athenian festivals oschophoria (autumn) oschophoria "carring of the vine-branches" october...

Athenian FestivalsOschophoria (autumn)

• Oschophoria

• "carring of the vine-branches"

• October (7th Pynanopsion, the month of the bean porridge, sacred to Apollo)

• the grapes were harvested and pressed

• 2 Noble men in women's clothes

• songs, dances (cheerful and sad)

THE RURAL DIONYSIA

Rural Dyonisia Month Poseidon (December)

• various villages• first wine (still not fermented), mixed with

water of springs (nymphs)• procession of the phallos • noble lady – basket-bearer• sacrifice of the goat (dangerous for a guilty

who didn't know his blame), boiled (maturation)

THE LENAIA

Lenaia - 12th of Gamelion (January- month of marriage)

• coldest month: the wine needs cold in its cleaning process

• festival of the maenads• mask atop a wooden column• Thiades at mount Parnassos• To wake up Dionysus from the cold of the winter (the spring is coming)• in Athens: sanctuary of Lenaion (near the

marshes)• tragedies and comedies

c 520 BCE

Older Dionysia - February

• 11, 12 and 13 of Anthesterion (February, "month of flowers")

• Second pruning of the vines and second fermentation of the wine

• all the people, slaves included, tasted the wine• 14 Geirai in 14 temples 14 secret objects in 14

crates in 14 shrines• Temple Lenaion

Pithoigia ("Opening of the Wine-Jars")

Day 1: 11th February

• Opening of the Wine-Jars

• Opening of the Mundus (underground)

• From the Underground came also Dionysos

• "Now there are flowers!"

• Ghost of the dead roam the earth: the souls are thirsty of wine

Procession

• Procession in which Dionysos was brought to Athens in a model of ship mounted ona cart.

Choes ("Pitchers")

Winner of the drinking contest

Second day: 12 Febr

• "Pitchers". Everyone (also children), had a jug from which they could pour wine to drink

• Children of 3 years were crowned with flowers, given little jug, toys and pets, enrolled in the Phratria (order)

• The child symbolized the little Dionysus

Contests: Dithyrambs

• Official drinking contest: • a full wineskin as a prize!• Competition of Dithyrambs (6th century BC).

Themes: Dionysus, legends. Improvvisation. Rural areas goatskins and goat dances.

• Archilos sung "when the lightning of the wine lighted his soul"

• The winner gained a Bull (killed in the sacrifice of the Great Dionysia)

Arion and Dithirambos

• According to the legend, Arion was the first musician to regulate the dithyramb in strophes and antistrophes, choruses and solo

• Etymology unknown: maybe twice-born

Antioch (Roman) mosaic, ca 250-300 AD

Chytroi ("Cooking-Pots")

Satyr leading Basilinna - bride of Dionysos

Day 3: 13 of February

• Hiero Gamos: the Basilinna (Queen, wife of the Archon Basileus, a magistrate) was formally wedded with Dionysos (legend of Theseus and Ariadne)

• Ceremony strictly secret

• Offerings of the 14 geirai

Arrival of Dionysos the groom

Aiora Swinging Myth• "When Father Liber [Dionysos] went out to visit men in

order to demonstrate the sweetness and pleasantness of his fruit, he came to the generous hospitality of Icarius and Erigone. To them he gave a skin full of wine as a gift and bade them spread the use of it in all the other lands.

• Loading a wagon, Icarius with his daughter Erigone and a dog Maera came to shepherds in the land of Attica, and showed them the kind of sweetness wine had.

• The shepherds, made drunk by drinking immoderately, collapsed, and thinking that Icarius had given them some bad medicine, killed him with clubs.

• The dog Maera, howling over the body of the slain Icarius, showed Erigone where her father lay unburied.

• When she came there, she killed herself by hanging in a tree over the body of her father.

Swinging festival

• Father Liber [Dionysos] afflicted the daughters of the Athenians with alike punishment. They asked an oracular response from Apollo concerning this, and he told them they had neglected he deaths of Icarius and Erigone. At this reply they exacted punishment from the shepherds, and in honour of Erigone instituted a festival day of swinging ." -Hyginus Fabulae 130

Floor mosaics from the late 2nd century House of Dionysos

Aiora ("Swinging")

Alètis

• The song of the swing-ritual, in honour of Erigone

Other rites

• Vegetables were boiled and offered to Hermes as a guide of souls to the underworld

• People smeared doorways with pitch• Hydrophoria: Young women carried water to a

chasm in the ground near the temple of Zeus. Offering to those who died in the great flood which Zeus sent to punish humankind

• Spirit be gone, Anthesteria is over!

City or Great Dionisia 9th-13th of March

• 9th-13th of Elaphebolion (March "month of the deerkilling")

• Five days following the Spring Equinox• Dionysius Eleutherion• Mask of Dionysus• 9th: Torchlight procession with the statue of

Dionysus: from the temple near the Theatre to the Accademia

• Role of the ephebs (military training)

Great Dionysia• 10th main procession opening the city Dionysia• Sacrifices of bulls • Procession of phalloi and basket-bearers• Purification of the theatre: sacrifice of a pig• Tragedies and comedies:17.000 spectators• Plays: integral part of the festival• Komos: males roaming the city with torches,

auloi, harps and wine

Komos

offering to Dionysus (Attic votive relief) c. 400 B.C.E. (Athens: Nat'l. Mus. Inv. 1500)

Lord of Chorus

• Lord of the chorus and theatre music