DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0502
ROUTE OF PANATHENAIC PROCESSION.
479
seen that, in the practice of later writers, the Cerameicus means the
agora; and we are inclined to think that in such writers it always does
so, unless qualified by the addition of inner or outer. In the earliest
account which we have of the Panathensea, namely, that of Thucydides
(vi. 56), respecting the procession in the time of Hippias and Hipp-
archus, it appears to have heen mustered in the Cerameicus; not in the
outer Cerameicus, as A. Mommsen1 and other writers say, forgetting
that at that time there could have been only one Cerameicus, and that
the distinction between an inner and an outer one must have arisen
when the district was intersected by the wall of Themistocles. A
passage in the sophist Himerius,2 which shows that the Panathenaic ship
still figured in the procession in the fourth century of our aera, makes
it start from one of the gates, but does not specify which. From the
context, however, it may be gathered that it was not from the Dipylum,
and therefore not from the outer Cerameicus, but rather from the
Peiraic gate. For it is described as passing through a straight road
descending from the gate, and lined with porticoes on each side; a
description which answers to the street or road which we have before
described as leading from the Peiraic gate to the agora, but which
would not at all suit the Dipylum, the road from which, whether lined
with porticoes or not, must have ascended towards the agora, as the
Dipylum lies many feet below its level. This passage, to be sure, would
afford no criterion for the earlier times, as in the course of several
centuries the practice may have altered. All that we can be sure about
is, that the ship must have traversed the Cerameicus or agora. We have
already adverted to a passage in Athenseus (iv. 64) where the grandson
of Demetrius Phalereus is described as erecting for his mistress Arist-
agora a scaffolding higher than the Hermae, in order that she might
Heortologie, p. 189. tov #aXd<r<njf, $ia pio-ov tov Spopov Kopl-
fv Tp8* rg Travjjyvpa Tt\v Upav 'A&j- feral, os fv3vT(in)s T( Kal Xeio? Karafimvaiu
vtuoi rpirjpi] ttj Bern isipitavaiv. apxircu avtoBtv <rxl£€l ras tKare'paSev aira napa~
fi€v fvOvs €K irv\S>Vj olov €K tlvos fvSi'ou T(Tap.eyas orods, €<£' %>v dyopa£ov(Tiv ot
Aiftei'os r^s avayaryris fj vavs • Kivj)6eicra 'A5i)faioi re Kai of Xooroi, K.r.X. Cf.
<H (KtiBtv rjbi) Kadawep (turd Ttxor anvpav- Wachsmutli, Rh. Mils. 1808, p. 5o.
479
seen that, in the practice of later writers, the Cerameicus means the
agora; and we are inclined to think that in such writers it always does
so, unless qualified by the addition of inner or outer. In the earliest
account which we have of the Panathensea, namely, that of Thucydides
(vi. 56), respecting the procession in the time of Hippias and Hipp-
archus, it appears to have heen mustered in the Cerameicus; not in the
outer Cerameicus, as A. Mommsen1 and other writers say, forgetting
that at that time there could have been only one Cerameicus, and that
the distinction between an inner and an outer one must have arisen
when the district was intersected by the wall of Themistocles. A
passage in the sophist Himerius,2 which shows that the Panathenaic ship
still figured in the procession in the fourth century of our aera, makes
it start from one of the gates, but does not specify which. From the
context, however, it may be gathered that it was not from the Dipylum,
and therefore not from the outer Cerameicus, but rather from the
Peiraic gate. For it is described as passing through a straight road
descending from the gate, and lined with porticoes on each side; a
description which answers to the street or road which we have before
described as leading from the Peiraic gate to the agora, but which
would not at all suit the Dipylum, the road from which, whether lined
with porticoes or not, must have ascended towards the agora, as the
Dipylum lies many feet below its level. This passage, to be sure, would
afford no criterion for the earlier times, as in the course of several
centuries the practice may have altered. All that we can be sure about
is, that the ship must have traversed the Cerameicus or agora. We have
already adverted to a passage in Athenseus (iv. 64) where the grandson
of Demetrius Phalereus is described as erecting for his mistress Arist-
agora a scaffolding higher than the Hermae, in order that she might
Heortologie, p. 189. tov #aXd<r<njf, $ia pio-ov tov Spopov Kopl-
fv Tp8* rg Travjjyvpa Tt\v Upav 'A&j- feral, os fv3vT(in)s T( Kal Xeio? Karafimvaiu
vtuoi rpirjpi] ttj Bern isipitavaiv. apxircu avtoBtv <rxl£€l ras tKare'paSev aira napa~
fi€v fvOvs €K irv\S>Vj olov €K tlvos fvSi'ou T(Tap.eyas orods, €<£' %>v dyopa£ov(Tiv ot
Aiftei'os r^s avayaryris fj vavs • Kivj)6eicra 'A5i)faioi re Kai of Xooroi, K.r.X. Cf.
<H (KtiBtv rjbi) Kadawep (turd Ttxor anvpav- Wachsmutli, Rh. Mils. 1808, p. 5o.