DOI article:
Essay VI: The Athene from the Parthenon frieze and the Louvre plaque
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0221
VI.] THE ATHENE FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE. 193
and the greater Panathenaia or Penteteris (HevTeTTjpLs). These
festivals in many ways served the Athenians as a division of
time similar to the use that was made of the periodical re-
currence of the Olympian festivals by the whole of Greece, and
thus in Athens the term of public office was often determined
from one of the Panathenaia to the other. The Pcisistratidac
increased the splendour which had been given to this festival by
their father in adding to the gymnic and hippie games a literary
contest in which the Homeric poems which had been collected
under Peisistratos were recited by rhapsodists. Finally Pericles
gave still greater splendour to the festivities in adding further
literary contests.
The celebration of the greater Panathenaia differed from
that of the lesser ones, chiefly in that all the ceremonies were
carried out on a more brilliant scale, and so for instance, while
in the yearly festival the old pcplos was merely restored and
re-dedicated to the goddess, on the greater festival she received
a new peplos, saffron or purple in colour, with an embroidered
border representing scenes from the battle between the gods
and giants, the work of maidens chosen for this purpose from
the Athenian nobility as a great mark of distinction. The
festival lasted for several days, during which religious sacrifices
and the various games were performed, the hippie games with
the horse races being nearest the last day, the literary on the
first. On the eve of the last day (eoprr/) there was a great
nocturnal feast (iravvv^k), with torch-races, dances, and songs.
The climax of the whole feast was the procession which started
at sunrise on the last day, the birthday of Athene, from the
outer Kerameikos, passed through the Dipylon, the Dromos, and
the chief street of the inner Kerameikos, to the market-place,
then to the Eleusinion, to the north-east corner of the Acro-
polis, to the west, and through the Propylaia to the Temple of
Athene Polias, upon whose altar the hecatombs offered by Athens
and its dependent states were sacrificed, and a great festive
meal concluded the whole festivity. No doubt the dedication
of the peplos formed an important part of the ceremony, yet
there is no evidence to show that it was carried in the pro-
cession before the beginning of the 4th century1. At this
1 See Michaelis, ibid. pp. 212 and 329, No. 165.
W. 13
and the greater Panathenaia or Penteteris (HevTeTTjpLs). These
festivals in many ways served the Athenians as a division of
time similar to the use that was made of the periodical re-
currence of the Olympian festivals by the whole of Greece, and
thus in Athens the term of public office was often determined
from one of the Panathenaia to the other. The Pcisistratidac
increased the splendour which had been given to this festival by
their father in adding to the gymnic and hippie games a literary
contest in which the Homeric poems which had been collected
under Peisistratos were recited by rhapsodists. Finally Pericles
gave still greater splendour to the festivities in adding further
literary contests.
The celebration of the greater Panathenaia differed from
that of the lesser ones, chiefly in that all the ceremonies were
carried out on a more brilliant scale, and so for instance, while
in the yearly festival the old pcplos was merely restored and
re-dedicated to the goddess, on the greater festival she received
a new peplos, saffron or purple in colour, with an embroidered
border representing scenes from the battle between the gods
and giants, the work of maidens chosen for this purpose from
the Athenian nobility as a great mark of distinction. The
festival lasted for several days, during which religious sacrifices
and the various games were performed, the hippie games with
the horse races being nearest the last day, the literary on the
first. On the eve of the last day (eoprr/) there was a great
nocturnal feast (iravvv^k), with torch-races, dances, and songs.
The climax of the whole feast was the procession which started
at sunrise on the last day, the birthday of Athene, from the
outer Kerameikos, passed through the Dipylon, the Dromos, and
the chief street of the inner Kerameikos, to the market-place,
then to the Eleusinion, to the north-east corner of the Acro-
polis, to the west, and through the Propylaia to the Temple of
Athene Polias, upon whose altar the hecatombs offered by Athens
and its dependent states were sacrificed, and a great festive
meal concluded the whole festivity. No doubt the dedication
of the peplos formed an important part of the ceremony, yet
there is no evidence to show that it was carried in the pro-
cession before the beginning of the 4th century1. At this
1 See Michaelis, ibid. pp. 212 and 329, No. 165.
W. 13