Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Ancients' feasts, games and rituals for wider area of: "MYKONOS Island KYKLADES" .
DELOS (Island) KYKLADES
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.
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
..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
Sacrifices offered during the sacred month
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