos and the plemochoe were incidents in
that return journey. The mystery truce lasted till the middle of Pyanepsion.
(3) The Priests and Priestesses. (a) The most important priest was
the Hierophant (Hierophantes). In lists of the Eleusinian priests he is put first.
He was nominated for life from the Eleusinian family of the Eumolpidae, and was
generally an elderly man and bound to a life of strict chastity. There was only
one Hierophant at a time, and his name was never mentioned, though in late inscriptions
we find the Roman gentile name but not the praenomen or the cognomen given. His
principal duty was, clothed in an Oriental style, with a long robe and a turban
(strophion), as his name indicates, to show and explain the sacred symbols and
figures--perhaps in a kind of chant or recitative, as he was required to have
a good voice. (b) The Daduchus (daidouchos) or torch-bearer was inferior to the
Hierophant, and of the same rank with the Keryx. Originally he was descended from
the Eleusinian Triptolemus; but about B.C. 380 this family died out, and the Lycomidae,
the family to which Themistocles belonged, which celebrated a local worship of
Demeter at Phlyae full of Orphic doctrines and ceremonies, succeeded to the daduchia.
It is uncertain whether the name of the Daduchus was sacred. His head-dress was
Oriental, as we may infer from a Persian soldier mistaking a Daduchus for a king.
His main duty was to hold the torch at the sacrifices, as his name indicates;
but he shared with the Hierophant several functions, reciting portions of the
ritual, taking part in certain purifications in the prorresis, and even in the
exhibition of the mysteries. For these two priests, the Hierophant and the Daduchus,
who had to be men of tried sanctity, there was a regular consecration on their
entering office. It was the telos tes epopteias, and was called anadesis kai stemmaton
epithesis, because the sign of it consisted in placing on the head of the new
priest the diadem of purple and the wreath of myrtle which they wore permanently.
(c) The Keryx or Hierokeryx (Kerux, Hierokerux). According to Eleusinian tradition,
the Kerykes traced their origin back to Keryx, a younger son of Eumolpus; but
they themselves considered their ancestors to be Hermes and one of the daughters
of Cecrops--Aglauros according to Pausanias, Pandrosos according to Pollux. His
duties were chiefly to proclaim silence at the sacrifices. (d) The Epibomios (ho
epi bomoi). In early times he was certainly a priest; he is generally mentioned
in connection with the other three priests, but not always. No family laid especial
claim to this priesthood. His name, as well as that of the Keryx, was probably
not sacred. The four Eleusinian priests were among those who were maintained in
the Prytaneum--were aeisitoi, as they were called. (e) The Hierophantis (Hierophantis).
There was originally only one at a time; she belonged to Demeter, and her name
was sacred; but a new one was added when Hadrian's wife Sabina was deified as
the younger Demeter. Perhaps at this time or afterwards the priestesses came to
be multiplied. (See the Schol. on Soph. Oed. Col. 683). They lived a life of perfect
chastity during their tenure of office, though they might have been married previously.
It is uncertain to what family the original Hierophantis of Demeter belonged;
that of the younger belonged to a branch of the Lycomidae. The duties of the Hierophantis
corresponded to those of the Hierophant. Pollux appears to call these priestesses
prophantides, and perhaps they were also called melissai (Hesych. s. v.). (f)
Female torch-bearer, Daidouchesasa. (g) Priestess (Hiereia). She was not hieronymous,
but eponymous. These priestesses belonged to the family of the Phillidae. Their
duties corresponded in all probability with those of the Epibomius. (h) The Spondophori
(Spondophoroi) were sent out to the adjoining country a month before the ceremony
to announce the truce for the mysteries. They belonged to the families of the
Eudanemi and Kerykes. (i) Minor offices: (1) phaidruntes toin theoin, perhaps
belonging to the Eleusinium of the city. (2) hudranos, whom Hesychius describes
as hagnistes ton Eleusinion. He probably superintended the halade mustai. (3)
iakchagogos and kourotrophos, female nurses attending on the child Iacchus. (4)
Perhaps the same may be said of the daeiritis, but it is very uncertain. It is
known that Persephone was originally called Daeira in the Eleusinian worship.
(5) hieraules was probably the head of the humnoidoi and humnetrides (Poll. i.
35), a sort of choir. (6) Who the panageis and the purphoroi were, beyond what
can be inferred from their names, cannot be determined. Lenormant says the panageis
were intermediate between the ministers and the initiates. Though not strictly
a priest, yet as exercising an important function in the mysteries, (j) the mystagogi
(mustagogoi) may be mentioned here. They had to be men who had passed through
all the grades of initiation. They were probably under the cognizance of the State,
in a manner licensed. Prior to presenting himself for initiation, each votary
had to place himself under the guidance of one of these mystagogues, and get instruction
from him as to the various purifications and ceremonies he was to perform. It
was only by the carelessness of mystagogues that unworthy applicants ever got
admission to the mysteries. After due examination, if the mystagogue was satisfied,
he presented the applicant or returned his name to the Archon Basileus or his
assistants. This was called sustasis. If a mystagogue could not say what purificatory
sacrifices were required for a special candidate, recourse was had to (k) an Exegetes
(Exegetes), who appears to have been elected by the people from the Eumolpidae
or Kerykes, and whose business it was to decide such difficult cases and generally
to give responsa on eleusinian ecclesiastical law. There were many books of the
mysteries which were intended to have been strictly kept from the uninitiated,
and which appear to have contained not only what ritual was to be performed in
various cases, but also, perhaps, the allegorical and symbolical interpretations
of some of the myths.
The priests of the mysteries, especially the Eumolpidae, appear to
have had a special ecclesiastical court (hiera gerousia) for trying offences of
impiety, in connection with the festival, which court they conducted according
to unwritten laws of immemorial antiquity. To prosecute before this court was
called dikazesthai pros Eumolpidas. Their punishments, according to Caillemer
(D. and S., s. v. Asebeia), were strictly religious--exclusion from the mysteries,
deprivation of title of initiate, and such like. The curse and excommunication
were most solemn--priests and priestesses, turning to the west, uttered the words
of imprecation and shook their garments ([Lys.] in Andoc. 51). It may be that
this court was the only tribunal for cases of what we may call heterodoxy, impiety
consisting in the performance [p. 583] of rites contrary to the traditional one
and to that held by the priests; while other kinds of procedure, superadded to
the religious investigation and condemnation, were adopted in accordance with
ordinary criminal law in cases of impiety, which consisted of disorder and vulgar
profanity. These charges were brought before the Senate of Five Hundred sitting
in the Eleusinium of the city on the day after the mysteries. The penalty was
death or banishment, with confiscation of goods, for profanation of the mysteries.
The accuser, if he did not get the fifth part of the votes, suffered a kind of
atimia --i. e. was deprived of the right to enter the temples and fined the usual
1000 drachmas. Many shrank from themselves bringing the accusation, and used to
inform the Archon Basileus of the profanation they had observed, and if he thought
it serious he made the accusation officially.
(4) Civil Functionaries connected with the Festival. The chief civil
superintendence of the festival was intrusted to the Archon Basileus, who was
assisted by four epimeletai, elected by the people, two from the people generally
and one each from the families of the Eumolpidae and Kerykes. The Archon generally
appears to have appointed an assistant (paredros). The duties of the Archon and
his assistant were to sacrifice and pray for the prosperity of the people, both
at Athens and Eleusis, and to have general police supervision over the whole solemnity.
The epimeletai had also such duties as looking after the sacrifices, testing the
offerings of the votaries, classifying and marshalling the different grades of
initiates, managing certain moneys, etc., as may be inferred from the similar
duties attaching to the officials of this name at Andania. As to the finances
of the festival generally, according to C. I. G. 71 a, 29, three hieropoioi had
the administration of them.
(5) The Initiates. Originally only Athenians were admitted; legend
said that Heracles and the Dioscuri had to be adopted prior to initiation; but
later all Greek-speaking people who were not murderers were admissible to be initiated.
Barbarians were excluded; but it was not at all necessary to be an Athenian citizen.
Women, and even perhaps slaves, were admissible. Children were admitted to the
first grade only; but among the children brought to Eleusis one was picked out
for special initiation, and "to appease the divinity by a more exact performance"
of the ceremonies required. The boy or girl had to be an Athenian of high birth,
perhaps of the special family of the Lycomidae, Eumolpidae, or the like; and was
probably initiated standing on the steps of the altar, while the rest stood afar
off. The parents of the child had to make extensive offerings and pay a large
fee. Originally admission was free for all initiates; but by virtue of a law passed
by the orator Aristogiton, each initiate paid a fee to the public treasury.
The ordinary proceeding was for the initiate to receive his first
introduction as a child and afterwards the higher grades as a man. The whole cycle
of the mysteries was a trieteris, and could be gone through in two years; even
the Homeric hymn extends the whole legend beyond a year; and when the Orphic theology
blended Iacchus Zagreus into the story, the regular course of two years came to
be adopted. There is a high probability that the first-year votaries at Eleusis
viewed a drama representing the usual story of Demeter and Core, while the second-year
votaries were shown the whole legend of Zagreus; and as to the whole course of
the actual mysteries, there is a possibility that the following arrangement was
that adopted, though it must be remembered that it is little more than conjecture
and given for what it is worth:
(a) First Spring at Agrae--the votaries mourn for Core ravished by Hades.
(b) First Autumn at Eleusis--mourning with Demeter for the loss of her daughter,
and exhibition of the ordinary legend.
(c) Second Spring at Agrae--the murder of Zagreus and his heart being given to
Core (who here seems to take the place of Semele), and conception of Iacchus.
(d) Second Autumn at Eleusis--rebirth of Iacchus, who is carried in procession
to Demeter at Eleusis, and there the votaries sympathize in the joy of the earth-goddess,
who once more has her child and grandchild about her.
That there were different grades of initiates hardly needs proof:
the mustai were those who had received any degree of initiation, the epoptai or
ephoroi the second-year votaries. Suidas (s. v. epoptai) says so explicitly. There
were mystic ceremonies for both these classes of initiates, one on each of the
two days, 22d and 23d. While any one introduced by a mystagogue could get admission
to the ceremonies of the first year, the muesis, the epopteia or epopsia could
only be seen by those who got a ticket from the daidouchos. A ticket of that kind
has been discovered marked DAD and EPOPs, with the symbols of an ear of corn and
a poppy. What those ceremonies were is the most important and interesting point
in our subject, but the seal of silence which was laid on the votaries has not
been broken. This secrecy was most strenuously enjoined and most rigorously enforced,
as we have seen. The prosecution of Alcibiades for holding a travesty of the mysteries
in his own house and Andocides's speech on the subject are well known. Aeschylus
is said to have divulged the mysteries in styling Artemis a daughter of Demeter
and in other matters, and to have only barely escaped death. Diagoras of Melos
was banished from Athens and a price set on his head for having divulged the mysteries.
It was the prevailing belief of antiquity that he who was guilty of divulging
the mysteries was sure to bring down divine vengeance on himself and those associated
with him.
(6) The Ceremonies in the Temple. They were performed in the temple
of the two goddesses at Eleusis, a building reckoned one of the greatest masterpieces
of the Periclean Age. Ictinus superintended the whole. Coroebus built the lower
story, with four rows of columns which divided the interior space. On his death
Metagenes took up the work and added an upper story, and Xenocles built a cupola
roof with an opening (opaion) in the middle for the light. The dimensions of the
whole building were 223 feet by 179, the measurement of the cella being 175 feet
by 179. The temple had no pillars in the facade till the architect Philon, in
the time of Demetrius of Phalerum, built a pronaos with twelve pillars. The temple
stood inside a large enclosure, which was approached by a propylaeum, there being
yet another propylaeum leading to the temple. Inside this enclosure Lenormant
has fixed the position of the agelastos petra, where Demeter was said to have
rested in her wanderings, as the rock where the great statue of Demeter Achea,
now at Cambridge, stood--i. e. on the axis of the first propylaeum close to a
well, which he also identifies as Callichorum. The temple of Ictinus, though built
on the site of an older and smaller one, must be distinguished from the most ancient
temple which stood more to the north, occupying a platform which overlooked the
well Callichorum and the agelastos petra, exactly on the spot where the Homeric
hymn (273) orders it to be built. The great temple of Ictinus was called by the
ancients mustikos sekos, and the inner portion telesterion or anaktoron or megaron.
The ceremony was doubtless dramatic. "Deo and Core," says
Clement of Alexandria, "have become a mystic drama. Eleusis illustrates by
the light of the torches of the Daduchus the carrying off of Core, the wandering
journeys and grief of Deo." The ceremony, then, was dramatic. Aelius Aristides
asks, "Where else do the recitals of the narratives chant forth greater marvels,
or does the ceremonial (ta dromena) involve a greater affrightment (ekplexin),
or does the spectacle match more fully what the ear hears?" The drama consisted
of dromena and legomena, the former being much the more important, for the ancient
religious worship addressed itself more to the eye than to the ear. There were
hymns and chants, speeches and exhortations (rheseis, parangelmata), recitals
of myths (muthon phemai), and wailings for the loss of Persephone. There were
kinds of dancing or rhythmical movements by those performing the ceremony, clashing
of cymbals, sudden changes from light to darkness, "toilsome wanderings and
dangerous passages through the gloom, but the end is not yet, and then before
the end all kinds of terror, shivering and quaking, sweating and amazement, when
suddenly a wondrous light flashes forth to the worshipper, and pure regions and
meadows receive him: there are chants, voices, and dances, solemn words and holy
images; and amongst these the votary now perfected is freed at last and is released,
he wanders to and fro with a crown on his head, joining in the worship and in
the company of pure and holy men; and he sees the uninitiated and unpurified crowd
of the living in the thick mire and mist, trampling one another down, and huddled
together, abiding ever in evils through fear of death and disbelief in the good
things yonder" represents a man having entered Hades and got into the dark
asking his companion if what was represented at Eleusis was not like this. Claudian's
description is sufficiently terrible; and amidst that rhetoric Lenormant fancies
he can infer that the votaries, waiting anxiously outside the building, saw the
glimmer of the lighted interior through the opaion: then was heard the noise of
the preparations for the play, the doors were thrown open, and the Daduchus appeared
with torches in his hands, and the statue of Demeter was seen in gorgeous vestments
and brilliantly lighted up. It is more probable that the whole performance took
place inside the temple. But that figures of the gods were introduced is certain,
which flitted noiselessly (apsopheti, Themist. Or. xvi. 224, ed. Dind.) across
the stage; but the images were incomplete, not simple but overcharged with strange
attributes, they were ever in motion and represented in a dim and murky light.
To be more precise, the mystic drama of Demeter and Core was unfolded to the mystae,
the first-year initiates; but the epoptae were shown a representation of what
Clement calls "the mysteries of the dragon," which is the story of Zeus
uniting himself with Persephone (called Brimo: cf. Philosophumena, viii. p. 115,
ed. Miller) in the form of a serpent, and the whole tale of Iacchus-Zagreus was
probably told. There was shown to the epoptae a representation, symbolical probably
of creation, in which we hear that the Hierophant used to assume the part of the
Creator, the Daduchus that of the sun, the altar-priest that of the moon, and
the Hierokeryx that of Hermes. Again, "the last, the most solemn, and the
most wonderful act of the epopsia" was shown--the ear of corn cut in perfect
stillness; the blade of corn symbolized, we are told, the great and perfect ray
of light issuing from the Inexpressible One, whatever that means, or rather, perhaps,
it was the symbol of life, the cutting down being death. This may lead us to what
is to be said in conclusion on the moral and religious import of the mysteries.
If we choose to regard them in a cold, un-religious way, we can say that they
were a somewhat melodramatic performance, splendid no doubt, full of what Lobeck
calls fireworks (pyrotechnia), but a mere theatrical display. That there were
connections between the mysteries and the theatre (the Hierophants are said to
have borrowed costume from the dramas of Aeschylus, Athen. i. p. 22, if the reverse
is not rather the case) need not surprise us; and that modern arch?ologists profess
to find in the temple of Eleusis evidences of machinery by which the spectacle
was worked is only natural; for there undoubtedly was a spectacle, a religious
spectacle. But anything moral or religious may be made ridiculous if one chooses
to regard it from the lower plane of the intellect alone, and does not take into
account the subjective condition of the moral worker or the religious worshipper.
The universal voice of the great names of pagan antiquity, from the Homeric hymn
down to the writers of the late Roman Empire, attest to the wonderfully soothing
effect the mysteries had on the religious emotions, and what glad hopes they inspired
of good fortune in the world to come. Neque solum, says Cicero, cum laetitia vivendi
rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliore moriendi. For the object aimed at
was rather, not that the initiate should be taught anything that would appeal
merely to his intellect, but should be moved and have his higher impulses stirred.
"The light of the sun is bright for the initiated alone," sing the chorus
of mystae in the Ranae (454). Not but that there were many scenes and symbols
of a somewhat coarse nature--phallic rites, hieroi gamoi, such as those represented
by the Hierophant and Hierophantis, which portrayed perhaps the unions of Zeus
and Demeter, Zeus and Persephone, and which entered into the higher worship, but
which are probably grossly exaggerated by the Christian writers, who did not take
into consideration their symbolical meaning. The truths, however, which these
and other symbolical performances contained were known only to the Hierophant,
and explained by him to those whom he thought fit to hear them. Even the epoptai
only knew part of the mystic secrets, gnonai ti ton aporreton. The multitude of
worshippers took it all on faith, but, as Mahaffy finely remarks, "even the
coarsest features were hallowed and ennobled by the spirit of the celebrants,
whose reverence blinded their eyes while it lifted up their hearts."
The Eleusinian Mysteries lasted for more than five centuries after
Greece became a Roman province. As late as the time of the emperor Julian they
still enjoyed a considerable portion of their primeval sanctity, and were held
in the highest esteem by the Neo-Platonic philosophers. The edict of Valentinian
and Valens against secret worships did not extend to the Eleusinia, the prefect
of Achaea, Pretextatus, having represented that the life of the Greeks would be
barren and comfortless without the mysteries. The Hierophant who initiated Maximus
and Eunapius in the fourth century was the last Eumolpid. Subsequently Mithraic
worship was blended with the Eleusinian; but the mysteries did not finally perish
till the destruction of Eleusis by Alaric in his invasion of Greece, A.D. 396.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eleusinia. This title was chiefly applied to a festival held by the Athenians
in autumn, in honour of Demeter, Persephone, and Iacchus, consisting of sacrifices,
processions, and certain mystical ceremonies. It was one of the most important
festivals of Greece, dated from the earliest times, and continued to maintain
its high position long after living Greece was no more, and everything else in
that country had either perished or become mean and contemptible (cf. Aristides,
Or. Eleusinia).
1. The Origin of the Eleusinia.
The mythical origin is contained in the Homeric hymn to Demeter, which tells how
Persephone, while gathering flowers, was, with the connivance of Zeus, carried
off by the god of the lower world, Hades or Polydegmon (the great receiver); and
how her mother Demeter, daughter of Rhea, searching distractedly for her child,
is advised by Hecate to consult Helios, who sees all things and how Helios in
pity tells her that Zeus has granted to Hades to carry off her daughter to be
his wife. Forthwith Demeter changes herself into an old woman; and as she wanders
forth disconsolate through the world, she comes to Eleusis, and sits down on the
cheerless stone by a well. Anon the daughters of Celeus, the king of Eleusis,
come to the well to draw water. They bring her to their home, where Metanira,
wife of Celeus, gives her the latest born child, Demophoon, to nurse. But Demeter
is still bowed down with grief: she sits dignified but silent in her room, till
the jests and raillery of Iambe, the servant-maid, at last make her smile. She
consents to take food and drink, but will have no wine, only a mixture (kukeon)
of water with barley-meal and mint. Days go on, and the child Demophoon thrives
beyond what mortal child was wont, for a goddess was his nurse: she used to anoint
him daily with ambrosia, and place him in the fire by night. But a little more
time and the child would have been immortal, when one night Metanira saw the nurse
place him in the fire and cried aloud with terror. Then did the anger of Demeter
burn forth. Of a sudden the aged nurse transformed herself into the goddess, told
who she was, what she had intended to do, and how that the little faith of the
mother had robbed the child of immortality, and finally bade the people of Eleusis
be told to erect a temple for her on the hill above the fountain, when she herself
would prescribe the services they must perform in order to gain her favour. They
did so, and Demeter dwelt there, shunning all association with the other gods
who had been parties to the carrying off of her daughter. For a year Demeter dwelt
there -an awful and desperate year. Nothing grew. The human race would have perished,
had not Zeus agreed that Persephone should return. Right joyfully did Persephone
obey the summons of Hermes: but Hades persuaded her to eat a pomegranate seed
before she left, and that prevented her staying away from him for a whole year.
So Persephone returns, and great is the joy of mother and daughter, in which the
faithful Hecate sympathises. Rhea is then sent down by Zeus to her daughter, and
effects the reconciliation. The corn comes up in abundance in the Rarian plain,
and Demeter returns to Olympus to dwell with the gods: but before she goes she
prescribes to Celeus, and to his sons Triptolemus, Diocles, and Eumolpus, the
solemnities and divine services that were in future time to be paid her: and so
the famous Eleusinian mysteries were a direct appointment of the great goddess
Demeter herself.
This was the story of the origin of the mysteries: but how the mysteries
came to be mysteries of the Athenians depends on another story, which concerns
the union of Eleusis with Athens. Erechtheus warred with the Eleusinians (Pans.
i. 38, 3), who are helped by one Eumolpus, a Thracian, son of Poseidon (Apoll.
iii. 14, 4), and founder of the mysteries (Lucian, Demon, 34). The difficulties
connected with the exact birthplace and genealogical position of Eumolpus -even
Pausanias (i. 38, 7) is perplexed with Eleusinian genealogies- we may pass over,
remembering that he is, according to this legend, a foreigner (Plut. de Exsilio).
The many beautiful stories which are connected with Erechtheus and his family
we may also forget for the present, and proceed at once to the result, which was,
that Eleusis was conquered, and to the Athenians fell the political headship,
but to the family of Eumolpus and the daughters of the Eleusinian king Celeus
was assigned the high-priesthood (hierophantia) of the Eleusinian worship. The
other family which held a priesthood in the mysteries, the Kerykes, were said
to have been descended from Keryx, the son of Eumolpus; though the family itself
considered its ancestors to have been Hermes and Aglauros, daughter of Erechtheus,
and so genuine Athenians (Pans. i. 38, 3).
So ran the legends of Eleusis, grouping together, in the same scene
and story, the goddess and the heroic fathers of the town; legends which did not
take their start from realities of the past, but from realities of the present,
combined with retrospective feeling and fancy, which filled up the blank of the
aforetime in a manner at once plausible and impressive (Grote, i. 42). But yet
something perhaps of the realities of the past may be learned from them. We can
clearly see that it is in connexion with the lower world that the goddesses are
honoured. They are Chthonian divinities, who presided over the production of the
fruits of the earth; and it is reasonable to suppose that this most primitive
kind of worship was a relic of the Pelasgian past, which continued on into historical
times, in the form of mystical and secret worship. The religions of previous inhabitants
sometimes continued in this form: e. g. the Thesmophoria in the Peloponnesus,
after its conquest by the Dorians (Herod. ii. 171). The worship, too, was confined
to certain families, which we shall see took an important part in the ceremonies
during historical times, when the festival had become a state one. Curtius (Hist.
of Greece, i. 304) indeed holds the view that the worship of the Great Goddesses
was brought into Attica and domesticated there by a number of illustrious Messenian
families who had fled from the Dorian invaders; a view Schomann approves of, but
suggests a more remote origin by pointing out that the Homeric hymn (v. 123) seems
to hint at Crete being the original home of the mysteries; and that a worship
of Demeter, similar to that of Eleusis except that it was not secret, was held
at Cnosus is stated by Diodorus (v. 77). Phrygian and Lydian influences may be
seen in the appearance of Rhea and Hecate in the hymn, but the influence of Thrace
and Crete (where Bacchus was a great god) -unless we are to suppose, with K. O.
Muller, that Demophoon of the hymn is to be taken as a representative of Iacchus-
had not yet been felt, though it appears in the second legend.
That influence came with the elaborate Orphic theology and mythology
(see Orphica),
about the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. One of their tales related that Zagreus was
son of Zeus and his own daughter Persephone, a noble child, destined to be Zeus's
successor. Hera, in jealousy, urged the Titans to destroy him. They cut him up
and boiled him in a caldron, all except his heart, which Athena picked up and
carried to Zeus, who, after striking down the Titans, gave the heart to Semele,
and Zagreus was born again from her under the name of Dionysus, or Iacchus, as
he is called in the Eleusinian worship. This tale is a good specimen of the Orphic
mythology; according to which the clear and definite Hellenic gods disappear into
vague kinds of half-allegorical or symbolical forms, the divinities blend into
one another according to stories which are of a coarse and extravagant as well
as tragical and terror-striking nature, but which, from the very first, were in
all probability intended for the initiates, and meant to be taken as symbolical
representations of cosmogony, rather than as actual dogmatic facts (cf. Euseb.
Praepar. Evang. iii. 1). Along with the Orphic theology came also the Orphic life
(Plat. Leg. vi. 782), and the need it inculcated of religious purifications and
various kinds of asceticism, e.q. abstinence from animal food (Herod. ii. 81;
Eur. Hipp. 967; Cretes, fragm. 20). Lenormant thinks that Orphism, though introduced
in a measure at this time, did not get any permanent hold on the Eleusinian worship
till 380 B.C., when the family of the Lycomidae, who were specially devoted to
Orphic rites, obtained the office of daduchus, his reason being that there is
no allusion to Zagreus in Aristophanes or the other Attic writers, while he appears
quite established by the time of Callimachus. And then, again, there was the influence
of Egypt, which became fully open to the Greeks about 660 B.C. This influence
was most marked. Dionysus and Demeter became identified with Osiris and Isis (Herod.
ii. 42, 59, 144); and with this adoption of the Egyptian divinities came the peculiarities
of the Egyptian priesthood, with their minute and scrupulous ceremonies, separate
mode of life, elaboration of sacred tales (hieroi logoi), and the secrecy and
silence they required. This secrecy is a cardinal feature of the Eastern religions
and the Eastern hierarchies; and it was doubtless owing to Eastern influences,
superadded to the national privacy of separate family cults, that this secret
and mystic character came to be attached so especially to the worship of Demeter
at Eleusis, the more so as we find many striking Oriental characteristics in other
mystic worships in Greece, such as that of the Cabeiri in Samothrace (see Cabeiria).
This influx of new and peculiar religious rites is a marked feature in the history
of Greek thought in the 6th century B.C., producing as it did not only oracles
such as those of Bakis and the Sibyls, purificatory and tranquillising rites such
as those of Epimenides, but also the great Pythagorean philosophy and the mystic
brotherhood who held it.
It is just at this point that we are to fix the adoption of the Eleusinian
mysteries by the Athenians, consequent on the incorporation of Eleusis into the
Athenian state. Grote has proved that this incorporation took place much later
than is generally supposed, as it occurred only a short time before Solon (cf.
Herod. i. 30, about Tellus the Athenian), and the list of Athenian-Eleusinian
priests does not reach higher. The fact is, this introduction of the Eleusinian
worship, with its foreign teaching concerning the death and re-birth of Iacchus,
was brought about by Epimenides, who was called in from Crete to assuage the religious
terrors of the Athenians after the murder of Cylon, and the feeling of guilt which
took hold of the state in consequence of that crime of the Alcmaeonidae. That
was a time which in an eminent degree called for the introduction of new forms
of religious service; and to this earnest and holy priest the Athenians were indebted
for the development of the gracious worship of Apollo (Curtius, Hist. i. 323),
and for the introduction of the Eleusinian worship of Demeter and Iacchus, with
the religious hope and consolation they brought to the afflicted; and in gratitude
a statue of Epimenides was set up before the temple of the goddess in Agrae.
2. Eleusinia elsewhere than in Attica.
Not to mention the wide-spread worship of Demeter, Persephone, and Dionysus throughout
Asia Minor, evinced by such ceremonies as were held at the Carian Nysa (Strabo,
xiv.), the Pherrephattia at Cyzicus (Plut. Lucull. 10; Appian, Bell. Mithr. 75),
and the Dionysiac symbols which so constantly occur on Asiatic coins; nor the
Eleusis on Lake Mareotis in Egypt, where there were initiations which were arche
tou Kanobismou (Strabo, xvii.), accompanied indeed with much debauchery; nor the
worship of these goddesses in Sicily, both at Gela, where Telines used their sacred
symbols with such effect as to restore his political faction and to get himself
established as their high-priest (Herod. vii. 153), and elsewhere (Diod. v. 77)
-we find special evidence that the Eleusinian Demeter was worshipped in Boeotia,
at Plataea where she had a temple (Herod. ix. 62, 65, 101), at Celeae near Phlius
(Paus. ii. 14, 1), and in many places in Arcadia, Pheneus (ib. viii. 15, 1), Thelpusa
(25, 2, 3), Basilis (29, 5), Megalopolis (31, 7). The mysteries at Pheneus are
interesting not only for the writings on the stone (petroma) read each year to
the mystae, but also from its clearly being a worship of the dead, as may be seen
from the ceremony of the priest striking the ground with rods and calling on those
that are beneath the earth (tous hupochthonious, Paus. l. c.). In Messenia there
were ancient solemn mysteries to these goddesses and to the Great Gods -i. e.
the Cabeiri- at Andania in Messenia, which were put down by the Spartans after
the Second Messenian War, but restored to their old splendour by Epaminondas (Paus.
iv. 1, 5; 2, 6 ; Curtius, Hist. iv. 433). At this place was found a most important
inscription of 91 B.C. relating to the mysteries. But even this worship was inferior
in solemnity and importance to the Attic Eleusinia (Paus. iv. 33, 5), which may
be considered to have consisted of two parts, viz. the Lesser Mysteries at Agrae
and the Greater Mysteries at Eleusis.
3. The Mysteries at Agrae (ta en Agrais).
These were held in the spring at Agrae, a place on the Ilissus, S.E. of the Acropolis.
There is no doubt they were held in Anthesterion, when there were the first signs
of returning vegetation just after field-work began (C. I. G. 103, l. 20). The
exact date cannot be fixed, but Mommsen's suggestion is most probable, that the
chief day was the 20th, the same day of the month as the Greater Mysteries were
held on in Boedromion -to which the Lesser Mysteries had many points of similarity,
even in matters connected with the calendar, e. g. the same length of the mystery
truce (C. I. G. 71). Mommsen supposes that the 19th was a day of preparation,
and the 20th and 21st the special mystery days. These Lesser Mysteries were considered
as a prelude to the Greater (Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 845, esti ta mikra hosper
prokatharsis kai proagneusis ton megalon), being on a much smaller scale, but
initiation in the Lesser was generally required before the candidate could present
himself for initiation into the Greater (Plat. Gorg. 497 C; Plut. Dem. 26). At
Eleusis there were temples to Artemis Propylaea, to Triptolemus and to Poseidon,
as well as to Demeter; similarly at Agrae there was a temple to Demeter, and altars
to Artemis and Poseidon, and a statue of Triptolemus. The mysteries at Agrae consisted
probably to a large extent of purifications, for which the water of the Ilissus
was much used. They were held more especially in honour of Persephone, called
Pherrephatta here, than of Demeter (Schol. on Aristoph. Plut. 845). It appears
that the carrying off of Persephone was the most important representation in these
mysteries. Again we hear that at Agrae the fate of Dionysus was pourtrayed (mimema
ton peri ton Dionuson, Steph. Byz. s. v. Agrai). The death of Dionysus-Zagreus
took place on the 13th of Anthesterion, the day on which the festival of the Chytrae
was held (see Dionysia):
so perhaps on the ninth day after, the 21st (for funeral rites on the ninth day
after death, the enata, see Aeschin. Ctesiph. 225), the funeral ceremony may have
been held and his violent death related in a drama. A great many, especially strangers,
were initiated into these mysteries who did not proceed to initiation into the
regular Eleusinia: the legend, too, said it was for the purpose of initiating
Heracles, who was a stranger and according to the primitive regulations could
not be initiated into the Eleusinia, that these Lesser Mysteries were established...
There is a very similar one on a Pourtales vase in the British Museum.
4. The Course of the Festival at Eleusis.
Two days are fixed by definite evidence; viz. the 16th Boedromion for the Halade
mustai (Polyaen. iii. 11, 11; de Glor. Ath. 349 fin.), and the 20th for the Iacchus
day (Plut. Cam. 19, Phoc. 28). The fixing of other days depends on conjecture,
but can be determined with a considerable degree of certainty. A month before
the middle of Boedromion, i. e. the middle of Metagitnion, the spondophoroi (see
below) used to announce the mystery truce to the neighbouring states (C. I. G.
71; Aeschin. Fals. Leg.133), so as to give the strangers time to make all arrangements
necessary for a visit to Athens. During the latter portion of this month the votary
who intended to be initiated used to betake himself to some private man who had
gone through all the grades of initiation, was examined by him as to his freedom
from sin, received instruction as to what purifications and offerings were necessary
to gain the favour of the goddesses, and submit the actual offerings for his inspection
and approval. This instructor was the mustagogos (see below). He notified to the
hierophant. the fitness of the applicant and introduced him, this proceeding being
apparently called sustasis. A not uncommon form of purification was the Dios kodion
(Suidas, s. v.), which the daduchus used to cover the sinner's feet with. Sincere
devotees appear to have fasted for nine days (cf. Hom. Hymn. Dem. 47), from the
13th to the 21st, i. e. ate nothing during the day, taking whatever food they
did take between sunset and sunrise, like the Mahomedans during Ramadan (cf. Ov.
Fast. iv. 535;); and votaries generally appear to have abstained from domestic
birds, fish, pomegranates, apples, and beans (Porphyr. Abst. iv. 16). Ramsay notices
the effect of the long fasts as tending to enfeeble the body, already weak enough
after the heat of summer, and as a consequence the predisposition of the votaries
to religious enthusiasm; but perhaps he exaggerates too much these fasts.
On the 15th of Boedromion the formal assemblage (agurmos Hesych. s.
v.) took place of those citizens and strangers who intended to take part in the
mysteries--though this assemblage does not appear to have been absolutely essential,
at least in late times (C. I. G. 523).
At the beginning of the 16th, in the evening (the day is reckoned
from sunset to sunset), Chabrias's distribution of wine to the people in honour
of his victory at Naxos used to take place (Plut. Phoc. 6); and the next morning
began the first formal act of the festival, viz. the prorresis or Halade mustai.
These are to be identified in point of time, else Philostratus ( Vit. Apoll. iv.
18) in an important passage would omit the striking ceremony of Halade mustai.
The passage is this: ta de Epidauria meta prorresin te kai hiereia deuro muein
Athenaiois patrion epi thusia deuterai ( as a secondary sacrifice ), touti d enomisan
Athklepiou heneka, hoti de emuesan auton hekonta, Epidaurothen opse musterion.
A proclamation was made by the Archon Basileus (Poll. viii. 90) and by the Hierophant
and Daduchus in the Stoa Poecile (Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 369), for the departure
of all strangers and all murderers: and then the order for purification given,
Ye mystae to the sea. The sea was sometimes the Piraeus (Plut. Phoc. 28), though
probably only in time of Attica being occupied by enemies ; but generally the
Hpeitoi, two salt streams on the Sacred Road, one dedicated to Demeter, the other
to Cora, which contained fish that the priests alone were allowed to eat (Pans.
i. 38, 1; Hesych. s. v.; cf. Etym. M. s. v.: hiera hodos: he eis Eleusina agousa
hen apiasin hoi mustai halade).
The next day, the 17th, sacrifices (hiereia) were offered for the
safety of the state (Rangabe, Inscr. 795) by the Archon Basileus and the epimeletai
in the Eleusinium at Athens (Lys. Andoc. 4); and at all these sacrifices the theoroi
of foreign states seem to have taken part (Eur. Suppl. 173).
The night of the 18th may have been spent by the very devout in sleeping
in the temple of Aesculapius, S.W. of the Acropolis, or in the laccheum, also
called the temple of Demeter. It was just where the road from Piraeus entered
Athens (Paus. i. 2, 4). The early morning of that day till about 9 A.M. was devoted
to ordinary business, as we find decrees issued bearing that date. After this
hour the Epidauria was celebrated in the temple of Demeter or Iacchus and in the
temple of Aesculapius. It was, as we have seen, a supplementary sacrifice for
those who came late, and legend said it was instituted for the sake of Aesculapius,
who himself came late for the mysteries. Doubtless, however, the thought really
lay in this, that Aesculapius was supposed by his wondrous skill to have raised
again Iacchus from the dead, and the festival probably was incorporated in the
Eleusinia when the worship of Epidaurus got connected with that of Athens (Herod.
v. 82). Meanwhile there were being brought from Eleusis certain religious objects
-playthings, it was said, of the child Iacchus- bone (astragalos), top (strobilos),
ball (sphaira), apples (mela), tambourine (rombos), looking-glass (esoptron),
woolly fleece (pokos), fan (liknon), and such like, as we learn from Clement of
Alexandria. Phalli were perhaps also carried among these mystical objects; but
we must remember that the statue of Iacchus, as we shall see, which was carried
in procession to Eleusis on the 19th, was not kept at Eleusis during the year,
but at Athens, having been brought back some day shortly after the conclusion
of the mysteries; for there was no Iaccheum at Eleusis. The Athenian Ephebi met
this convoy at the temple of Echo, which was probably the same as the hiera suke,
where the story ran that Phytalus met the wandering Demeter, and the bridge over
the Cephissus, and was so called from the cymbals (echeia) used in the Eleusinian
ceremony (Schol. Theocr. ii. 36), and conveyed them to Athens by nightfall. This
is Mommsen's view as to the date: but Lenormant thinks this convoy took place
on the 16th; for the convocation of the Ephebi is on the 14th, according to the
inscription given by Mommsen , and it is highly probable that it should have been
thus arranged so that additional splendour might be given to the procession by
the mystae who went to the Rheitoi joining it on their return home. In the early
morning of the 19th, there were occasionally decrees passed. In the forenoon (Plut.
Alcib. 34; cf. Herod. viii. 65) the Iacchus procession started from the Eleusinium
and proceeded to the Iaccheum, where they got the statue of Iacchus; perhaps then
definitely organised the procession in the building assigned for that purpose
(Paus. i. 2, 4); and then passing through the Ceramicus (Schol. Aristoph. Ran.
399) left Athens by the Sacred Gate (Plut. Sull. 14), priests and people crowned
with myrtle and ivy, the rich ladies till the time of the orator Lycurgus (Plut.
Vit. X. Orat. 842-4) riding in carriages (Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 1014). The statue
of Iacchus was probably that of a fair child crowned with myrtle and holding a
torch, hence called phosphoros asteer in Aristophanes (Ran. 342). There were many
ceremonies to be performed as the procession passed along the Sacred Way to Eleusis--ceremonies
which had to be given up during the Peloponnesian War, while Attica was invaded
by the Peloponnesians (Plut. Alcib. 34). One section of the procession repaired
to the Cephissus and took baths therein, another to the bath by Anemocritus's
statue near the tomb of Scirus the soothsayer, who came from Dodona to Eleusis
to assist the Eleusinians in the war against Erechtheus and was slain. The Phytalidae
sacrificed to Phytalus in Laciadae, where lay a temple to the Mourning (Achea)
Demeter, and to Cora, with whose worship that of Athena and Poseidon was joined
(Pans. i. 37, 2). Here according to Preller lay the sacra gentilitia of the Gephyraei
(cf. Herod. v. 61) at the sacred fig-tree. At the palace of Crocon, the Croconidae
perhaps bound small bands of saffron thread round the right wrist and right foot
of each mystes (cf. Phot. s. v. krokoun), which was considered as a protection
from the evil eye. The other priestly families had probably particular ceremonies
to perform at particular places... Occasionally during the procession the majority
of those who took part in it indulged in flouts and gibes at one another, a proceeding
called gephurismos, the origin of which title is unknown, but is generally associated
with the bridge over the Cephissus (Strabo, ix. 400). It was similar to the ta
ex hamaxon of the Dionysia, or the stenia of the Thesmophoria. We must remember,
however, that Lenormant supposes this gephurismos to have occurred during the
procession, as it returned to Athens after the ceremonial at Eleusis was finished.
Chants in honour of Iacchus (e. g. Aristoph. Ran. 325 ff.) were sung constantly
during the procession, which swelled louder as when, near midnight, Iacchus arrived
at Eleusis amid the blaze of torches (Soph. Oed. Col. 1045). That the procession
did not arrive till late at night is plain from the splendid chorus in the Ion
(1076 ff.), which sings of the torches of the 20th and of the moon and stars dancing
in heaven at the sight. The journey from Athens to Eleusis is really only four
hours long; but the various ceremonies performed during the course of the procession
extended it to three or four times its normal length.
On the next morning certain sacrifices were performed (Rangabe, 813,
4), consisting probably in part of swine, to Demeter (Schol. to Aristoph. Pax,
374). An inscription orders sacrifices to be made by the hieropoioi to Hermes
Enagonius, the Graces, Artemis, and certain heroes, Telesidromus and Triptolemus.
We do not know what these sacrifices were at Eleusis: at Andania they were (Inscr.
l. 70), besides others, a sheep to Proserpina and a sow to Demeter... In later
times the Ephebi made supplementary sacrifices of oxen. The bulls were brought
unbound to the altar, and the Ephebi struggled with them to hold them as they
were being sacrificed: compare the rites to Demeter Chthonia at Hermione (Paus.
ii. 35, 5); hence perhaps the origin of the bull-fights alluded to by Artemidorus
(Oneirocr. i. 8) as occurring at the Eleusinia.
The 22nd and 23rd were the musteriotides hemerai, and the ceremonies
celebrated thereon were pannuchides. During the evening of the 22nd was probably
what was called lamprdon hemera, which consisted in a symbolical search after
Cora with torches, performed principally by and for the less highly initiated,
who conducted the search crowned with myrtle, wearing a fawn-skin, and holding
a wand, the mystagogues of the several initiates taking part in the search--the
whole proceeding being perhaps an interlude in the story of Demeter and Cora,
which appears to have been represented in the temple on this night. After this
came with much ceremonial the partaking of the kukeon a mixture of mint, barley-meal,
and water. This was a cardinal feature in the ceremony, being, if we may so say,
a participation in the Eleusinian sacrament. It was in remembrance of Demeter
being refreshed after her long wandering and fruitless search. There-after followed
what was called the paradosis ton hieron (Suidas, s. v.): certain relics and amulets
were given to the votary to touch or kiss or even taste, the votary repeating,
as the priest tendered him the objects with a regular question (quae rogati in
sacrorum acceptionibus respondeant, Arnob. Adv. Gentes, v. 26), this formula (sunthema),
as given by Clement of Alexandria (Protrept): enesteusa, epion ton kukeona, elabon
ek kistes engeusamenos, apethemen eis kalathon kai ek kalathou eis kisten. It
appears that some kind of memento of this ceremony was given by the priest to
the votaries, which a sincere believer used to keep in a linen cloth (Apul. Apol.).
The actual hiera themselves were kept in a chest (teletes enkumona mnstida kisten,
Nonnus, Dionys. ix. 127) bound with purple ribands, and consisted among others
of sesame cakes of particular shapes, pomegranates, salt, ferules, ivy, poppy-seeds,
quinces, &c. (Clem. Alex. Protrept.): the uninitiated were not allowed to see
these even from the housetop (Callim. Hymn to Ceres, 4).
Not very different appear to have been the ceremonies of the 23rd.
There were many wand-bearers but few bacchants, as the superintendents of the
mysteries used to say (Plat. Phaed. 69 C), and it was for these latter, the more
highly initiated mystae of at least a year's standing, generally called epoptai,
that the ceremonies of the 23rd were held, and they were the highest and greatest.
Here, too, was probably a paradosis ton hieron, the sacramental words used in
receiving which being ek tumpanou ephagon, ek kumbalou epion, ekernophoresa, hupo
ton paston hupeduon. All this undoubtedly points to the Phrygian worship of Sabazius,
which was introduced by the Orphics into the Eleusinian mysteries. On the afternoon
of the 23rd was held that portion of the feast which was called plemochoai (Ath.
x.) or plemochoe (Poll. x. 74), a sacrifice to the dead. The plemochoe was a broad-bottomed
earthen jar, and two such were used in the ceremony, one filled with wine and
the other with water, the contents of the one thrown to the east and of the other
to the west, while mystic words (hue kue) were spoken. This sacrifice formed a
fitting conclusion to the mysteries in the special sense, the musteriotides hemerai:
for that is the way we are to understand Athenaeus, not that it was the end of
the whole festival. It was like the zemia of the Thesmophoria: and it ended with
a chairete to the dead, which conclusion was called prochaireteria (Harpocr. 161,
9). It must be noticed, however, that Lenormant supposes the plemochoe to have
taken place just outside the Dipylon gate of Athens, on the return of the procession
from Eleusis; and that this is proved from the mystic words hue kue huperkue found
engraved on the kerbstone of a well near that spot.
The next morning, 24th, occurred perhaps the balletus (Athen. 406;
Hesych. s. v.), also called tuptai (Hesych. s. v.), a sort of sham fight, enjoined,
it seems, in the Homeric hymn (v. 267 ff.). There was a similar contest, called
lithobolia, at the festival of Damia and Auxesia at Troezen (cf. Paus. ii. 32,
2). Lenormant sees a connexion with the herb balis, symbol of resurrection and
immortality (Etym. M. s. v.; Plin. H. N. xxv.14). On this same morning and afternoon
were the agones stadiakoi. They were called Eleusinia or Demetria, and the prize
was some barley grown on the Rarian plain (Schol. on Pind. Ol. ix. 150, 166).
Euripides was crowned at these Eleusinian games (Gell. xv. 20, 3). There is no
reason to suppose that these games were not annual; for the Eleusinian penteteris
referred to by Pollux, viii. 107, is a different and second-rate festival, as
may be seen from its being mentioned last in the list. In early times these games
probably lasted two days; but in later times on the 25th the theatrical representations
of the Dionusou technitai were held, and we have some inscriptions referring to
the sacrifices offered by this guild (ib. 266-7).
As time went on, the 26th and 27th appear to have been devoted to
such theatrical exhibitions, held perhaps for the purpose of keeping the visitors
in the country. According to a decree in Mommsen, dated 28th, the people were
assembled at Eleusis and had not yet returned to Athens: but in the time of Andocides
(de Myst. 111) the 26th was the day after the mysteries; and that there were some
business days in Boedromion free after the mysteries is proved by Demosthenes
(Ol. iii.5). The people do not appear to have returned to Athens in a regular
procession, though Lenormant, as we have seen, thinks they did, and that the gephurismos
and the plemochoe were incidents in that return journey. The mysterytruce lasted
till the middle of Pyanepsion (C. I. G. 71).
5. The Priests and Priestesses.
(a.) The most important priest was the Hierophant (Hierophantes). In lists of
the Eleusinian priests he is put first (Dio Chrys. xxxi.; C. I. G. 184, 190).
He was nominated for life (Paus. ii. 14, 1) from the Eleusinian family of the
Eumolpidae, and was generally an elderly man and bound to a life of strict chastity.
There was only one hierophant at a time, and his name was never mentioned (Lucian,
Lexiph. 10), though in late inscriptions we find the Roman gentile name but not
the praenomen or the cognomen given (C. I. G. 187). His principal duty was, clothed
in an Oriental style with a long robe (stole) and a turban (strophion), as his
name indicates, to show and explain the sacred symbols and figures -perhaps in
a kind of chant or recitative, as he was required to have a good voice (cf.Plut.
Alcib. 22; Epictet. iii. 21,16; C. I. G. 401).
(b.) The Daduchus (daidouchos) or torchbearer was inferior to the Hierophant,
and of the same rank with the Keryx (C. I. G. 185, compared with 188). Originally
he was descended from the Eleusinian Triptolemus (Xen. Hell. vi. 3, 6); but about
380 B.C. this family died out, and the Lycomidae, the family to which Themistocles
belonged, which celebrated a local worship of Demeter at Phlyae full of Orphic
doctrines and ceremonies, succeeded to the daduchia. We have seen above, how important
Lenormant thinks the introduction of this family into the Eleusinian priesthood
was, in that it brought with it into the Eleusinian ceremonies in a large measure
the Orphic rites it was accustomed to practise. It is uncertain whether the name
of the daduchus was sacred (Lucian, l. c.) or not (C. I. G. 403, 423). His head-dress
was Oriental, as we may infer from a Persian soldier mistaking a daduchus for
a king (Plut. Arist. 5). His main duty was to hold the torch at the sacrifices,
as his name indicates; but he shared with the hierophant several functions, reciting
portions of the ritual (Paus. ix. 31, 6, compared with Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii.
20), taking part in certain purifications (Suid. s. v. Dios koidion), in the prorresis
(Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 369), and even in the exhibition of the mysteries (Suid.
s. v. daidouchei). For these two priests, the Hierophant and the Daduchus, who
had to be men of tried sanctity (nomos ton mellonta daidouchein dokimazesthai,
quoted by Mayor on Juv. xv. 140), there was a regular consecration on their entering
office. It was the telos tes epopteias, and was called anadesis kai stemmaton
epithesis, because the sign of it consisted in placing on the head of the new
priest the diadem of purple and the wreath of myrtle which they wore permanently.
(c.) The Keryx or Hierokeryx (kerux, hierokerux). According to Eleusinian tradition,
the Kerykes traced their origin back to Keryx, a younger son of Eumolpus; but
they themselves considered their ancestors to be Hermes and one of the daughters
of Cecrops, Aglauros according to Pausanias (i. 38, 3), Pandrosos according to
Pollux (viii. 103). Mommsen supposes they were an Athenian family which ousted
or absorbed an Eleusinian family, perhaps the Eudanemi (Hesych. s. v.). His duties
were chiefly to proclaim silence at the sacrifices (Poll. iv. 91).
(d.) The Epibomios (ho epi bomoi). In early times he was certainly a priest (ton
epi toi bomoi hierea, C. I. G. 71 a, 39); he is generally mentioned in connexion
with the other three priests, but not always (e. g. Plut. Alc. 22; Epictet. iii.
21, 13; C. I. G. 188, 190, 191). No family laid especial claim to this priesthood.
His name, as well as that of the Keryx, was probably not sacred. The four Eleusinian
priests were among those who were maintained in the prytaneum -were aeisitoi,
as they were called (C. I. G. 183 ff.).
(e.) The Hierophantis (hierophantis). There was originally only one at a time;
she belonged to Demeter (C. I. G. 434, 2), and her name was sacred: but a new
one was added when Hadrian's wife Sabina was deified as the younger Demeter (ib.
435, 1073). Perhaps at this time or afterwards the priestesses came to be multiplied;
see the Schol. on Soph. Oed. Col. 683, kai ton hierophanten de kai ras hierophantdas
kai ton daidouchon kai tas allas hiereias murrines echein stephanon. They lived
a life of perfect chastity during their tenure of office, though they might have
been married previously. It is uncertain to what family the original hierophantis
of Demeter belonged; that of the younger belonged to a branch of the Lycomidae
(ib.). The duties of the hierophantis corresponded to those of the hierophant.
Pollux (i. 14) appears to call these priestesses prophantides, and perhaps they
were also called melissai (Hesych. s. v.).
(f.) Female torch-bearer, daidouchesasa (C. I. G. 1535; cf. Lucian, Cataplus,
22).
(g.) Priestess (hiereia). She was not hieronymous, but eponymous (cf. C. I. G.
386, epi hiereias Phlaouias Aodamias). These priestesses belonged to the family
of the Phillidae (Suid. and Phot. s. v.). Her duties corresponded in all probability
with those of the Epibomios.
(h.) The Spondophori (spondophoroi) were sent out to the adjoining country a month
before the ceremony to announce the truce for the mysteries (Aeschin. Fals. Leg.133).
They belonged to the families of the Eudanemi and Kerykes (Hesych. s. v. Eudanemos).
Mommsen thinks that a Eudanemos went from Eleusis and a Keryx from Athens at the
same time.
(i.) Minor offices: (1.) phaidruntes toin theoin, perhaps belonging to the Eleusinium
of the city. (2.) hudranos, whom Hesych. describes as hagnistes ton Eleusinion.
He probably superintended the halade mustai. (3.) iakchagogos and kourotrophos,
female nurses attending on the child Iacchus (Poll. i. 35; C. I. G. 481, 9). (4.)
Perhaps the same may be said of the daeiritis; but it is very uncertain. We know
that Proserpina was originally called Daeira in the Eleusinian worship. (5.) hieraules
(ib. 184, c. 18) was probably the head of the humnoidoi and humnetrides (Poll.
i. 35), a sort of choir. (6.) Who the panageis and the purphoroi were beyond what
can be inferred from their names cannot be determined. Lenormant says the panageis
were intermediate between the ministers and the initiates. Though not strictly
a priest, yet as exercising an important function in the mysteries,
(j) the mystagogi (mustagogoi) may be mentioned here. They had to be men who had
passed through all the grades of initiation. They were probably under the cognisance
of the state, in a manner licensed. Prior to presenting himself for initiation,
each votary had to place himself under the guidance of one of these mystagogues,
and got instruction from him as to the various purifications and ceremonies he
was to perform. It was only by the unconscientiousness of mystagogues that unworthy
applicants ever got admission to the mysteries. After due examination, if the
mystagogue was satisfied, he presented the applicant or returned his name to the
Archon Basileus or his assistants. This was called sustasis. If a mystagogue could
not say what purificatory sacrifices were required for a special candidate, recourse
was had to
(k) an Exegetes (exegetes), who appears to have been elected by the people from
the Eumolpidae or Kerykes (cf. C. I. G. 392) and whose business it was to decide
such difficult cases and generally to give responsa on Eleusinian ecclesiastical
law. There were many books of the mysteries which were intended to have been strictly
kept from the uninitiated and which appear to have contained not only what ritual
was to be performed in various cases--such perhaps was the Eumnolpidarum patria
which Cicero asks Atticus (i. 9, 2) for--but also perhaps the allegorical and
symbolical interpretations of some of the myths.
The priests of the mysteries, especially the Eumolpidae, appear to
have had a special ecclesiastical court (hiera gerousia, C. I. G. 392, 399) for
trying offences of impiety (a very vague and elastic term) in connexion with the
festival, which court they conducted according to unwritten laws of immemorial
antiquity (Lys. in Andoc.10). To prosecute before this court was called dikazesththi
pros Eumolpidas. Their punishments, according to Caillemer, were strictly religious,
exclusion from the mysteries, deprivation of title of initiate, and such like.
The curse and excommunication were most solemn; priests and priestesses, turning
to the west, uttered the words of imprecation and shook their garments (Lys. Andoc.
51). It may be that this court was the only tribunal for cases of what we may
call heterodoxy, impiety consisting in the performance of rites contrary to the
traditional one and to that held by the priests; while other kinds of procedure,
superadded to the religious investigation and condemnation, were adopted in accordance
with ordinary criminal law (such as apagoge, asebeiai graphe, endeixis, probole,
eisangelia, impiety, which consisted in disorder and vulgar profanity. These charges
were brought before the Senate of Five Hundred sitting in the Eleusinium of the
city on the day after the mysteries (Andoc. de Myst.111). The penalty was death
(Thuc. vi. 61 fin.) or banishment (Andoc.15), with confiscation of goods (C. I.
A. i. 277), for profanation of the mysteries. The accuser, if he did not get the
fifth part of the votes, suffered a kind of atimia (Andoc.33), i. e. was deprived
of the right to enter the temples and fined the usual 1000 drachmas. Many shrank
from themselves bringing the accusation, and used to inform the Archon Basileus
of the profanation they had observed, and if he thought it serious he made the
accusation officially. This information laid before the archon was called phrazein
pros ton basilea (Dem. Androt. l. c.).
6. The Civil Functionaries connected with the Festival.
The chief civil superintendence of the festival was entrusted to the Archon Basileus,
who was assisted by four epimeletai, elected by the people, two from the people
generally and one each from the families of the Eumolpidae and Kerykes. The Archon
generally appears to have appointed an assistant (paredros), who was probably
as a rule his relation -at least for the Dionysia in one case the Archon appointed
his father-in-law (Dem. c. Neaer.). The duties of the Archon and his assistant
were to sacrifice and pray for the prosperity of the people, both at Athens and
Eleusis, and to have general police supervision over the whole solemnity (Lys.
c. Andoc. 4). The epimeletai had also such duties as looking after the sacrifices,
testing the offerings of the votaries, classifying and marshalling the different
grades of initiates, managing certain monies, &c., if we may infer from the similar
duties attaching to the officials of this name at Andania. As to the finances
of the festival generally, according to C. I. G. 71 a, 29, hieropoioi had the
administration of them. Midias was elected one of these. They were three in number
(Dem. Mid.), though Etym. M. (s. v.) says they were ten.
7. The Initiates.
Originally only Athenians were admitted: legend said that Hercules and the Dioscuri
(Plut. Thes. 33) had to be adopted prior to initiation; but later (cf. Herod.
viii. 65) all Greek-speaking people who were not murderers were admissible to
be initiated (Isocr. Panegyr.42). Barbarians were excluded: so Anacharsis had
to be naturalised (Lucian, Scyth. 8); but it was not at all necessary to be an
Athenian citizen, as the Emperor Julian (Or. vii. 238) implies. This Lobeck (Aglaoph.
17-20) proves elaborately. Women (Aristid. Eleus. vol. i.), and even perhaps slaves
(Theophilus, Fr. i., vol. ii.), were admissible. Children were admitted to the
first grade only; but among the children brought to Eleusis one was picked out
for special initiation, and to appease the divinity by a more exact performance
of the ceremonies required (Porphyr. Abst. iv. 5). That boy or girl (for boys,
see C. I. G. 393, 400; for girls, 443-445, 448) was said muethenai aph hestias,
and was called ho (or he) aph hestias. He or she had to be an Athenian of high
birth, perhaps of the special family of the Lycomidae, Eumolpidae, or the like;
and was probably initiated standing on the steps of the altar, while the rest
stood afar off (Cf. Themist. xiii., all echren hos eoike ton mustagogon moi genesthai
tes erotikes teletes ou porrothen ton paidikon oude othneion all enguthen kai
aph hestias). The parents of the child had to make extensive offerings and pay
a large fee. For more concerning initiation aph heotias, see Boeckh on C. I. G.
393. Originally admission was free for all initiates; but by virtue of a law passed
by the orator Aristogiton, each initiate had to pay a fee to the public treasury.
The ordinary proceeding was for the initiate to receive his first
introduction as a child and afterwards the higher grades as a man--pais mustes
kai epoptes aner, as Himerius says (Or. xxii. 1). This falls in admirably with
what Tertullian says (contra Valentin. 1): Idcirco et aditum prius cruciant, diutius
initiant antequam consignant, cum epoptas ante quinquennium instituunt, --a statement
not contradicted by the fact that the shortest possible interval between the two
grades of initiation is stated at one year (Plut. Demetr.26; cf. Schol. on Aristoph.
Ran. 745). The whole cycle of the mysteries was a trieteris, and could be gone
through in two years: even the Homeric hymn extends the whole legend beyond a
year, and when the Orphic theology blended Iacchus-Zagreus into the story, the
regular course of two years came to be adopted. There is a high probability, as
we shall see, that the first-year votaries at Eleusis were shown a drama representing
the usual story of Demeter and Cora, while the second-year votaries were shown
the whole legend of Zagreus: and as to the whole course of the actual mysteries,
there is a possibility that the following arrangement was that adopted, though
it must be remembered that it is little more than conjecture, and given for what
it is worth.
(1.) First Spring at Agrae--the votaries mourn for Cora ravished by Hades.
(2.) First Autumn at Eleusis--mourning with Demeter for the loss of her daughter, and exhibition of the ordinary legend.
(3.) Second Spring at Agrae--the murder of Zagreus and his heart being given to Cora (who here seems to take the place of Semele), and conception of Iacchus.
(4.) Second Autumn at Eleusis--rebirth of Iacchus, who is carried in procession to Demeter at Eleusis, and there the votaries sympathise in the joy of the earth-goddess, who once more has about her her child and grandchild.
That there were different grades of initiates hardly needs proof:
the mustai were those who had received any degree of initiation, the epoptai or
ephoroi the second-year votaries. Suidas (s. v. epoptai) says so explicitly--cf.
Harpocr. s. v. epopteukoton, and Plut. Demetr. 26; not to mention such passages
as Plut. de Iside et Osiride, c. 78, where the different grades of proficiency
in philosophy are compared to those of the initiates into the mysteries. There
were mystic ceremonies for both these classes of initiates, one on each of the
two days, 22nd and 23rd. While anyone introduced by a mystagogue could get admission
to the ceremonies of the first year, the muesis, the epopteia or epopsia could
only be seen by those who got a ticket from the daidouchos. A ticket of that kind
has been discovered marked DAD and EROPs, with the symbols of an ear of corn and
a poppy. What those ceremonies were is the most important and interesting point
in our subject; but the seal of silence which was laid on the votaries has not
been broken. This secrecy was most strenuously enjoined and most rigorously enforced,
as we have seen. The prosecution of Alcibiades for holding a travesty of the mysteries
in his own house, and Andocides's speech on the subject, are well known. Aeschylus
is said to have divulged the mysteries in styling Artemis a daughter of Demeter
(Herod. ii. 156; Paus. viii. 37, 6), and: in other matters (Arist. Nic. Eth. iii.
1, 17 ), and to have only barely escaped death. Diagoras of Melos (Diod. xiii.
6; Lys. Andoc. 17) was banished from Athens and a price set on his head for having
divulged the mysteries. It was the prevailing belief of antiquity that he who
was guilty of divulging the mysteries was thought sure to bring down divine vengeance
on himself and those associated with him (Hor. Carm. iii. 2, 26). We are accordingly
left to conjectures more or less probable as to what the chief mystic ceremonies
were.
8. The Mystic Ceremonies in the Temple.
They were performed in the temple of the two goddesses at Eleusis, a building
reckoned one of the greatest masterpieces of the Periclean age. Ictinus superintended
the whole. Coroebus built the lower story, with four rows of columns which divided
the interior space. On his death Metagenes took up the work and added an upper
story, and Xenocles built a cupola roof with an opening (opaion) in the middle
for the light (Plut. Pericl. 13; Vitruv. vii. Pref.16, 17). The dimensions of
the whole building were 223 feet by 179, the measurement of the cella being 175
feet by 179. The temple had no pillars in the facade till the architect Philon,
in the time of Demetrius of Phalerum, built a pronaos with twelve pillars (Vitruv.
l. c.). The temple stood inside a large enclosure, which was approached by a propylaea,
there being yet another propylaea leading to the temple. Inside this enclosure
Lenormant has fixed the position of the agelastos petra, where Demeter was said
to have rested in her wanderings, as the rock where the great statue of Demeter
Achea, now at Cambridge, stood, i. e. on the axis of the first propylaea close
to a well, which he also identifies as Callichorum.. The temple of Ictinus, though
built on the site of an older and smaller one, must be distinguished from the
most ancient temple which stood more to the north, occupying a platform which
overlooked the well Callichorum and the agelastos petra, exactly on the spot where
the Homeric hymn (v. 273) orders it to be built. The great temple of Ictinus was
called by the ancients mustikos sekos (Strabo, ix. 395), and the inner portion
telesterion or anaktoron or megaron (cf. Lobeck, Aglaoph. 59).
The ceremony was doubtless dramatic. Deo and Cora, says Clement of
Alexandria (Protrept. p. 12), have become a mystic drama. Eleusis illustrates
by the light of the torches of the daduchus the carrying off of Cora, the wandering
journeys and grief of Deo (cf. Minuc. Felix, Octav. c. 21), a view to which the
terms hierophantes and epoptes also lead us, and which is consistent with the
whole tenor of the ancient Greek religion, which was materialist and naturalist
in its doctrines, and used for its inculcation visible symbols, but did not rise
through the hearts and the consciences of its votaries to a conception of the
Divinity whom eye hath not seen nor ear heard. Above these two conditions, says
Preller, Nature as object and the sensible as its formal expression, the religions
of the ancients have never arisen. The ceremony, then, was dramatic. Aelius Aristides
(Eleus. i. 256) asks, Where else do the recitals of the narratives chant forth
greater marvels, or does the ceremonial (ta dromena) involve a greater affrightment
(ekplexin), or does the spectacle match more fully what the ear hears? The drama
consisted of dromena and legomena, the former being much the more important, for
the ancient religious worship addressed itself, as Grote points out, more to the
eye than to the ear. There were hymns and chants (Paus. ix. 27, 2: the name Eumolpus
pointing to such, C. I. G. 401, and the hierophant, as we saw, was required to
have a good voice), speeches and exhortations (rheseis, parangelmata), recitals
of myths (muthon phemai. Aristid. l. c.), wailings for the loss of Persephone
(Proclus on Plat. Politic.). There were kinds of dancing or rhythmical movements
by those performing the ceremony (Lucian, de Salt. 15), clashing of cymbals (Schol.
on Theocr. ii. 36; Vell. i. 4, 1), sudden changes from light to darkness (skotous
te kai photos enallax genomenon, Dio Chrys. xii. 387), toilsome wanderings and
dangerous passages through the gloom, but the end is not yet, and then before
the end all kinds of terror, shivering and quaking, sweating and amazement, when
suddenly a wondrous light flashes forth to the worshipper, and pure regions and
meadows receive him: there are chants, voices, and dances, solemn words and holy
images; and amongst these the votary now perfected is freed at last and is released,
he wanders to and fro with a crown on his head, joining in the worship and in
the company of pure and holy men; and he sees the uninitiated and unpurified crowd
of the living in the thick mire and mist, trampling one another down, and huddled
together, abiding ever in evils through fear of death and disbelief in the good
things yonde. For somewhat similar descriptions of the mingled terror and comfort
in the spectacle, see Dio Chrys. xii. 202; Plut. Frag. de Anim. vi. 2, p. 270;
de Facie lunae, c. 28; de Prefect. Virt. p. 81; Proclus on Plut. Alc. p. 142.
Lucian (Catapl. 22) represents a man having entered Hades and got into the dark
asking his companion if what was represented at Eleusis was not like this. Claudian's
description is sufficiently terrible; and amidst that rhetoric Lenormant fancies
he can infer that the votaries, waiting anxiously outside the building, saw the
glimmer of the lighted interior through the opaion (et claram dispergere culmina
lucem, v. 8); then was heard the noise of the preparations for the play, the doors
were thrown open, and the daduchus appeared with torches in his hands, and the
statue of Demeter was seen in gorgeous vestments and brilliantly lit up. It is
more probable that the whole performance took place inside the temple. But that
figures of the gods were introduced is certain--eudaimona phasmata, as Plato (Phaedr.)
calls them, which flitted noiselessly (apsopheti, Themist. Or. xvi. 224, ed. Dind.)
across the stage; but the images were incomplete, not simple but over-charged
with strange attributes, they were ever in motion and represented in a dim and
murky light -they were neither holoklera, hapla, atreme, nor en augei katharai,
like the Platonic Ideas- as we may infer with Lenormant from Plato. Galen, too,
says the representations were amudra. At Andania, too (Inscr.), provision is made
for hosa dei diaskeuazesthai eis theon diathesin. To be more precise, the mystic
drama of Demeter and Cora was unfolded to the mystae, the first-year initiates;
but the epoptae were shown a representation of what Clement calls the mysteries
of the dragon, which is the story of Zeus uniting himself with Persephone in the
form of a serpent, and the whole tale of Iacchus-Zagreus was probably told (Clem.
Alex. Protrept.; Tatian, Or. ad Graecos, 13). There was shown to the epoptae a
representation, symbolical probably of creation, in which we hear (Euseb. Praep.
Evang. iii. 12) that the hierophant used to assume the part of the Creator, the
daduchus that of the sun, the altar-priest that of the moon, and the hierokeryx
that of Hermes. Again, the last, the most solemn, and the most wonderful act of
the epopsia was shown, the ear of corn cut in perfect stillness: the blade of
corn symbolised, we are told, the great and perfect ray of light issuing from
the Inexpressible One (ho para tou acharakteristou phoster teleios megas, Philosophumena,
p. 115), whatever that means, or rather perhaps it was the symbol of life, the
cutting down being death. Lenormant points to the Barone vase, which on one side
has Zeus striking down the Titans, signifying death, and on the other side the
ear of corn springing up and offerings being brought to it, which signifies life.
In describing these vase-paintings he points out that it was allowable to represent
the scenes from the mystic ceremonies, for they had no meaning without the explanatory
words, which were only known to the initiated. The general form under which the
initiations are represented on the vases is that of a marriage of the votary with
Eudaimonia in the other world--in one of which the votary, a youth cut off by
death in his prime, is represented as deserting Ugieia, Health, and passing to
the arms of Eudaimonia, Bliss.
This picture may lead us to what is to be said in conclusion on the
moral and religious: import of the mysteries. If we choose to regard them in a
cold unimpassioned un-religious way, we can say that they were a somewhat melodramatic
performance, splendid no doubt, full of what Lobeck calls fireworks (pyrotechnia),
but a mere theatrical display. That there were connexions between the mysteries
and the theatre (the hierophants are said to have borrowed costume from the dramas
of Aeschylus, Athen. i., if the reverse is not rather the case) need not surprise
us; and that modern archaeologists profess to find in the temple of Eleusis evidences
of machinery by which the spectacle was worked is only natural; for there undoubtedly
was a spectacle, a religious spectacle. But that man is not to be envied who thinks
to evince his superior wisdom by laughing at and depreciating the ceremonies,
as Lobeck does throughout his learned work, or talking of them as the great and
illustrious humbug of ancient history, as De Quincey does (On Secret Societies,
vi. 255). Anything moral or religious may be made ridiculous if one chooses to
regard it from the lower plane of the intellect alone, and does not take into
account the subjective condition of the moral worker or the religious worshipper.
The universal voice of the great names of pagan antiquity, from the Homeric hymn
down to the writers of the late Roman Empire, attest to the wonderfully soothing
effect the mysteries had on the religious emotions, and what glad hopes they inspired
of good fortune in the world to come (Hom. Hymn. Dem. 483 ff.; Pind. Fragm. 137;
Soph. Fragm. 719; Isocr. Panegyr. 28; Cic. Leg. ii. 1. 4, 36; Paus. v. 10, 1,
x. 31, 11); and as a consequence of this clearer light, this higher faith, the
votaries became better men and better citizens. Neque solum, says Cicero l. c.,
cum laetitia vivendi rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliore moriendi. For
the object aimed at was rather, as Aristotle pointed out (ap. Synesius, Orat.),
not that the initiate should be taught anything, that would appeal merely to his
intellect (cf. Plut. de Defect. Orac. 23 fin.), but should be moved and have his
higher impulses stirred (ou mathein ti dein alla pathein kai diatethenai). The
light of the sun is bright for the initiated alone, sing the chorus of mystae
in the Ranae. Not but that there were many scenes and symbols of a somewhat coarse
nature, phallagogiai, heeroi gamoi, such as those represented by the hierophant
and hierophantis, which pourtrayed perhaps the unions of Zeus and Demeter, Zeus
and Persephone, and which entered into the higher worship (cf. hupo ron paston
hupeduon), hut which are probably grossly exaggerated by the Christian writers,
who did not take into consideration their symbolical meaning. The truths, however,
which these and other symbolical performances contained was known only to the
Hierophant, and explained by him to those whom he thought fit to hear them; cf.
Theodoretus (Therap.): ton heerophantikon logon ouch hapantes isasin: all ho men
polus homilos ta dromena theorei, hoi de ge prosagoreuomenoi hiereis ton ton orgion
epitelousi thesmon, ho de hierophantes monos oide ton gignomenon ton logon kai
oi an dokimasei uenuei. Even the epoptai only knew part of the mystic secrets,
gnonai ti ton aporreton (Sopatros, Distinct. Quaest.). The multitude of worshippers
took it all on faith, but, as Mr. Mahaffy finely remarks, even the coarsest features
were hallowed and ennobled by the spirit of the celebrants, whose reverence blinded
their eyes while it lifted up their hearts.
The Eleusinian mysteries lasted for more than five centuries after
Greece became a Roman province. As late as the time of the Emperor Julian they
still enjoyed a considerable portion of their primeval sanctity, and were held
in the highest esteem by the Neo-Platonic philosophers. The edict of Valentinian
and Valens against secret worships did not extend to the Eleusinia, the praefect
of Achaea, Pretextatus, having represented that the life of the Greeks would be
barren and comfort-less without the mysteries (ib. iii. p. 249). The hierophant
who initiated Maximus and Eunapius in the 4th century was the last Eumolpid. Subsequently
Mithraic worship got blended with the Eleusinian; but the mysteries did not finally
perish till the destruction of Eleusis by Alaric in his invasion of Greece, A.D.
396.
For further discussion on the mysteries, see Mysteria.
The principal books to consult on the Eleusinia are: St. Croix, Recherches sur
les Mysteres; Creuzer, Symbolik, iv. 33 ff.; Lobeck, Aglaophlamus, especially
pp. 3-228; K. O. Muller, Kleine Schriften, ii. 242-311 (a reprint of his article
Eleusinia in Ersch and Gruber); Petersen in Ersch and Gruber, xxviii. 219 ff.,
especially 252-269, in the second volume of the article Griechenland; Guigniaut,
Memoires sur les Mysteres de Ceres et de Proserpine in the Memoires de l'Academie
des Inscr. xxi.; Preller in Pauly, art. Eleusinia, and Griechische Mythologie,
i. 643-653; Hermann, Gottesdienstliche Alterthumer, § § 35, 55; Maury, Religions
de la Grece, ii. pp. 297-381; Schomann, Griechische Alterthumer, ii. 380-402;
August Mommsen, Hecrtologie der Athener, 62-75, 222-269; Baumeister, Denkmaler,
s. vv. Eleusinia and Eleusis; Lenormant, Monographie de la Voie Sacree Eleusinienne,
1864, and The Eleusinian Mysteries in the Contemporary Review, xxxvii. and xxxviii.
May, July, and September 1880; Ramsay in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, s. v. Mysteries.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Iambe, a Thracian woman, daughter of Pan and Echo, and a slave of Metaneira, the
wife of Hippothoon. Others call her a slave of Celeus. The extravagant hilarity
displayed at the festivals of Demeter in Attica was traced to her; for it is said
that, when Demeter, in her wanderings in search of her daughter, arrived in Attica,
Iambe cheered the mournful goddess by her jokes (Hom. Hymn. in Cer. 202; Apollod.
i. 5.1; Diod. v. 4; Phot. Bibl. Cod. 239; Schol. ad Nicand. Alexiph. 134). She
was believed to have given the name to Iambic poetry; for some said that she hung
herself in consequence of the cutting speeches in which she had indulged, and
others that she had cheered Demeter by a dance in the Iambic metre. (Eustath.
ad Hom.)
Aloa. An Athenian festival celebrated at Eleusis in honour of Dionysus and Demeter, the inventors of the plough and protectors of the fruits of the earth.
Aloa (Haloa), an Attic harvest festival, but celebrated principally at Eleusis
and Athens, in honour of Demeter and Dionysus, the inventors of the plough and
protectors of the fruits of the earth. It took place every year after the harvest
was over, and only fruits were offered on this occasion, partly as a grateful
acknowledgment for the benefits the husbandman had received, and partly that the
next harvest might be plentiful. We learn from Demosthenes (c. Neaer.), that it
was unlawful to offer any bloody sacrifice on the day of this festival, and that
the priestess alone had the privilege to offer the fruits. The festival was also
called thalusia (Hesych. s. v.), or sunkomisteria. The exact time of its celebration,
as well as its duration, cannot be determined with certainty.
ΕΛΙΚΩΝ (Βουνό) ΒΟΙΩΤΙΑ
On Helicon tripods have been dedicated, of which the oldest is the one which it is said Hesiod received for winning the prize for song at Chalcis on the Euripus. Men too live round about the grove, and here the Thespians celebrate a festival, and also games called the Museia. They celebrate other games in honor of Love, offering prizes not only for music but also for athletic events.
The object most worthy of mention is a sanctuary of Demeter on Pron. This sanctuary
is said by the Hermionians to have been founded by Clymenus, son of Phoroneus,
and Chthonia, sister of Clymenus. But the Argive account is that when Demeter
came to Argolis, while Atheras and Mysius afforded hospitality to the goddess,
Colontas neither received her into his home nor paid her any other mark of respect.
His daughter Chthoia disapproved of this conduct. They say that Colontas was punished
by being burnt up along with his house, while Chthonia was brought to Hermion
by Demeter, and made the sanctuary for the Hermionians.
At any rate, the goddess herself is called Chthonia, and Chthonia
is the name of the festival they hold in the summer of every year. The manner
of it is this. The procession is headed by the priests of the gods and by all
those who hold the annual magistracies; these are followed by both men and women.
It is now a custom that some who are still children should honor the goddess in
the procession. These are dressed in white, and wear wreaths upon their heads.
Their wreaths are woven of the flower called by the natives cosmosandalon, which,
from its size and color, seems to me to be an iris; it even has inscribed upon
it the same letters of mourning.2
Those who form the procession are followed by men leading from the
herd a full-grown cow, fastened with ropes, and still untamed and frisky. Having
driven the cow to the temple, some loose her from the ropes that she may rush
into the sanctuary, others, who hitherto have been holding the doors open, when
they see the cow within the temple, close the doors.
Four old women, left behind inside, are they who dispatch the cow.
Whichever gets the chance cuts the throat of the cow with a sickle. Afterwards
the doors are opened, and those who are appointed drive up a second cow, and a
third after that, and yet a fourth. All are dispatched in the same way by the
old women, and the sacrifice has yet another strange feature. On whichever of
her sides the first cow falls, all the others must fall on the same.
Such is the manner in which the sacrifice is performed by the Hermionians.
Before the temple stand a few statues of the women who have served Demeter as
her priestess, and on passing inside you see seats on which the old women wait
for the cows to be driven in one by one, and images, of no great age, of Athena
and Demeter. But the thing itself that they worship more than all else, I never
saw, nor yet has any other man, whether stranger or Hermionian. The old women
may keep their knowledge of its nature to themselves. (Paus. 2.35.4-8)
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Chthonia, a festival celebrated at Hermione in honour of Demeter, surnamed Chthonia (Eurip. Herc. Fur. 608). A description of it is given by Pausanias (ii. 35,4, &c.), and it is also mentioned by Aelian (H. A. xi. 4). The Lacedaemonians adopted the worship of Demeter Chthonia from the Hermioneans, some of whose kinsmen had settled in Messenia (Paus. iii. 14,5); hence we may infer that they celebrated either the same festival as that of the Hermioneans, or one similar to it.
ΗΛΙΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΗΛΕΙΑ
Τα Θυία ήταν γιορτή προς τιμήν του Διονύσου που γινόταν σε κάποιο οικοδόμημα σε απόσταση οχτώ περίπου σταδίων από την πόλη. Οι ιερείς έφερναν εκεί τρεις άδειους λέβητες και σφράγιζαν κατόπιν τις πόρτες του οικοδομήματος. Οταν ξαναέμπαιναν έβρισκαν τους λέβητες γεμάτους κρασί (Παυσ. 6,26,1-2).
The Heraea of Elis were celebrated every fifth year, or in the fourth year of every Olympiad. (Corsini, Dissert. iii. 30.) The festival was chiefly celebrated by maidens, and conducted by sixteen matrons who wove the sacred peplus for the goddess. But before the solemnities commenced, these matrons sacrificed a pig, and purified themselves in the well Piera (Paus. v. 16,5). One of the principal solemnities was a race of the maidens in the stadium, for which purpose they were divided into three classes, according to their age. The youngest ran first and the oldest last. Their only dress on this occasion was a chiton, which came down to the knee, and their hair was floating. She who won the prize received a garland of oliveboughs, together with a part of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera, and might dedicate her own painted likeness in the temple of the goddess. The sixteen matrons were attended by as many female attendants, and performed two dances; the one called the dance of Physcoa, the other the dance of Hippodameia. Respecting further particulars, and the history of this solemnity, see Paus. v. 16,2; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 3.
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΗΡΑΙΟΝ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΣΑΜΟΣ
The Heraea of Samos, which
island also derived the worship of Hera from Argos
(Paus. vii. 4,4), were perhaps the most brilliant of all the festivals of this
divinity. A magnificent procession, consisting of maidens and married women in
splendid attire, and with floating hair (Asius, ap. Athen. xii. p. 525), together
with men and youths in armour (Polyaen. Strat. i. 23, vi. 45), went to the temple
of Hera (Heraeon). After
they arrived within the sacred precincts, the men deposited their armour; and
prayers and vows were offered up to the goddess. Her altar consisted of the ashes
of the victims which had been burnt to her. (Paus. v. 13,5)
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΘΙΣΒΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΒΟΙΩΤΙΑ
Γιορτή προς τιμήν του Ηρακλή, προφανώς γινόταν στο ιερό του (Παυσ. 9,32,2).
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