DOI chapter:
The mythology of Athenian local cults
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0147
OF ANCIENT A THENS
cxxxv
The sequence of the narrative from this point on seems
to me to be for some distance clearly and systematically
aetiological. The Athenians in the month of Pyanepsion
(October-November) practised certain ceremonies forming
part of a kind of final harvest festival which they connected
with the cults of Athene, Dionysos, and Apollo; and when
Theseus worship came in, it seemed to them possible to explain
these ceremonies in a manner sure to be popular, by linking
them to the exploits. These ceremonies were chiefly-
(i) The Pyanepsia.—On the 7th day of the month Pyanep-
sion it was the custom to boil together in a pot various kinds of
grain. Harpocration, commenting on the word, expressly says
that nearly all writers concurred in stating that the feast was
in honour of Apollo. What connection it had with him does
not appear. The popular explanation was that on landing
from Delos, Theseus and his companions boiled together
promiscuously in a pot all the remainder of their provisions.
To such bald nonsense is orthodox aetiology often reduced.
Another part apparently of this same feast, or at least a
ceremony enacted on the same day, was the (2) Eiresione.
During this feast it was customary for young men to carry
round branches bound about with purple and white wool and
with all manner of fruit, loaves, and oil jars tied to them, and
to beg from door to door singing-
“ Eiresione brings figs and cakes,
And a bowl of honey, and oil for aches,
And sleepy and strong is the wine she takes.”
The Eiresione, or branch itself, was either dedicated in a
temple of Apollo or fastened up in front of the door of a
private house, if the procession was a private one. It hung
there, withered and dead, till the next year’s feast came round.
The ceremony was regarded as a defence against famine
(άττοτροττι) λι/χοΰ). No doubt the begging ceremony was a
sort of propitiatory under-statement, in the case of a good
harvest. The youth carrying the Eiresione stands as symbol
of Pyanepsion in the Attic festival calendar (p. 168, fig. 38).
This Eiresione, according to aetiology, commemorated the
fact that when the messenger of Theseus met those who came
cxxxv
The sequence of the narrative from this point on seems
to me to be for some distance clearly and systematically
aetiological. The Athenians in the month of Pyanepsion
(October-November) practised certain ceremonies forming
part of a kind of final harvest festival which they connected
with the cults of Athene, Dionysos, and Apollo; and when
Theseus worship came in, it seemed to them possible to explain
these ceremonies in a manner sure to be popular, by linking
them to the exploits. These ceremonies were chiefly-
(i) The Pyanepsia.—On the 7th day of the month Pyanep-
sion it was the custom to boil together in a pot various kinds of
grain. Harpocration, commenting on the word, expressly says
that nearly all writers concurred in stating that the feast was
in honour of Apollo. What connection it had with him does
not appear. The popular explanation was that on landing
from Delos, Theseus and his companions boiled together
promiscuously in a pot all the remainder of their provisions.
To such bald nonsense is orthodox aetiology often reduced.
Another part apparently of this same feast, or at least a
ceremony enacted on the same day, was the (2) Eiresione.
During this feast it was customary for young men to carry
round branches bound about with purple and white wool and
with all manner of fruit, loaves, and oil jars tied to them, and
to beg from door to door singing-
“ Eiresione brings figs and cakes,
And a bowl of honey, and oil for aches,
And sleepy and strong is the wine she takes.”
The Eiresione, or branch itself, was either dedicated in a
temple of Apollo or fastened up in front of the door of a
private house, if the procession was a private one. It hung
there, withered and dead, till the next year’s feast came round.
The ceremony was regarded as a defence against famine
(άττοτροττι) λι/χοΰ). No doubt the begging ceremony was a
sort of propitiatory under-statement, in the case of a good
harvest. The youth carrying the Eiresione stands as symbol
of Pyanepsion in the Attic festival calendar (p. 168, fig. 38).
This Eiresione, according to aetiology, commemorated the
fact that when the messenger of Theseus met those who came