What is Anthesteria?
Anthesteria begins tomorrow! It was an Athenian festival of Dionysus, celebrated on the 11th–13th of Anthesterion on the Attic Calendar, which usually puts it sometime around mid-February. (It’s late this year.) Its name means, roughly, “flower-festival.” It was a three-day festival that celebrated the beginning of spring and the opening of jars (pithoi) of new wine that fermented through the winter. It was also a festival of the dead, in which the souls of the dead came up from Hades to join in the festivities.
On the first day, the Pithogia (Jars), the half-buried wine jars were opened, and some of the wine was offered as a libation to the gods and the dead.
At Athens on the eleventh day of February (thence called Πιθοίγια, (the barrel-opening), they began to taste their new wine; and in old times (as it appears), before they drank, they offered some to the Gods, and prayed that that cordial liquor might prove good and wholesome. —Plutarch, Quaestiones Convivales
A statue of Dionysus entered Athens in a grand procession, situated on a float shaped like a ship on wheels, and brought to the temple of Dionysos Limnaios, which was only open on the second day. The second day, the Khoes (Cups), was the main day of the festival, during which the new wine would be drunk. It was mostly a wild party in which everyone participated, regardless of social class. It involved drinking contests, dancing, and the singing of dithyrambs (a kind of drinking song that doubles as a hymn). On the third day, the Khytroi (Pitchers), simple food offerings were given to the dead and to Hermes Khthonios, and the Keres — the spirits of violent death — were driven out of the city.
The song we used to love in the Marshland up above, In praise of Dionysus to produce, Of Nysaian Dionysus, son of Zeus, When the revel-tipsy throng, all crapulous and gay, To our precinct reeled along on the holy Pitcher day… —Aristophanes, Frogs
By @a-gnosis
There were a number of interesting rituals and legends associated with the festival. The most significant one was the sacred marraige of the basilinna of Athens (the archon’s wife, a sort of priestess-queen) to Dionysus. The ritual marraige took place in a secret chamber called the Boukoleion, “bull’s stable.” We don’t know what the ritual itself consisted of. It might have involved actual sex with a human man representing Dionysus, or it might have been some kind of symbolic interaction with a cult object; either way, it was very likely a rite of mystical union with the god.
The other interesting ritual associated with the Anthesteria was the Aiora, a mini-festival commemorating the death of Erigone. A bit of backstory: Almost every major city in Greece had a myth about Dionysus arriving in the province to spread his cult, and teach the people the art of winemaking. In each story, Dionysus’ worship is summarily rejected by the king and/or the populace, and Dionysus has to prove his divinity through miracles and divine punishments. The Attic myth of this type is the story of Ikarios and Erigone. Ikarios was a farmer, to whom Dionysus gave the gift of wine. Ikarios tried to share it with his fellow farmers, but the wine was so strong that the others believed Ikarios had poisoned them. So, they killed him. In despair, his daughter Erigone hung herself. Enraged over the death of his loyal followers, Dionysus condemned the young women of Athens to die in the same manner, unless Erigone and Ikarios were properly honored. So, the women of Athens honored Erigone by swinging — like on a swingset, instead of by their necks. There’s some argument about whether this rite was actually part of the Anthesteria or not, but it ties in with the purificatory rituals and honoring of the dead. Swinging is also inherently a form of Dionysian trance, via oscillation.
A satyr pushing a girl on a swing.
Anthesteria clearly has a lot going on. It was a celebratory festival, a purificatory festival, and a mystical festival of sacred marraige all at once. When I first learned about it, I could hardly believe that it was actually real. The Anthesteria takes almost everything I like about modern Beltane — the joyous celebration of the coming of spring and the sacred marraige of the Lord to his Lady — and ties it together with the honoring of the dead that’s associated with modern Samhain. And it’s an actual, authentic pagan festival, which happens to be all about Dionysus! It perfectly synthesizes the boisterous and lighthearted side of his nature with the dark and somber chthonic side. Dionysus’ paradoxical nature is one of the things I like the most about him, so, anything that emphasizes it is automatically appealing and meaningful to me. I still struggle to implement the commemoration of Athenian holidays throughout the calendar, but I never miss Anthesteria!
Sources:
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by Jane Ellen Harrison Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life by Karl Kérenyi “A Rite of Swinging during the Anthesteria” by B. C. Dietrich
(These are all pretty old, so if anyone has newer scholarship on the subject, I'd greatly appreciate it!)
