Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Ancients' feasts, games and rituals for wider area of: "MAKEDONIA EAST & THRACE Region GREECE" .
SAMOTHRAKI (Island) MAKEDONIA EAST & THRACE
The fame of the cult of the Mysteries at Samothrace was surpassed only by that at Eleusis
Cabeiria (ta kabeiria). The mysterious rites of the Pelasgic gods known as the
Cabeiri, celebrated in the islands lying between Euboea and the Hellespont, in
Lemnos, Imbros, and especially in Samothrace. This worship was also known on the
adjacent coasts of Europe and Asia Minor, at Thebes and Andania in Greece, and,
according to Strabo (iv.), in an island near Britannia. Like the Elensinia, an
almost complete secrecy had been maintained as to the ceremonies and teaching
of these mysteries. Yet we know the names of the gods; and, from an examination
of the various forms under which we find them, Lenormant has been able to discover
what he calls a Cabeiric group. They are four in number, thus differing essentially
from the Phoenician Kabirim, who, as their Semitic name shows, are also "great
gods", but are eight in number, representing the planets and the universe
formed from their union. The names of the Samothracian Cabeiri, as revealed by
Mnaseas of Patara and Dionysodorus, two historians of the Alexandrian Age, are
Axieros (=Demeter), Axiokersa (=Persephone), Axiokersos (=Hades), Casmilos (=Hermes).
Sometimes the two goddesses blend in one, viz. Earth (Varro, L. L. v. 58); sometimes
as Aphrodite and Venus; but to most of the Romans they represent Juno and Minerva
( Serv. ad Verg. Aen.iii. 12). Axiokersos appears further as Zeus, Uranus, Iupiter,
Apollo, Dionysus-Liber; and Casmilos as Mercurius or Eros. The group is a primal
mother goddess, whose issue are two divinities, a male and a female, from whom
again springs a fourth, Casmilos, the orderer of the universe.
Herodotus (ii. 51) is the first historian who mentions them. Though
known while Athens was flourishing (Aristoph. Pax, 277), it was not till Alexandrian
times that they really became famous. During this period Samothrace was a sort
of sacred island, as it was under the Roman dominion, for the idea was prevalent
that the Penates (Serv. ad Verg. Aen.ii. 325 Verg. Aen., iii. 12Verg. Aen., viii.
619) were identical with the gods of Samothrace. Legend told how that Dardanus,
Eetion, or Iasion, and Harmonia, wife of Cadmus, were children of Electra and
Zeus; that Iasion was given the mysteries by Zeus, married Cybele, and begat Corybas;
and after Iasion was received among the gods, Dardanus, Cybele, and Corybas brought
the mysteries to Asia. The legends vary in details, but almost all agree in making
Dardanus and Iasion sons of Zeus and Electra, and connecting the Samothracian
mysteries with them. It is to be remarked, in passing, that, while legend brought
the mysteries from Samothrace to Asia, there can be hardly any doubt that the
passage was the other way (cf. Strabo, x. 472); for the whole tenor of the worship
is Asiatic. We have many inscriptions of Romans who were initiated (C. I. L. iii.
713-721), and we hear besides of other Romans of high position who were initiated,
among them probably Cicero (Nat. Deor. i. 42, 119). Throughout the Roman period
the Cabeiric mysteries were held in high estimation, second only to the Eleusinian,
and they were still in existence in the time of Libanius.
From the earliest times, the Pelasgi are said to have sacrificed a
tenth of their produce to the Cabeiri in order to be preserved from famine. The
chief priest was probably the hierophantes mentioned by Galen (iii. 576); and
the purifying priest koes or koies. The basileus of the inscriptions was the highest
eponymous magistrate of Samothrace. As in all mysteries, the votary must be purified
in body and mind before initiation; and thus we have some evidence of auricular
confession. But, as far as we know, there was not any special preparatory intellectual
training required. Women and children appear to have been admitted as well as
men. Of the religious ceremonies themselves we may say we know nothing. They consisted
of dromena kai legomena. We hear of dances by the pii Samothraces, and the priests
who executed these dances were called Saoi (?). The Romans, who traced their Penates
to Samothrace, referred their Salii to these Saoi. There were two classes of votaries--
the mustai and the mustai eusebeis, mystae pii--the latter being apparently those
initiated for the first time. In the Samothracian mysteries, sacra accipere (paralambanein
ta musteria), which is the regular phrase for primary initiation, seems to be
applied to the higher grades. But the whole matter is quite obscure and unsettled.
The scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius tells us that the initiated wore
a purple band (tainia) round their waist (which reminds us of the Brahminical
thread); that Agamemnon quelled a mutiny of the Greeks by wearing one; and that
Odysseus, who wore a fillet for the band, was miraculously saved in shipwreck.
Preservation in times of peril, and especially in perils on the sea, was the chief
service that the Cabeiri were supposed to render to those who called on them by
name, and none knew their names except the initiated. It was the electric fires
of the Cabeiri that, according to the legend, lighted on the heads of the Dioscuri
during the Argonautic voyage. Diodorus further says, in the course of an important
discussion on the Cabeiri (v. 47-49), that those who were initiated became more
pious, more righteous, and in every respect better than they were before. On the
basis of this, Lenormant thinks it probable that the doctrine of rewards and punishments
in a future life was inculcated, though, with Lobeck, we may well suppose that
no more is necessarily implied than the impulse to virtue, which is always united
with religious emotion excited by impressive and gracious ceremonies (Cf. Apoll.
Rhod. i. 917).
The initiations at Samothrace took place at any time from May to September,
in this differing from the Eleusinian and more resembling the Orphic Mysteries.
There appears, however, to have been a specially great ceremony at the commencement
of August ( Lucull. 13).
From the manner in which Cicero speaks of the Samothracian mysteries
in the passage already cited, it is probable that he was initiated. He says of
their ceremonies, quibus explicatis ad rationemque revocatis, rerum magis natura
cognoscitur quam deorum. And the Cabeiri themselves do appear to be symbols of
the creation of the world. From the primeval mother emanate or differentiate themselves
two elements--matter (earth) and force (especially fire, celestial and terrestrial).
Indeed, the name Cabeiri appears to mean "the Burners", from kaiein,
and by the action of the former on the latter the ordered world is generated.
The etymological identity of the Pelasgian with the Phoenician Cabeiri is doubted
by Lenormant; the name of the latter being from a Semitic root, which in Arabic
appears as kebir, "great". Many hold that all the ceremonies of the
Cabeiri, and those of the other mysteries, were pure inventions of the priests,
nothing more than mere stories about gods. The reader, with regard to this phase
of the subject, is referred to the article Mysteria.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
VISTONIA (Ancient area) GREECE
Orpheus invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria (Apoll. 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
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