The Panathenaea (or Panathenaia) was a multi-day ancient Greek festival held annually in Athens that would always conclude on 28 Hekatombaion, the first month of the Attic calendar.[Shear, Julia L. "Hadrian, the Panathenaia, and the Athenian Calendar". Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 180 (2012): 159. .] The main purpose of the festival was for Athenians and non-Athenians to celebrate the goddess Athena.[Shear, Julia L. Serving Athena: The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 2.] Every four years, the festival was celebrated in a larger manner over a longer time period with increased festivities and was known as the Great (or Greater) Panathenaea.[Lewis, David M. "Law on the Lesser Panathenaia". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 28, no. 3 (1959): 247.] The festival consisted of various competitions and ceremonies, culminating with a religious procession that ended in the Acropolis of Athens.[Shear, Julia L. Serving Athena: The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 1.]
History
The inaugural celebration of the Great Panathenaea occurred in 566 BCE and possibly continued until around 410 CE.
[Shear, Julia L. Serving Athena: The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 6.] Edicts issued by
Theodosius I in 391 CE banned sacrifices and closed the temples in
Athens, making it very unlikely the festival continued until 410 CE despite some archeological evidence that indicates it may have.
[Shear, Julia L. Serving Athena: The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 7.] There is some uncertainty surrounding the creation of the festival but
Peisistratos is commonly credited with the solidification of the festival in 566 BCE, organizing it and turning it into a significant
Athenian celebration.
[Voltz, Alexander. "A Festival of Tyrants: The Peisistratids and Their Great Panathenaia, 566-507 B.C." A. D. K. Voltz. October 2020.]
Mythology
There are multiple mentions of the founding of the Panathenaea in
Greek mythology that most notably include the stories of
Theseus and
Erechtheus (also referred to as Erichthonius in mythological texts). The
Iliad holds the earliest mention of the festival and attributes its creation to
Erechtheus.
The son of
Gaia and
Hephaestus,
Erechtheus created the festival and dedicated it to
Athena after becoming the king of
Athens.
[Gvozdeva T.B. "Erichthonius or Theseus, who established the Panathenaea?" RUDN Journal of World History 13 (2021): pp. 259-268.] In
Plutarch's
Life of Theseus, Theseus unifies multiple
Attica communities into one state, giving it the name of
Athens and creating a feast known as Panathenaea or "the sacrifice of all the united Athenians".
[Plutarch. Life of Theseus. Translated by John Dryden. Massachusetts: MIT, 2009.]
Religious festival
Banquets
Athenians would begin the festival with a banquet during the first night in the Agora where meat would be cut up to be distributed using a ceremonial
kopis.
[Mikalson, Jon D. "Erechtheus and the Panathenaia". The American Journal of Philology 97, no. 2 (1976): 152.] There was also a major banquet on the second day and a smaller banquet-style meal after the procession on the last day of the festival where people would eat bread alongside parts of the animals that were sacrificed to
Athena.
[Mikalson, Jon D. "Erechtheus and the Panathenaia". The American Journal of Philology 97, no. 2 (1976): 151-52.]
Procession
The most significant aspect of the festival was the procession to the Acropolis on the last day of the festival (28
Hekatombaion), where
Athenians would make sacrifices to the goddess
Athena. Such as a Hekatomb (sacrifice of 100 oxen or cows)
[Shear, Julia L. Serving Athena: The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 4.] The night before this procession, the younger population of
Athens would have a vigil known as a
Vigil where the people would dance on the Acropolis. During this vigil, the people of Athens would sing a
paean for Athena, a song of praise that typically would not be sung at celebrations for Athena but at celebrations for the god
Apollo instead.
[Mikalson, Jon D. "Erechtheus and the Panathenaia". The American Journal of Philology 97, no. 2 (1976): 151.]
During the Lesser Panathenaea young girls known as arrephoros would carry a specially woven peplos robe to place on the wooden cult image of Athena located in the Erechtheion, a temple on the north side of the Acropolis that was dedicated to Athena.[Stamatopoulou, Z. (2012). Weaving Titans For Athena: Euripides and the Panathenaic Peplos (HEC. 466-74 and IT 218–24). The Classical Quarterly, 62(1), 72.] In line with the occurrence of the Great Panthenaea every four years a larger peplos tapestry would be woven to be put on the statue of Athena in the Parthenon, a temple in the centre of the Acropolis.[Mikalson, Jon D. "Erechtheus and the Panathenaia". The American Journal of Philology 97, no. 2 (1976): 150.] The procession consisted of over 1,000 people from a wide range of backgrounds but was led by the high priestess and the treasurers of the temple followed by the arrephoros carrying the peplos robe.[Gerding, Henrik, and Henrick Gerding. "The Erechtheion and the Panathenaic Procession". American Journal of Archaeology 110, no. 3 (2006): 392.] This lead group would be followed by other priests (hieropoios), priestesses (athlothetai), and unmarried young women (kanephoros), magistrates, soldiers, athletes, representatives from other states, musicians, and herdsmen among others.
Competitions
During the festival many competitions were held including a chariot race, a stadion, and various other athletic events.
[Popkin, Maggie L. "Roosters, Columns, and Athena on Early Panathenaic Prize Amphoras: Symbols of a New Athenian Identity". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 81, no. 2 (2012): 210.] There would also be singing and poetry competitions, where participants would perform selections from
Homer's
Iliad and
Odyssey.
Prizes
After the conclusion of the competitions at the festival, prizes were awarded to the victors. The reward that is most synonymous with the festival was the Panathenaic prize amphora with images on the sides that would remain similar year to year.
[Popkin, Maggie L. "Roosters, Columns, and Athena on Early Panathenaic Prize Amphoras: Symbols of a New Athenian Identity". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 81, no. 2 (2012): 207–08.] These prize amphoras were filled with valuable high-class sacred
olive oil and the victors would also sometimes receive monetary prizes in the form of
Ancient drachma instead of amphoras.
[Popkin, Maggie L. "Roosters, Columns, and Athena on Early Panathenaic Prize Amphoras: Symbols of a New Athenian Identity". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 81, no. 2 (2012): 209.] The victors’ names were carved into stone victor lists, which were displayed in various parts of
Athens.
[Tracy, Stephen V. "Agora I 6701: A Panathenaic Victor List of ca. 190 B.C." Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 84, no. 4 (2015): 720.] They were placed primarily near churches or religious shrines, with the most notable of these places being the Acropolis.
Prize amphoras
The prize amphoras were the major reward victors received during the festival. People in
ancient Greece associated olive oil with
Athena because of the mythological story of her gifting the first Moria to Athens, using the tree to claim the city over the god
Poseidon.
[Boardman, J., Kathleen M. Kenyon, E. J. Moynahan, and J. D. Evans. "The Olive in the Mediterranean: Its Culture and Use and". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 275, no. 936 (1976): 191.] Olive oil and the prize amphoras were associated with power, wealth, and prosperity due to this association with Athena.
The standardized versions of these amphoras would typically depict an image of Athena with roosters standing on two columns on each side of the goddess.
On the other side of the amphora, there would typically be images related to the event or competition that the amphora was won for.
These images were believed to be included in an attempt to show the rest of the world that Athens was the self-proclaimed head of ancient Greek civilization.
[Popkin, Maggie L. "Roosters, Columns, and Athena on Early Panathenaic Prize Amphoras: Symbols of a New Athenian Identity". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 81, no. 2 (2012): 227–28.] An armed Athena was meant to indicate that the goddess was the protector of Athens.
The roosters supported this image as the people of Athens saw the birds as having a "fighting spirit" with the columns being used to emphasize the rooster's presence.
[Popkin, Maggie L. "Roosters, Columns, and Athena on Early Panathenaic Prize Amphoras: Symbols of a New Athenian Identity". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 81, no. 2 (2012): 213-23]
Archeological influence
The
Parthenon Frieze is a marble sculpture in the
Parthenon in the Acropolis of Athens that has a portion that is interpreted to be depicting people of
Athens participating in the religious procession that takes place during the Panathenaea.
[Connelly, Joan B. "Parthenon and Parthenoi: A Mythological Interpretation of the Parthenon Frieze". American Journal of Archaeology 100, no. 1 (1996): 53.] There are images of the high priestess, priests, a young girl meant to resemble an
arrephoros, and people herding animals to be sacrificed to the gods.
[Connelly, Joan B. "Parthenon and Parthenoi: A Mythological Interpretation of the Parthenon Frieze". American Journal of Archaeology 100, no. 1 (1996): 58-60.]
Current relevance
The Panathenaea ended around the conclusion of the 4th century CE, but it still holds some relevance in the present day.
The Panathenaic Stadium was initially a small racetrack with seating on a hill overlooking the track used for the athletic competitions until it was upgraded in the 4th century BCE by the logographer Lykourgos.
[Romano, David Gilman. "The Panathenaic Stadium and Theater of Lykourgos: A Re-Examination of the Facilities on the Pnyx Hill". American Journal of Archaeology 89, no. 3 (1985): 441.] He upgraded the track to a small stadium with stone seating, remaining until
Herodes Atticus upgraded the stadium again in the middle of the 2nd century CE.
He made the stadium much larger and used marble instead of stone.
[Romano, David Gilman. "The Panathenaic Stadium and Theater of Lykourgos: A Re-Examination of the Facilities on the Pnyx Hill". American Journal of Archaeology 89, no. 3 (1985): 444.] The stadium was abandoned after
Theodosius I banned the festival and was not used again until the
Zappas Olympics in the late 19th century CE.
[Margaritis, George, Mateusz Rozmiarek, and Ewa Malchrowicz-Mosko. 2017. Tangible and intangible legacy of the 19th century zappas olympics and their implications for contemporary sport tourism. Physical Culture and Sport 74, (1): 54-60.] Before the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics the stadium was completely renovated, going on to host both the opening and closing ceremonies as well as a number of the competitions.
[Young, David C. (1996). The Modern Olympics: A Struggle for Revival. Johns Hopkins University Press.] The stadium has hosted many athletic events since then, most notably the archery competition and marathon finish for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
One side of the Olympic medals from the 2004 Summer Olympics also depicts an image of the Panathenaic Stadium. It is important to note that the
Olympic Games are more directly inspired by the ancient Olympic Games than the Panathenaic Games.
See Also
