Ancient Greek Festivals
Festivals were a great feature of ancient Grecian life. There were country festivities in Attica in December, a feast of the wine-press in January, an "All Souls" festival lasting three days in February, a great "City Festival" of Dionysus for five days in March, a festival of first-fruits in May. and the magnificent holiday of Athena for six days in the July of every fourth year. At Sparta the greatest festival was the Carneia. Then there were the great national festivals of Pan-Hellenic interest: at Olympia held in honor of Zeus every four years in Elis; the Pythia. in honor of Apollo at Crissa near Delphi, also every fourth year; the Nemea in Argos every two years; and the Isthmia in honor of Poseidon every two years at Corinth. Musical contests were the chief feature at the Pythia, although athletic events were also held here as elsewhere. This festival was celebrated in the winter in the third year of every Olympiad.
The Nemea were held in the second and fourth years of every Olympiad, alternately in summer and winter. Here also contests in playing the flute and the lyre and in singing were included. The Isthmia were held in the spring of the first and in the summer of the third year of every Olympiad. The visitors brought their slaves, who carried tents, bedding and food. Women were not permitted to attend; and even the slaves who accompanied their masters could not see the games. The earliest contest, and the one with which each festival opened, was the stadion, or short-distance footrace, corresponding roughly to our 220 yard dash (to be exact 600 Greek feet). Wrestling and boxing were added later. In the 7th century chariot racing was introduced, and this was followed by the horse-race and the pankration, which required the use of all the powers of the contestants. The pentathlon (five events) had been introduced earlier. The prize at Olympia was a crown of wild olive; at the Pythia a wreath of laurel; at the Nemea and the Isthmia a wreath of parsley.
In Attica there were many Holy Days and Feasts: in August-September the Kronia, which was originally a rural festival, the Synoikia in honor of Athena and Hestia, the Panathenaea, the Heracleia, and the Adonta, celebrated especially by women; in SeptemberOctober the Genesia, a day devoted to the dead, Charisteria, or Thanksgiving for the fall of the Thirty Tyrants; in October-November the Pyanepsia, or Feast of Beans, the Oschophoria (Grape-bearing race), the Theseia, the Kpitaphia, the Apaturia, at which the babies and the young men were registered in the phratry, or clan, the Thesmophoria, celebrated by women in honor of Demetcr, the Sterna, the Nesteia (a strict fast), and the Kalligeneia, the festival of the mother of the beautiful child (Persephone); in November-December the rural Dionysia and the Haloia; in December-January the Lenaea; in January-February the Anthesteria, or merry Feast of Flowers, the Opening of the Winecasks, the Feast of Pitchers, the Feast of Pots, the Lesser Mysteries, and the Diasia; in February-March the Greater Dionysia, the chief feature of which was the dramatic contests; in March-April the Mounichia, the Aianteia in memory of Ajax, the Brausonia and the Olympieia; in April-May the Thargelia, the Delia, the Kallynteria, at which the little temple, Erechtheum, was purified, and the Bendideia in honor of the Thracian goddess Bendis; and in May-June the Skira, the Arrephoria and the Dipolia.
The Panathenaea included contests in athletics, music and in literary recitation. In the large Mouseion, or 'Hall of Song," was held a public competition in the delivery of passages of Homer, another in signing to the accompaniment of the harp, and a third in instrumental music on the harp and the flute. The rewards were prizes in money and a wreath or crown. On another day was an all-night festivity of song and dance and of torch-races.
The chief day, however, was the day of the great procession. All the people gathered in their most brilliant attire in the Cerameicus for the purpose of escorting to the Acropolis a large and gorgeous saffron robe, embroidered with legendary exploits of Athena against the Giants. It was spread as a sail upon the mast of the model of a ship, which was propelled along the street on wheels, or rollers. The cavalry in their bright cloaks led the procession; the winners in the athletic contests, wearing their crowns and the dignitaries and old men of high repute carrying olive branches, came next; and the women of the resident aliens, carrying the parasols and the camp-stools of the privileged daughters of Athens, brought up the rear. The procession moved through the public square, wound through the chief streets to the foot of the Acropolis, ascended through the Propylaea, and passed on to the older temple, in front of which a great sacrifice was made. A feast followed, and the whole festival closed with a regatta at the harbor-town of Peiraeus.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
