#hellenicfestivals

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The Lesser Mysteries originally existed on their own but were eventually associated with the Greater or Eleusinian Mysteries, becoming a precursor to the latter rites. They were held at Agrai and took place over a week, beginning on 20 Anthesterion (February 18 in 2025). As with the Eleusinian Mysteries, we know little about the Lesser Mysteries because they were secret rites, but they were surely held in honor of the two goddesses, Demeter and Persephone. (Parke 123)

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While the month of Boedromion likely took its name from a festival of Apollo Boedromios known as the Boedromia; little is known of this festival. It may have taken place on the 7th of the month (September 9 in 2024) Apollo’s holy day (Parker, Polytheism 463). Although there were possible mythic explanations for this festival in Athens (Parker, Polytheism 380), Boedromia was not strictly an Athenian holiday and those tales would not be relevant outside of Attica. The epithet Boedromios refers to aid given after a shout for help, appropriate if the festival honored the god for either specific or general assistance (Parke 53).

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The Oskhophoria, a festival of the grape honoring Dionysos and Athena Skira was held in Athens on 7 Pyanepsion (October 9 in 2024), the same day the Athenians honored Apollo in the Pyanepsia. The procession route was from an unknown temple of Dionysos to the temple of Athena Skiras (Parke 77), and the festival took its name from the oskhoi, vine-branches with the grape clusters still attached, that were carried during that procession (Parker, Polytheism 206); also notable was the inclusion of two oskophoroi, young men dressed in women’s clothing. Mythically the festival was associated with Theseus’ journey to and return from Crete, but it is likely that the Oskhophoria existed before it was assigned that narrative, as cross-dressing is by no means unknown in rites to Dionysos. (215)

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The festival of Maimakteria is very obscure and, but surely took place in the month of Maimakterion, and likely honored Zeus Maimaktes or “blustering Zeus” (Nilsson, Popular Loc. 422) Given the name of the month and the wintry weather, it is possible that at this time people prayed to Zeus for good weather—or, at the least, fewer storms. The date is unknown. (Parke 96) Said to be mid-month, so I've placed it on Maimakterion 16 (17 November in 2024).

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The Karneia was a festival of Apollo celebrated by the Dorians during their month of Karneios, which corresponds roughly to the late summer Athenian month of Metageitnion (August-September). (Karneios was a month during which no war could be waged and was the cause of the Spartans’ failure to support Leonidas at the battle of Marathon.) The date varied; in Cyrene it was held on the 7th, in Thera on the 20th, and in Sparta on the full moon (August 19 in 2024). Customs varied as well by region and over time but included such things as the dancing of young men and women, a several-day musical competition, and a foot race in which participants called “grape runners” pursue a single runner in order to capure not only the man but good fortune for the city. (Burkert, Greek Religion 234)

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The Pompaia, held during the month of Maimaikterion (November-December, 11 November in 2024), honored Zeus Meilichios. Like the Thargelia, the Pompaia had a theme of purification (Parker, Polytheism 211); the festival featured the fleece of a ram which was sacrificed to Zeus Meilichios and carried out of the city, acting as a scapegoat and taking evil and impurity away with it. (Parker, Miasma 29)

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The Thesmophoria, a women’s festival honoring Demeter and Persephone, was held in Athens on 11-13 Pyanepsion (October 13-15 in 2024). Each of the three days of the festival had its own name: “Going Up,” “Fasting,” and “Fair Birth.” The first, “Going Up,” referred to the women’s journey to the temple of Demeter Thesmophoros (Parker, Polytheism 272); on the second, “Fasting,” they sat on the ground and fasted (274); the last day, Kalligeneia or “Fair Offspring,” may have involved giving thanks for fertility, either their own or of the earth. The details of the rites were kept secret. (Parke 88), but the festival was said to have involved insults and obscenities among women, and the eating of cakes in the shapes of phalluses and vulvas. (Stallsmith 3) The Thesmophoria was also the occasion of gathering decaying or decomposed materials previously deposited into the earth—pine shoots, cakes and the bodies of piglets—to be used in the fertilizing of crops. (Stallsmith 6)

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Starting in 475 BCE, the Theseia was held in Athens on 8 Pyanepsia (October 10 in 2024), appropriately since Theseus was the son of Poseidon, whose holy day was the eighth. In that year the Athenians, directed by the Delphic oracle, brought what they believed to be the bones of Theseus from Scyros to Athens in order to establish a hero-cult to him there. Little is known of the particulars of the Theseia, although it did feature the eating of a milk-based gruel known as athara. (Parke 81) The hero-cult in Greece tended to be a localized phenomenon in that the hero’s power—unlike that of the gods—was focused on the place where his bones were buried. Thus the Theseia was a uniquely Athenian festival. (Mikalson, Ancient Greek Religion Loc. 1278) In addition to the establishment of the Theseia—Theseus’ own festival—the fifth century BCE very likely saw the association of Theseus’ myths with a number of existing festivals, including the Oskhophoria and the Synoikia. (Parker, Polytheism 375