Εμφανίζονται 60 τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Εορτές, αγώνες & ιεροπραξίες αρχαίων στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣΟΣ Περιφέρεια ΕΛΛΑΔΑ" .
ΑΖΑΝΙΑ (Αρχαία περιοχή) ΑΡΚΑΔΙΑ
Aetolus, who came to the throne after Epeius, was made to flee from Peloponnesus, because the children of Apis tried and convicted him of unintentional homicide. For Apis, the son of Jason, from Pallantium in Arcadia, was run over and killed by the chariot of Aetolus at the games held in honor of Azan.
ΑΣΚΛΗΠΙΕΙΟ ΕΠΙΔΑΥΡΟΥ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Ασκληπιεία. Αγώνες προς τιμήν του Ασκληπιού, γιου του Απόλλωνα και ήρωα-γιατρού, που διεξάγονταν στην Επίδαυρο, στο ιερό όπου λατρευόταν μαζί με τον πατέρα του. Τα Ασκληπιεία τελούνταν ήδη από τις αρχές του 5ου αιώνα π.Χ., κάθε τέσσερα χρόνια, εννέα μέρες μετά τα Ίσθμια, την περίοδο Ιουνίου-Ιουλίου. Στους Ρωμαϊκούς χρόνους ονομάζονταν Μεγάλα Ασκληπιεία, για να διακρίνονται από τα Απολλώνεια, μία άλλη ετήσια γιορτή που τελούνταν την ίδια εποχή. Στη διάρκειά τους διεξάγονταν γυμνικοί αγώνες δρόμου (στάδιο, δίαυλος, ίππιος ή δρόμος τεσσάρων σταδίων, οπλίτης δρόμος), άλματος, δισκοβολίας, ακοντισμού, πυγμαχίας και παγκρατίου, καθώς και ιππικοί αγώνες, αρματοδρομίες και, τέλος, μουσικοί, ωδικοί και δραματικοί αγώνες. Την πρώτη ημέρα προσφερόταν θυσία στον Ασκληπιό και τον Απόλλωνα, ενώ ακολουθούσε συμπόσιο με τη συμμετοχή των πιστών. Την επόμενη μέρα ξεκινούσαν οι αγώνες.
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Asclepieia (asklepieia), the name of festivals which were probably celebrated in all places where temples of Asklepios (Aesculapius) existed. The most celebrated, however, was that of Epidaurus, which took place in the grove of Asklepios every fifth year, and was solemnised with contests of rhapsodists and musicians, and with solemn processions and games. The solemnity took place nine days after the Isthmian games (Schol. ad Pind. Nem. iii. 145; Paus. ii. 26,7). Asklepieia are also mentioned at Lampsacus (Bockh, Corp. Inscr. vol. ii. p. 1131), and at Athens (Aeschin. c. Ctesiph.67), which were probably, like those of Epidauros, solemnised with musical contests. They took place on the eighth day of the month of Elaphebolion.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΗΡΑΙΟΝ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΑΡΓΟΣ - ΜΥΚΗΝΕΣ
Ηραία. Αγώνες προς τιμήν της θεάς Ήρας που διεξάγονταν στο ιερό της στην ευρύτερη περιοχή των Μυκηνών, στην Πρόσυμνα, οκτώ χιλιόμετρα βορειοανατολικά του Άργους. Τα Ηραία τελούνταν ήδη από τη Γεωμετρική-Αρχαϊκή εποχή, αρχικά κάθε τρία χρόνια και στη συνέχεια κάθε πέντε, στα τέλη Ιουνίου-αρχές Ιουλίου. Οι αγώνες ήταν γυμνικοί (δρόμος, στάδιο, οπλίτης, δόλιχος, πένταθλο), ιππικοί και αρματοδρομίες, καθώς και μουσικοί και δραματικοί. Στους νικητές δινόταν βραβείο ένα στεφάνι μυρτιάς και χάλκινα έπαθλα, όπως ασπίδες, τρίποδες, λέβητες και υδρίες. Εξαιτίας των χάλκινων επάθλων, τα Ηραία ονομάζονταν και "χάλκεος αγών". Την περίοδο του 4ου-3ου αιώνα π.Χ. οι αγώνες ονομάζονταν "Εκατόμβοια", ενώ από τα μέσα του 3ου αιώνα π.Χ. γιορτάζονταν στο Άργος μαζί με τα Νέμεα και αποκαλούνταν "Ηραία τα εν Άργει". Από τον 1ο αιώνα μ.Χ. τα Ηραία αναφέρονται ως "η εξ Άργους ασπίς", από τη χάλκινη ασπίδα-έπαθλο των νικητών, που είχε ιδιαίτερα θρησκευτικό νόημα για την πόλη. Μάλιστα, στην ακρόπολη του Αργους, τη Λάρισα, υπήρχε ιερός οχυρός χώρος με το όνομα Ασπίδα.
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Heraea (Heraia) is the name of festivals celebrated in honour of Hera in all the
towns of Greece where the worship of this divinity was introduced. The original
seat of her worship, from which it spread over the other parts of Greece, was
Argos; whence her festivals
in other places were, more or less, imitations of those which were celebrated
at Argos (Muller, Dor. ii.
10,1).
The Argives had three temples of Hera: one (Heraeon)
lay between Argos and Mycenae,
45 stadia from Argos; the
second lay on the road to the Acropolis,
and near it was the stadium in which the games and contests at the Heraea were
held (Paus. ii. 24,2); the third was in the city itself (Paus. ii. 22,1). Her
service was performed by the most distinguished priestesses of the place; one
of them was the high-priestess, and the Argives counted their years by the date
of her office (Thucyd. ii. 2). The Heraea of Argos
were celebrated every fifth year, and, according to the calculation of Boeckh
(Abhandl. der Berl. Akad. von 1818-19, p. 92 ff.), in the middle of the second
year of every Olympiad.
One of the great solemnities which took place on the occasion, was
a magnificent procession to the great temple of Hera, between Argos
and Mycenae. A vast number
of young men--for the festival is called a panegyris--assembled at Argos,
and marched in armour to the temple of the goddess. They were preceded by one
hundred oxen (hekatombe, whence the festival is also called hekatombaia). The
high-priestess accompanied this procession, riding in a chariot drawn by two white
oxen, as we see from the story of Cleobis and Biton related by Herodotus (i. 31)
and Cicero (Tuscul. i. 47, § 113). The hundred oxen were sacrificed, and their
flesh distributed among all the citizens (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152, and ad
Nem. x. 39). The sacrifice itself was called lecherna (Hesych. s. v.) or the bed
of twigs (Comp. Welcker on Schwenck's Etymologische Andeutungen).
The games and contests of the Heraea took place in the stadium, near
the temple on the road to the Acropolis.
A brazen shield was fixed in a place above the theatre, which was scarcely accessible
to any one, and the young man who succeeded in pulling it down received the shield
and a garland of myrtle as a prize. Hence Pindar (Nem. x. 41) calls the contest
agon chalkeos. It seems that this contest took place before the procession went
out to the Heraeon, for Strabo (viii. p. 556) states that the victor went with
his prizes in solemn procession to that temple. This contest was said to have
been instituted, according to some traditions, by Acrisius and Proetus (Aelian,
V. H. iii. 24), according to others by Archinus (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152;
Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.52, n. 1).
The Heraea or Hecatombaea of Aegina were celebrated in
the same manner as those of Argos (see Schol. ad Pind. Isthm.
viii. 114; Muller, Aeginet. p. 149; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 52, n. 19).
The Heraea of Samos, which
island also derived the worship of Hera from Argos
(Paus. vii. 4,4), were perhaps the most brilliant of all the festivals of this
divinity. A magnificent procession, consisting of maidens and married women in
splendid attire, and with floating hair (Asius, ap. Athen. xii. p. 525), together
with men and youths in armour (Polyaen. Strat. i. 23, vi. 45), went to the temple
of Hera (Heraeon). After
they arrived within the sacred precincts, the men deposited their armour; and
prayers and vows were offered up to the goddess. Her altar consisted of the ashes
of the victims which had been burnt to her. (Paus. v. 13,5).
The Heraea of Elis were celebrated
every fifth year, or in the fourth year of every Olympiad. (Corsini, Dissert.
iii. 30.) The festival was chiefly celebrated by maidens, and conducted by sixteen
matrons who wove the sacred peplus for the goddess. But before the solemnities
commenced, these matrons sacrificed a pig, and purified themselves in the well
Piera (Paus. v. 16,5). One of the principal solemnities was a race of the maidens
in the stadium, for which purpose they were divided into three classes, according
to their age. The youngest ran first and the oldest last. Their only dress on
this occasion was a chiton, which came down to the knee, and their hair was floating.
She who won the prize received a garland of oliveboughs, together with a part
of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera, and might dedicate her own painted likeness
in the temple of the goddess. The sixteen matrons were attended by as many female
attendants, and performed two dances; the one called the dance of Physcoa, the
other the dance of Hippodameia. Respecting further particulars, and the history
of this solemnity, see Paus. v. 16,2; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 3.
Heraea were celebrated in various other places; e. g. in Cos
(Athen. xiv, v), at Corinth
(Eurip. Med. 1379; Philostrat. Her. xix. 14), at Athens
(Plut. Quaest. Rom. vii), at Cnosus
in Crete (Diod. v. 72), at
Pellene in Achaia
(Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 156; ad Nem. x. 82; Aristoph. Av. 1421; Krause, Gymn.
i. pt. 2, p. 715; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 51, n. 28.)
ΙΣΘΜΙΑ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΛΟΥΤΡΑΚΙ ΠΕΡΑΧΩΡΑΣ
Καθιερώθηκαν από το 582 π.Χ. Οι Κορίνθιοι υποστήριζαν ότι τα καθιέρωσε ο βασιλιάς τους Σίσυφος, προς τιμήν του Μελικέρτη-Παλαίμωνα, που ξεβράστηκε στις ακτές της Ισθμίας. Οι Αθηναίοι, πάλι, διαφωνούσαν, λέγοντας ότι ιδρυτής των Ισθμίων ήταν ο Θησέας. Τα Ισθμια γίνονταν κάθε δύο χρόνια την άνοιξη. Το βραβείο των νικητών ήταν ένας κλάδος πιτύος (πεύκου).
Ισθμια. Αγώνες προς τιμήν του Ποσειδώνα, που διεξάγονταν στο ιερό του στην Ισθμία κάθε δύο χρόνια, την άνοιξη, για τρεις μέρες. Στο πλαίσιο της άποψης ότι η ίδρυση των πανελλήνιων αγώνων ανάγεται σε ταφικούς αγώνες, τα Ίσθμια έχουν συνδεθεί με το θάνατο του Μελικέρτη, που πνίγηκε στη θάλασσα μαζί με τη μητέρα του Ινώ, και απαντά και με το όνομα "Παλαίμων". Κατά το πρώτο ήμισυ του 6ου αιώνα π.Χ., οι Κορίνθιοι πρόσθεσαν γυμνικούς και ιππικούς αγώνες στους εορτασμούς που γίνονταν από τον 7ο κιόλας αιώνα στην Ισθμία. Οι αγώνες συνεχίστηκαν καθόλη τη διάρκεια της Ρωμαϊκής εποχής υπό τον έλεγχο της Κορίνθου, εκτός από την περίοδο 146-44 π.Χ., όταν η Κόρινθος έχασε τα πολιτικά δικαιώματά της και την ευθύνη των αγώνων ανέλαβε η Σικυώνα. Τα Ίσθμια ξεκινούσαν μετά την προσφορά θυσίας στον Ποσειδώνα και γεύματος στους πιστούς. Οι αθλητικοί αγώνες διεξάγονταν στο στίβο και οι μουσικοί στο θέατρο. Στους νικητές δινόταν αρχικά ένα στεφάνι από πεύκο και από τις αρχές του 5ου αι. π.Χ. από αγριοσέλινο (γρίηλον), ενώ στους Ρωμαϊκούς χρόνους και από τα δύο.
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Isthmia. One of the four great Hellenic festivals. It was celebrated at the Isthmus
of Corinth; and though inferior to the splendour of Olympia, it probably surpassed
the Nemea in brilliancy (cf. Themist. Orat. xv. p. 229, xxviii. p. 413, ed. Dind.;
and Aristid. Isthm. eis poseid. iii. p. 41, Dind. vol. i.). Indeed, when one considers
the natural advantages of Corinth as a centre of commerce, it is rather surprising
that the Isthmian games did not attain higher importance than those of Olympia.
Pindar describes the scene of the Isthmia by a variety of poetic expressions,
e. g. tan haliermea Isthmou deirada (Pind. Isth. i. 9), isthmion napos (Isth.
vii. 63), pontou gephur' akamantos (Nem. vi. 40), &c. A [p. 1024] sacred enclosure
planted with pines, within which was the temple of the Isthmian Poseidon, surrounded
the scene of the games (Strab. viii. 380). Pausanias saw here a theatre and a
stadium of white marble (lithou leukou), but does not speak of the hippodrome,
whence it may perhaps be inferred that it had disappeared or gone to ruin before
the time of his visit (Paus. ii. 1, 7). A late inscription, belonging probably
to Hadrian's reign, refers to the restoration of several edifices here which had
fallen into decay. In it are mentioned kataluseis, or lodging-places, for the
athletes who came to the Isthmian games from all parts of the world (tois apo
tes oikoumenes epi ta Isthmia paragenomenois athletais); also enkriterioi oikoi,
in which it is likely that the admissibility of intending candidates was discussed
and determined; and a portico with vaulted chambers attached (stoa sun kekamaromenois
oikois), in which probably those who intended to compete made ready and waited
during the interval before their turn to engage came on (Boeckh, C. I. n. 115,
p. 573, vol. i.). The kraneion, a gymnasium standing in an enclosure of the same
name planted with cypresses, might have been used by the athletes in training
for the games (Pans. ii. 2, 4; Plut. Alex. 14; Athen. xiii. 6, 589; Diog. Laert.
vi. 77, p. 351).
For information respecting the origin of the games, there remains
to us nothing but obscure traces of primitive cults, which kept their seat in
the Isthmus even into historic times. The myth which seems to be of greatest antiquity
ascribes the institution of the festival to Poseidon and Helios, when Castor won
the prize in the stadium, Kalais in the diaulos, Orpheus in playing on the cithara,
Herakles as pammachos (i. e. as pancratiast), Polydeukes in boxing, Peleus in
wrestling, Telamon in discus-throwing, and Theseus in the armour-race. In horseracing,
Phaethon was victorious with the riding-horse, and Neleus with the four-horse
chariot. On this occasion there was also a ship-race, in which the Argo obtained
the prize (Dion. Chrysost. Orat. Corinth. xxxvii. t. ii. p. 107). In this myth
nearly all the potentates of prehistoric Hellas are observed grouped in one tableau.
Another legend represents the Isthmian games as founded by Poseidon
to honour the memory of Melikertes, son of Athamas king of Orchomenos and Ino,
who cast herself with Melikertes into the sea, becoming thereupon a Nereid with
the name Leukothea, while her son became the sea-deity Palaemon (Schol. ad Pind.
Isthm. p. 514 seq. B; Ovid. Met. iv. 521 seqq.).
According to another tradition, the Nereids appeared to Sisyphos,
and commanded him to found the games in honour of Melikertes. A modification of
this myth states that the corpse of the son of Ino lay unburied upon the shore
of the Isthmus; that the Corinthians were, in consequence, sorely pressed by famine;
and that, consulting the oracle as to the means of relief, they were directed
to inter the dead youth and establish the games in memory of him.
Yet another myth informs that Theseus founded the Isthmia in grateful
commemoration of his victory over the wicked giant Sinis Pityokamptes (Schol.
ad Pind. Isthm. p. 514 B). Now, since both Sinis and Theseus were children of
Poseidon, the institution of the festival by the latter might be looked upon as
an act of atonement offered by him to his offended father; and this view would
help us to understand the statement that the Melikertes festival took rank rather
as a mystic rite than as a popular assembly, the cynosure of sightseers (Plut.
Thes. 25, teletes echon mallon e theas kai panegurismou taxin). The other legends
as to the origin of the Isthmia need not detain us. In almost all we see that,
as the mythic history of the Olympic games takes us back to Zeus, so that of the
Isthmian refers us ultimately to Poseidon. Plut. (l. c.) says that Theseus founded
the latter in emulation of Herakles, who had established the former. Later accounts
represent Theseus as having confirmed, by the institution of the games, a friendly
political relationship between Athens and Corinth. According to Hellanikos, and
Andron of Halicarnassus, Theseus made a covenant with the Corinthians by which
Athenian theoroi should receive at the Isthmia so much standing-ground (proedria)
as could be covered by the sail of the theoric vessel (Plut. l. c.). The inscription
of the Parian marble numbers 995 years backwards from its own time to the institution
of the Isthmian games by Theseus.
In the time of the Cypselids at Corinth, the celebration of these
games was suspended for seventy years (Solin. 12). Solon offered a reward of a
hundred drachmae to every Athenian isthmionikes, from which it is evident that
in his time the Isthmia had obtained wide celebrity as a periodic festival. It
is noteworthy that even the destruction of Corinth by Mummius in 146 B.C. did
not break the continuity of the games. They flourished under the Roman empire,
and Corinthian coins of the reigns of Hadrian, Verus, M. Aurelius, and Commodus,
frequently bear the inscription ISTHMIA. In the reign of Julian these, like the
other great Hellenic games, were zealously celebrated, but they ceased to exist
probably about Olymp. 293, when Christianity became the established religion of
the Roman empire.
Of the four great Pan-Hellenic festivals, two--the Olympia and Pythia--were
penteteric, i.e. recurring after intervals of four years: while two--the Nemean
and Isthmian--were trieteric, i.e. recurring after intervals of two years. Hence
Pliny (H. N. iv. § 5) and Solinus (c. 9) are in error when they represent the
Isthmia as quinquennial. Cf. Pindar, Nem. vi. 40, where he uses the words: en
amphiktionon taurophonoi t rieteridi Poseidanion an temenos. Eusebius places the
first historic Isthmiad in Olymp. 49, 3 (Chron. libr. post. p. 125, interp. Hieron.
ed. Seal. ii.). The Isthmia occurred in the first and third years of each Olympiad.
As to the season in which they were held, so much alone is certain (cf. Boeckh,
Explic. ad Pind. Olymp. ix. p. 183) that the Isthmia which fell in the first year
of an Olympiad took place in summer (Thucyd. viii. 10; Curt. iv. 5, 11), and that
those which fell in the third took place in spring (Xen. Hell. iv. 5; Liv. xxxiii.
32, 33). Dodwell argued from Pindar, Olymp. ix. 83, with Schol., that the former
were celebrated on the 12th of the Attic month Hecatombaeon, which corresponded
with the penultimate month of the Corinthian year (Dodw. de Cycl. vi. 3, p. 283
ff.). Corsini held that this summer festival occurred on the 12th of the Corinthian
Panemos, which, according to him, coincided with the Attic Hecatombaeon; according
to Boeckh, with Metageitnion. But Boeckh (ad Pind. l. c.) shows the inconclusiveness
of their reasoning.
The programme of the Isthmian games included gymnic equestrian and
musical contests, the gymnic being probably the oldest. The Isthmian contests
no doubt resembled in the main those of the other three great festivals. They
were open to boys, men, and youths, well grown but not quite matured to manhood
(ageneioi). Mention is on record of isthmionikai who obtained prizes in the stadium
(for men and boys), the pancratium (for men and ageneioi), and the pentathlum
(Dion Chrysost. Diog. e isthm. Orat. ix. p. 291, vol. i. Reisk., and Krause, Pyth.
Nem. Isthm. pp. 209 ff.). In equestrian contests we hear only of victories with
the four-horse chariot and the riding-horse, but we cannot, from absence of reference
to other equestrian contests, infer that there were none except these.
Pausanias (i. 2, v. 2) mentions a general truce which prevailed during
the Isthmian games (isthmikai spondai), and dated from the mythic age. In historic
times this truce was regularly proclaimed throughout Hellas by heralds called
spondophoroi, whose persons were sacred, but who were not obeyed, however, if
the festival was not at the time under legitimate management (cf. Xen. Hell. iv.
5, 2; Diod. xiv. 86, p. 709; Pans. iii. 10, 1).
The Eleans alone of the Hellenic states sent no theoroi to these games;
nor did any from Elis, except the people of Lepreum, present themselves as candidates
for Isthmian honours (Paus. l. c. and vi. 16, 2).
We have little or no information as to the special rules which regulated the celebration of the Isthmia, but we may suppose them to have been similar to the rules observed at the Olympia, Nemea, and Pythia (vid. Aristid. peri homon., Or. xlii. p. 781; Themist. Or. xv. p. 229; Krause, Olympia, § 15, 144-156). We know, however, that the same person might here compete in as many as three contests on one and the same day (Pans. vi. 15, 3). We gather from Plutarch (Sympos. v. 2) that women were admitted to poetical competitions. The beginning of the games was announced by a herald, who, advancing into the middle of the scene, proclaimed silence with a trumpet, and then in a set form of words declared the festival to have begun (Liv. xxxiii. 32; Themist. l. c.).
The Isthmia were naturally even from prehistoric times under the control
of the Corinthians (cf. Pans. v. 2, 1; 22, 3; Plut. Thes. 25). In Pindar they
alone are referred to as the presidents (cf. Nem. ii. 20). But in Olymp. 96 the
games were held by the Laconizing Corinthian exiles, under the protection of Agesilaus,
who interrupted the celebration of the festival by the Argives and those of the
Corinthians who had submitted to them. As soon as he withdrew, the Argives celebrated
the games over again. But in Olymp. 98. 2, by the peace of Antalkidas, the Corinthians
were freed from the Argive yoke, and recovered control of the Isthmia. When Corinth
was destroyed by Mummius (B.C. 146), the management of the festival passed to
the Sicyonians, who retained it until the restoration of Corinth by Julius Caesar,
when the agonothesia returned to its original possessors (Pans. ii. 2, 2). We
have no account of the number of presidents of the games (agonothetai), who were
chosen apparently for their wealth and nobility. It is supposable that, like the
Hellanodikae at Olympia, they wore a distinctive robe of office; and we know from
Dion Chrysost. (Orat. ix. Diog. e isthm. p. 291, vol. i. ed. R.) that their heads
were adorned with crowns.
The prize of victors at the Isthmia, like that won at each of the
other three great festivals, had during the historic period no intrinsic value,
its symbolic worth being thereby immeasurably enhanced. In Homeric times, such
prizes always possessed intrinsic worth, and it is a mere anachronism when some
myths describe the primitive Isthmia as an agon stephanites. The victor's meed
in historic times was a wreath of parsley (selinon: cf. Pind. Nem. iv. 88; Olymp.
xiii. 31). It has been thought that the Nemean differed from the Isthmian wreath
in that the former was made of green or fresh, while the latter was made of dry
parsley (Schol. Pind. Olymp. xiii. 45); but this view lacks proof. Tradition has
it that the original parsley-wreath was succeeded in prehistoric times by a wreath
of pine; but in the classical period we hear only of the former being awarded,
as it continued to be in the time of Timoleon (cf. Diod. xvi. 679 ; Plut. Tim.
26). Nor was it until probably long after the restoration of Corinth by Julius
Caesar that the pine-wreath supplanted it. But under the Empire isthmionikae are
regularly represented as crowned with the pine, called simply he pitus, like the
Olympian garland, ho kotinos (vid. Plut. Symp. v. 3, 1-3; Pans. v. 21, 5, vi.
13; Luc. Anach. 9, 16). While parsley was suited to an agon epitaphios, the pine
was characteristic of the worship of Poseidon (cf. Plut. Symp. l. c.). A Corinthian
coin of the reign of Verus shows the pine-wreath, and from this onward to the
abolition of the festival the wreath of the isthmionikae continued to be woven
of pine. Here, as in the other great games, the victor received with the crown
a palm branch in token of his victory (Plut. Symp. viii. 4, 1; Pans. viii. 48,
2). At these games Flamininus (and Nero afterwards) declared the autonomy of Hellas
(Liv. xxxiii. 32; Suet. Ner. 22, 24). Rhetoricians, poets, and other writers brought
their productions under public notice at the Isthmia (Dion Chrysost. Diog. e peri
aretes, pp. 277, 278, vol. i. R.). According to Dion Chrysost. (Diog. e isthm.
Orat. ix. p. 289, vol. i. R.), visitors came from Italy, Sicily, Libya, Thessaly,
the Ionian States, and even the Borysthenes, to be present at the great Isthmian
festival.
As the Olympia, Pythia, and Nemea lent their names to minor festivals,
so the name Isthmia was applied to other games than those held at the Isthmus
of Corinth. The number of inferior Isthmia, however, was not as large as that
of the inferior copies of the other great games. Coins and inscriptions remain,
which refer to Isthmia held at Ancyra in Galatia. Isthmia at Nicaea in Bithynia
are mentioned on a coin of this town, struck in the time of Valerianus. [p. 1026]
The Isthmia at Syracuse are known to us only from the isolated statement of a
schol. to Pind. Olymp. xiii. 158, which, however, is credible from the fact that
Syracuse was founded by Corinth. Several ancient authors whose writings are lost
treated the subject of the Isthmian games. Both Plutarch and Athenaeus refer to
a work on this subject written by the epic poet Euphorion (Plut. Sympos. v. 3,
2, 3; Athen. iv. 182). For further information, the reader may be referred to
Krause (Pyth., Nem., Isthm.), whose work has been chiefly followed in the present
article.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Isthmia (ta Isthmia). One of the four great national festivals of the Greeks, held on the Isthmus of Corinth, in a grove of pine-trees sacred to Poseidon, near the shrines of the Isthmian Poseidon and of Melicertes. From B.C. 589, they were held in the first month of spring, in the second and fourth years of each Olympiad. According to legend, the Isthmian Games were originally funeral games in memory of Melicertes (q.v.); another tradition relates that they were established by Theseus either in honour of Poseidon, or in commemoration of his victory over Sciron and Sinis. In any case, the Athenians were specially interested in the festival from the earliest times. It was alleged that, from the days of Theseus downwards, they had what was called the proedria, the right of occupying the most prominent seats at the games, and, in accordance with a law attributed to Solon, they presented to those of their citizens who were victors in the contests a reward amounting to 100 drachmae. The only occasion when Socrates was absent from Athens, except with the army, was to attend this festival. The inhabitants of Elis were completely excluded from the games, being debarred from either sending competitors or festal envoys. The Corinthians had the presidency, which was transferred to the Sicyonians after the destruction of Corinth (B.C. 146), but at the rebuilding of Corinth (B.C. 46) it was restored to that city. The contests included gymnastic exercises, horseraces, and competitions in music. The former two differed in no essential way from the Olympian Games; in the third, besides musicians, poets of either sex contended for the prize. Besides the customary palm, the prize in Pindar's time consisted of a wreath of dry selinon (often translated "parsley," but more probably identical with the "wild celery," apium graveolens). The selinon was a symbol of funeral games. After the destruction of Corinth, a crown of pine needles was substituted for it. The games long continued to be held, even under the Roman Empire. (Cf. Plut. Timoleon, 26; Sympos. v. 3, 1-3).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Η σπουδαιότητα της Ισθμίας αποδεικνύεται εκτός των άλλων και από το
γεγονός ότι στο ιερό της διεξαγόταν μία από τις τέσσερις μεγάλες Πανελλήνιες εορτές,
τα Ίσθμια. Κατά την τοπική παράδοση ιδρυτής τους θεωρείτο ο Σίσυφος, όμως σύμφωνα
με μία άλλη εκδοχή καθιερώθηκαν από το Θησέα προς τιμήν του Ποσειδώνα. Πανελλήνια
σημασία απέκτησαν την εποχή των Κυψελιδών.
Τα Ίσθμια τελούνταν κάθε δύο χρόνια και κατά τη διεξαγωγή τους ίσχυαν
οι λεγόμενες “Ισθμιάδες σπονδές”, δηλαδή ειρηνική περίοδος για τις
πόλεις που συμμετείχαν. Η οργάνωσή τους ακολούθησε το πρότυπο των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων:
περιλάμβαναν αγωνίσματα όπως ο δρόμος , το άλμα, ρίψεις, πένταθλο, παγκράτιο,
ιππικοί αγώνες και αρματοδρομίες. Από τον 5ο αι. π.Χ προστέθηκαν αγώνες μουσικής
και απαγγελίας καθώς και διαγωνισμοί ζωγραφικής. Οι νικητές έπαιρναν ως έπαθλο
ένα στεφάνι από πεύκο.
Μέχρι τα μέσα του 2ου αι π.Χ τα Ίσθμια βρίσκονταν υπό την εποπτεία
των Κορινθίων και είχαν αποκτήσει μεγάλη φήμη. Οταν το 146π.Χ η Κόρινθος
λεηλατήθηκε, την ευθύνη των αγώνων ανέλαβε η Σικυώνα.
Η οργάνωσή τους ανατέθηκε και πάλι στους Κορινθίους μετά το 46π.Χ.
Στον αρχαιολογικό χώρο της Ισθμίας λειτουργεί σήμερα ένα μουσείο,
όπου φυλάσσονται ενδιαφέροντα ευρήματα από το χώρο και την ευρύτερη περιοχή.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται το Νοέμβριο 2003 από τουριστικό φυλλάδιο του Δήμου
Λουτρακίου - Περαχώρας.
ΚΑΛΤΕΖΕΣ (Χωριό) ΒΑΛΤΕΤΣΙ
Σε απόσταση περιπου 2,5 χλμ. από το ομώνυμο χωριό Καλτεζές, βρίσκονται τα ερείπια της αρχαίας πολιτείας της Παλαιοχώρας.
Ανατολικά του χωριού έχει διατηρηθεί το τοπωνύμιο της "Ελένης το Πηγάδι". Λέγεται ότι εκεί είναι πιθανό να τελούνταν τα "Ελένεια", αγώνες καλλιστείων κατά την αρχαιότητα.
ΝΕΜΕΑ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΑ
Νέμεα. Σύμφωνα με την παράδοση, τα Νέμεα ξεκίνησαν το 573 π.Χ. και διεξάγονταν κάθε δύο χρόνια, τη δεύτερη πανσέληνο μετά το θερινό ηλιοστάσιο, προς τιμήν του Οφέλτη, γιου του βασιλιά Λυκούργου, που βρήκε φρικτό θάνατο από δάγκωμα φιδιού. Αν και αργότερα προστάτης των αγώνων ανέλαβε ο Δίας, τα Νέμεα συνέχισαν να έχουν ένα νεκρικό χαρακτήρα, που τον φανέρωναν τα μαύρα ιμάτια που φορούσαν οι Ελλανοδίκες και το άλσος κυπαρισσιών γύρω από το ιερό του Δία. Όπως στα Ολύμπια, έτσι και στα Νέμεα δεν περιλαμβάνονταν μουσικοί αγώνες. Αρχικά, η πόλη των Κλεωνών είχε τον έλεγχο των αγώνων, αλλά αργότερα ανέλαβε τη διοργάνωσή τους το Αργος. Το έπαθλο για τους νικητές ήταν ένα στεφάνι από αγριοσέλινο.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται τον Ιούνιο 2005 από την ακόλουθη ιστοσελίδα, με φωτογραφίες, του Ιδρυματος Μείζονος Ελληνισμού
Nemea was a valley in Argolis, between Kleonae and Phlius. It was the reputed
scene of many famous mythical events. Here (it was said) Argos had watched Io:
and here Heraklees slew the lion. Pausanias (ii. 15, 2) relates that in his time
the den of the Nemean lion was pointed out in a mountain range, a little less
than two miles from Nemea. And here too, in historic times, stood a splendid temple
of Nemean Zeus, with a sacred enclosure (alsos, not to be rendered grove ), in
which the Nemean games (Nemea or Nemeia) were held (Strab. viii. p. 377). Pindar
describes the locality of these games by a variety of imaginative expressions:
e. g. Nemeaiou en poluumnetoi Dios alsei (Nem. ii. 4, 5); askiois Phliountos hup'
ogugiois oresin (Nem. vi. 45, 46); chortois en leontos (Olymp. xiii. 44). The
valley of Nemea from its situation belonged naturally to the people of Kleonae,
who for a long time were presidents of the games (agonothetai). But, before Olymp.
53, 1, the Argives obtained possession of the temple and the presidency at the
games. At a later time the Kleonaeans recovered the right of presiding, but did
not retain it (Pind. Nem. x.; Pausan. ii. 15, 3).
In prehistoric times we find the institution of the Nemean festival
connected with the expedition of the Seven against Thebes (Apollodor. iii. 6,
4), or with the slaying of the Nemean lion by Herakles (Schol. Pind. Nem.). Writers
who held the former opinion uniformly describe the festival as an agon epitaphios,
established to commemorate the youth Archemoros, who was killed by a serpent (Apollodor.
l. c.), but differ as to the particular Archemoros whose death was thus honoured.
Some represented him to have been the son of Lycurgus, king of Nemea, while others
(among whom was Aeschylus) related that he was the son of Nemea, daughter of Asopus
(Schol. Pind. Nem.). Apollodorus in the passage referred to gives the names of
the victors, together with the contests, in which they were victorious at the
first Nemean games. The second celebration of these games is attributed by Pausanias
(x. 25, 2, 3) to the Epigoni.
As regards the first historic occurrence of the festival, we have
but scanty evidence. In its local character it had no doubt been in existence
from immemorial antiquity; but not until long after the Olympic games had become
famous did those of Nemea rise to the rank of a Pan-Hellenic festival. Eusebius
dates the first Nemead from Olymp. 53, 2: but it is probable from the dissertation
of G. Hermann, whose conclusions are supported by Boeckh, that the series of historical
Nemeads began in the winter of Olymp. 51 (Boeckh, C. I. i. n. 34, p. 53). The
Nemean games, like the Isthmian, in this respect were biennial (agon trieterikos),
i. e. two complete years elapsed between each festival. Accordingly they fell
twice within the Olympic period, occurring alternately in winter and summer in
the second and fourth years respectively of each Olympic penteteris. We read in
the Schol. to Pindar's Nemean odes that they took place on the 12th of the month
Pan[ecedil]mos (meni panemoi dodekatei), but such authority helps us but little
in settling the matter.
The games comprised musical, gymnic, and equestrian contests (agon
mousikos, gumnikos, hippilos). (Plut. Philop. 11; Pausan. viii. 50, 3; Schol.
Pind. Nem.) The gymnic contests at Nemea, as regards the subjects of competition,
corresponded closely with those at Olympia. The following are expressly mentioned:--The
simple foot-race (gumnon stadion) for men and boys; the wrestling bout (pale)
for men and boys; the pentathlon for men and boys; the pagikration for men and
boys (Pind. Nem. passim; Herod. vi. 92, ix. 75). That boxing (pugmachia) was a
subject of competition may be inferred from Pausan. viii. 40, 3. We learn further
from Pausanias (ii. 15, 2) and Pindar that, besides the simple foot-race, the
Nemean games included the armour-race (hoplites dromos) and the long race (ho
dolichos--notice accent). In the equestrian contests we know that Alcibiades,
Chromios of Aetna, and Polykles of Sparta (Pausan. i. 22, 6) were victorious.
That the games occupied more than one day may be inferred from Liv.
xxvii. 31, where he uses the words per dies festos in reference to them.
The Argives, as has been said above, ultimately supplanted the Kleonaeans
as presidents of the Nemean festival, but they occasionally delegated this function
to military chieftains, like Philip of Macedon or Titus Quintius Flamininus (Liv.
xxvii. 30, xxxiv. 41). In a late inscription the officers who actually presided
are referred to as Hellanodikae (Hellanodikai). Boeckh conjectured that these
were twelve in number, while those who discharged the like duty at Olympia, and
bore the same title, numbered only ten (Boeckh, C. I 1126, p. 581).
Like the other great Pan-Hellenic festivals, the Nemean was an agon
stephanites, i. e. one in which the victor obtained a wreath in token of his victory.
The Nemean wreath was, according to some accounts, at first woven of olive-sprays
(elaia), the garland of green parsley (chlora selina) having replaced it afterwards;
according to others, the parsley wreath, was the original prize (as it continued
to be throughout historical [p. 228] times) on account of its special fitness,
as an emblem of mourning, to be associated with the memory of Archemoros. But
a different myth, already alluded to, represents Herakles, when he instituted
the games after overcoming the lion, as having also appointed the parsleywreath
to be the victor's reward. And this latter account seems to have been present
to the mind of Pindar, for he speaks of the wreath as botana leontos (Nem. vi.
71, 72).
During the celebration of each Nemean festival a cessation of hostilities
(ekecheiria, spondai) between belligerents was an imperative duty (cf. en hieromeniai
Nemeadi, Pind. Nem. iii. 2, with schol.). A sacred embassy, too, was on these
occasions sent by each of the several Hellenic states to Nemea, with offerings
to Nemean Zeus (Demosth. Meid. p. 552, § 115).
Historians, as well as late coins and inscriptions, testify that the
(still so called) Nemean games came to be regularly held in Argos (Polyb. v. 101,
5; Diod. xix. 64; Liv. xxx. 1; Boeckh, C. I. 234, p. 356). On a comparatively
early occasion, indeed, Argos had been the scene of the festival. For the circumstances,
vid. Plut. Arat. 28. Local festivals, named after the great Nemean, were established
in many places, e. g. at Aetna in Sicily (Schol. Pind. Olymp. xiii. 158) and at
Megara (Schol. Pind. Olymp. vii. 157). That Nemea were also instituted at Anchialos
in Thrace may be inferred from a medal stamped under Caracalla, bearing the name
NEMAIA (instead of the usual NEMEIA); and, from the fact of its bearing also the
word XEOPSEPIA, the further inference has been drawn that the Thracian Nemea were
founded in honour of Sept. Severus. (For more detailed information respecting
Nemea, see Krause, Pythien, Nemeen, u. Isthmien, whose guidance has been mainly
followed in the present article.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Nemea, (ta Nemea or Nemeia). The Nemean Games; one of the four Greek national festivals, which was celebrated in the valley of Nemea in the territory of the Argive town Cleonae. In historic times the festival was held in honour of Zeus, who had here a temple with a sacred grove. Originally it is said to have consisted of funeral games, instituted by the Seven during their expedition against Thebes, in memory of the boy Archemorus as an agon epitaphios. Heracles afterwards changed it into a festival in honour of Zeus. From about B.C. 575 on wards, athletic competitions were added to the festival, after the model of those at Olympia; and, like the latter, it was only gradually that it developed into a general Hellenic celebration. It was held twice in a period of four years--once in August, every fourth year; once in winter, every second or first Olympic year. It is more probable, however, that the so-called "Winter Nemea" were only local games held in Argos, and that the Panhellenic Nemea were celebrated in alternate years at the end of every first and third Olympic year, at a time corresponding to our July. The question is discussed by Unger in the Philologus, but Droysen, in Hermes, considers it still unsettled. The management of the festival was originally possessed by the Cleonaeans, but soon passed, together with the possession of the sanctuary, into the hands of the Argives. The games, which lasted more than one day, consisted of gymnastic, equestrian, and musical contests; the prize was a palm-branch and a garland of fresh selinon, often rendered "parsley," but more probably identical with the "wild celery."
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
City of Argolis,
in northeastern Peloponnese,
southwest of Corinth.
In this city were held every two years (in July the second and fourth
year of each Olympiad) the Nemean games, in honor of Zeus. These games were fourth
in fame among the panhellenic games after the Olympic (also to Zeus), the Pythian
(to Apollo) and the Isthmian (to Poseidon).
Nemea was the site of the first of Heracles' 12 labors, his fight
against the lion, and some ascribed to him the creation of the games. But the
more “official” origin was ascribed to Adrastus, the king of Argos
who led the ill-fated expedition of the Seven against Thebes
to try and help Polynices, one of Oedipus's sons, regain the kingship his brother
Eteocles refused to hand him over when time came. Reaching Nemea on their way
toward Thebes, Adrastus and
his companions asked water to Hypsipyle, the exiled queen of the island of Lemnos,
who had once been the wife of Jason but was now a slave at the service of Lycurgus,
the king of the place, serving as a nurse to Opheltes, his baby son. To help them,
the nurse, forgetting an oracle stating that the baby should not be put on the
ground until he could walk, laid the baby for a minute on the grass near a fountain,
where he was killed by the snake guarding it. The games were then instituted by
Adrastus as part of Opheltes' funerals and as a propitiatory ceremony to the his
memory and the seven princes took part in their first occurrence.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
ΠΕΛΛΑΝΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΞΥΛΟΚΑΣΤΡΟ
Αγώνες στους οποίους συμμετείχαν ντόπιοι αθλητές και τα έπαθλα ήταν χρηματικά (Παυσ. 7,27,4).
ΤΕΓΕΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΚΑΔΙΑ
(ta alaia). Games annually celebrated at Tegea in honour of Athene Alea.
ΑΛΕΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Ηταν γιορτή που γινόταν κάθε δύο χρόνια στο Ναό του Διονύσου. Σύμφωνα με δελφικό χρησμό κατά τη διάρκεια της γιορτής μαστιγώνονταν γυναίκες (Παυσ. 8,23,1).
ΑΜΥΚΛΑΙ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΣΠΑΡΤΗ
Ηταν γιορτή, που γινόταν γύρω από τον τάφο του Υακίνθου, με θυσία για τον Απόλλωνα και εναγισμούς στο βωμό του Υακίνθου. Ολοι οι Λακεδαιμόνιοι θεωρούσαν υποχρέωσή τους να παρευρεθούν, γι΄αυτό και σε περίπτωση πολέμου έκαναν ανακωχή σαράντα ημερών και γύριζαν στις Αμύκλες, όπου κι αν βρίσκονταν (Παυσ. 4,19,4).
Hyacinthia. A festival, celebrated for three days in the summer of each year, at Amyclae, in honour of Apollo and his unhappy favourite Hyacynthus. Muller gives strong reasons for supposing that the Hyacinthia was originally a festival of Demeter. Like other festivals in honour of nature, the festival of the Hyacinthia, celebrated by the Spartans at Amyclae for three days in July, down to the time of the Roman emperors, was connected with the expression of grief at the death of vegetation, of joy over the harvest, and of cheerful trust in the re-awakening of nature. On the first day, which was dedicated to silent mourning, sacrifice to the dead was offered at the grave of Hyacinthus, which was under the statue of Apollo in the temple at Amyclae. The following day was spent in public rejoicing in honour of Apollo, in which all the populace, including the slaves, took part. They went in festal procession with choruses of singing boys and girls, accompanied by harps and flutes, to the temple of Apollo, where games and competitions, sacrifices and entertainments to one another took place, and a robe, woven by the Spartan women, was offered to the god.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hyacynthia (Huakinthia), a great national festival, celebrated every year at Amyclae by the Amyclaeans and Spartans. The festival dated from pre-Dorian times, but, like the Carneia, had been taken over by the Dorians; and was held in honour of the Amyclaean Apollo and of the youthful hero Hyacinthus, whom he accidentally struck dead with a quoit. This Amyclaean Apollo, however, with whom Hyacinthus was associated, must not be confounded with Apollo, the national divinity of the Dorians. (Muller, Orchom. p. 327; Dor. ii. 8, § 15.) This Hyacinthus is unmistakably a personification of the drying up of vegetation by the heat of summer: the quoit (diskos) is the sun's disc, Apollo the god who hurls it (Schomann, Alterth. ii. 404). The Hyacinthia lasted for three days, and began on the longest day of the Spartan month Hecatombeus (the Attic Hecatombaeon, Hesych. s. v. Hekatombeus: Manso, Sparta, iii. 2, p. 201; called also Huakinthios from this festival, Stein on Herod. ix. 7). On the first day of the Hyacinthia sacrifices were offered to the dead, and the death of Hyacinthus was lamented. Nobody wore any garlands or sung paeans at the sacrifices, nor was any wheaten bread offered: plain sacrificial cakes, apparently unleavened, were the order of the day, and great abstinence was practised. This serious and melancholy character was foreign to all the other festivals of Apollo. The second day, however, was wholly spent in public rejoicings and amusements. Amyclae was visited by numbers of strangers (paneguris axiologos kai megale, Didymus ap. Ath. iv. p. 139 e), and boys played the cithara or sang to the accompaniment of the flute, and celebrated in anapaestic metres the praise of Apollo, while others, in splendid attire, performed a horse-race in the theatre. This horse-race is probably the agon mentioned by Strabo in connexion with the Hyacinthia (vi. p. 278). After this race there followed a number of choruses of youths conducted by a choropoios (Xen. Ages. 2, § 17), in which some of their national songs (epichoria poiemata) were sung. During the songs of these choruses dancers performed some of the ancient and simple movements with the accompaniment of the flute and the song. The Spartan and Amyclaean maidens, after this, riding in chariots made of wickerwork (kanathra), and splendidly adorned, went in solemn procession. Numerous sacrifices were also offered on this day, and the citizens kept open house for their friends and relations; and even slaves were allowed to enjoy themselves. (Didymus, ap. Ath. iv. p. 139.) One of the favourite meals on this occasion was called kopis. and is described by Molpis (ap. Ath. iv. p. 140) as consisting of cake, bread, meat, raw herbs, broth, figs, dessert, and the seeds of lupine. Some ancient writers, when speaking of the Hyacinthia, apply to the whole festival such epithets as can only be used in regard to the second day; for instance, when they call it a merry or joyful solemnity. Macrobius (Sat. i. 18, § 2) states that the Spartans wore chaplets of ivy at the Hyacinthia as at a Bacchic rite, which can only be true if it be understood of the second day. The incorrectness of these writers is however in some degree excused by the fact, that the second day formed the principal part of the festive season, as appears from the description of Didymus, and as may also be inferred from Xenophon (Hell. iv. 5, § 11; compare Ages. 2, § 17), who makes the paean the principal part of the Hyacinthia. The third day's ceremonies are not specially described (Schomann, l. c.), but, according to the tradition, were of a solemn character, resembling those of the first day. The great importance attached to this festival by the Amyclaeans and Lacedaemonians is seen from the fact, that the Amyclaeans, even when they had taken the field against an enemy, always returned home on the approach of the season of the Hyacinthia, that they might not be obliged to neglect its celebration (Xen. Hell. iv. 5, § 11 Paus. iii. 10, § 1), and that the Lacedaemonians on one occasion concluded a truce of forty days with the town of Eira, merely to be able to return home and celebrate the national festival (Paus. iv. 19, § 3); and that in a treaty with Sparta, B.C. 421, the Athenians, in order to show their good--will towards Sparta, promised every year to attend the celebration of the Hyacinthia. (Thuc. v. 23.)
This is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Heraea (Heraia) is the name of festivals celebrated in honour of Hera in all the
towns of Greece where the worship of this divinity was introduced. The original
seat of her worship, from which it spread over the other parts of Greece, was
Argos; whence her festivals
in other places were, more or less, imitations of those which were celebrated
at Argos (Muller, Dor. ii.
10,1).
The Argives had three temples of Hera: one (Heraeon)
lay between Argos and Mycenae,
45 stadia from Argos; the
second lay on the road to the Acropolis,
and near it was the stadium in which the games and contests at the Heraea were
held (Paus. ii. 24,2); the third was in the city itself (Paus. ii. 22,1). Her
service was performed by the most distinguished priestesses of the place; one
of them was the high-priestess, and the Argives counted their years by the date
of her office (Thucyd. ii. 2). The Heraea of Argos
were celebrated every fifth year, and, according to the calculation of Boeckh
(Abhandl. der Berl. Akad. von 1818-19, p. 92 ff.), in the middle of the second
year of every Olympiad.
One of the great solemnities which took place on the occasion, was
a magnificent procession to the great temple of Hera, between Argos
and Mycenae. A vast number
of young men--for the festival is called a panegyris--assembled at Argos,
and marched in armour to the temple of the goddess. They were preceded by one
hundred oxen (hekatombe, whence the festival is also called hekatombaia). The
high-priestess accompanied this procession, riding in a chariot drawn by two white
oxen, as we see from the story of Cleobis and Biton related by Herodotus (i. 31)
and Cicero (Tuscul. i. 47, § 113). The hundred oxen were sacrificed, and their
flesh distributed among all the citizens (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152, and ad
Nem. x. 39). The sacrifice itself was called lecherna (Hesych. s. v.) or the bed
of twigs (Comp. Welcker on Schwenck's Etymologische Andeutungen).
The games and contests of the Heraea took place in the stadium, near
the temple on the road to the Acropolis.
A brazen shield was fixed in a place above the theatre, which was scarcely accessible
to any one, and the young man who succeeded in pulling it down received the shield
and a garland of myrtle as a prize. Hence Pindar (Nem. x. 41) calls the contest
agon chalkeos. It seems that this contest took place before the procession went
out to the Heraeon, for Strabo (viii. p. 556) states that the victor went with
his prizes in solemn procession to that temple. This contest was said to have
been instituted, according to some traditions, by Acrisius and Proetus (Aelian,
V. H. iii. 24), according to others by Archinus (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 152;
Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.52, n. 1).
The Heraea or Hecatombaea of Aegina were celebrated in
the same manner as those of Argos (see Schol. ad Pind. Isthm.
viii. 114; Muller, Aeginet. p. 149; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 52, n. 19).
The Heraea of Samos, which
island also derived the worship of Hera from Argos
(Paus. vii. 4,4), were perhaps the most brilliant of all the festivals of this
divinity. A magnificent procession, consisting of maidens and married women in
splendid attire, and with floating hair (Asius, ap. Athen. xii. p. 525), together
with men and youths in armour (Polyaen. Strat. i. 23, vi. 45), went to the temple
of Hera (Heraeon). After
they arrived within the sacred precincts, the men deposited their armour; and
prayers and vows were offered up to the goddess. Her altar consisted of the ashes
of the victims which had been burnt to her. (Paus. v. 13,5).
The Heraea of Elis were celebrated
every fifth year, or in the fourth year of every Olympiad. (Corsini, Dissert.
iii. 30.) The festival was chiefly celebrated by maidens, and conducted by sixteen
matrons who wove the sacred peplus for the goddess. But before the solemnities
commenced, these matrons sacrificed a pig, and purified themselves in the well
Piera (Paus. v. 16,5). One of the principal solemnities was a race of the maidens
in the stadium, for which purpose they were divided into three classes, according
to their age. The youngest ran first and the oldest last. Their only dress on
this occasion was a chiton, which came down to the knee, and their hair was floating.
She who won the prize received a garland of oliveboughs, together with a part
of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera, and might dedicate her own painted likeness
in the temple of the goddess. The sixteen matrons were attended by as many female
attendants, and performed two dances; the one called the dance of Physcoa, the
other the dance of Hippodameia. Respecting further particulars, and the history
of this solemnity, see Paus. v. 16,2; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 3.
Heraea were celebrated in various other places; e. g. in Cos
(Athen. xiv, v), at Corinth
(Eurip. Med. 1379; Philostrat. Her. xix. 14), at Athens
(Plut. Quaest. Rom. vii), at Cnosus
in Crete (Diod. v. 72), at
Pellene in Achaia
(Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 156; ad Nem. x. 82; Aristoph. Av. 1421; Krause, Gymn.
i. pt. 2, p. 715; Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth.51, n. 28.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Agrionia, a festival which was celebrated chiefly at Orchomenus, in Boeotia, in honour of Dionysus, surnamed Agrionios, i. e. the wild or boisterous. . .
Agrionia of a similar kind were celebrated also at Thebes and at Argos (Hesych. s. v. Agriania, which seems to be only another form for Agrionia). At Thebes the festival was celebrated with games and contests, while at Argos it was a festival of the dead (nekusia).
Agrania. A festival celebrated at Argos, in memory of one
of the daughters of Proetus, who had been afflicted with madness.
(agriania). Probably the same festival as the agrania, and celebrated in Argos and Thebes.
And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus came to Argos,
and there again, because they did not honor him, he drove the women mad, and they
on the mountains devoured the flesh of the infants whom they carried at their
breasts. (Apollod. 3.5.2)
And Acrisius had a daughter Danae by Eurydice, daughter of Lacedaemon,
and Proetus had daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, by Stheneboea. When
these damsels were grown up, they went mad,(1) according to Hesiod,
because they would not accept the rites of Dionysus, but according to Acusilaus,
because they disparaged the wooden image of Hera. In their madness they roamed
over the whole Argive land, and afterwards, passing through Arcadia and the Peloponnese,
they ran through the desert in the most disorderly fashion. But Melampus, son
of Amythaon by Idomene, daughter of Abas, being a seer and the first to devise
the cure by means of drugs and purifications, promised to cure the maidens if
he should receive the third part of the sovereignty. When Proetus refused to pay
so high a fee for the cure, the maidens raved more than ever, and besides that,
the other women raved with them; for they also abandoned their houses, destroyed
their own children, and flocked to the desert. Not until the evil had reached
a very high pitch did Proetus consent to pay the stipulated fee, and Melampus
promised to effect a cure whenever his brother Bias should receive just so much
land as himself. Fearing that, if the cure were delayed, yet more would be demanded
of him, Proetus agreed to let the physician proceed on these terms. So Melampus,
taking with him the most stalwart of the young men, chased the women in a bevy
from the mountains to Sicyon with shouts and a sort of frenzied dance. In the
pursuit Iphinoe, the eldest of the daughters, expired; but the others were lucky
enough to be purified and so to recover their wits.(2) Proetus
gave them in marriage to Melampus and Bias and afterwards begat a son, Megapenthes.
(Apollod. 2.2.2)
Commentary:
1. Compare Bacch. 10.40-112, ed. Jebb; Hdt. 9.34; Strab. 8.3.19;
Diod. 4.68; Paus. 2.7.8; Paus. 2.18.4; Paus. 5.5.10; Paus. 8.18.7ff.; Scholiast
on Pind. N. 9.13 (30); Clement of Alexandria, Strom. vii.4.26, p. 844, ed. Potter;
Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Azania; Verg. Ecl. 6.48ff.; Ov. Met. 15.325ff.; Pliny,
Nat. Hist. xxv.47; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.48; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb.
iii.453; Vitruvius viii.3.21. Of these writers, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and,
in one passage (Paus. 2.18.4), Pausanias, speak of the madness of the Argive women
in general, without mentioning the daughters of Proetus in particular. And, according
to Diodorus Siculus, with whom Pausanias in the same passage (Paus. 2.18.4) agrees,
the king of Argos at the time of the affair was not Proetus but Anaxagoras, son
of Megapenthes. As to Megapenthes, see Apollod. 2.4.4. According to Virgil the
damsels imagined that they were turned into cows; and Servius and Lactantius Placidus
inform us that this notion was infused into their minds by Hera (Juno) to punish
them for the airs of superiority which they assumed towards her; indeed, in one
place Lactantius Placidus says that the angry goddess turned them into heifers
outright. In these legends Mr. A. B. Cook sees reminiscences of priestesses who
assumed the attributes and assimilated themselves to the likeness of the cow-goddess
Hera. See his Zeus, i.451ff. But it is possible that the tradition describes,
with mythical accessories, a real form of madness by which the Argive women, or
some portion of them, were temporarily affected. We may compare a somewhat similar
form of temporary insanity to which the women of the wild Jakun tribe in the Malay
Peninsula are said to be liable. "A curious complaint was made to the Penghulu
of Pianggu, in my presence, by a Jakun man from the Anak Endau. He stated that
all the women of his settlement were frequently seized by a kind of madness--presumably
some form of hysteria-- and that they ran off singing into the jungle, each woman
by herself, and stopped there for several days and nights, finally returning almost
naked, or with their clothes all torn to shreds. He said that the first outbreak
of this kind occurred a few years ago, and that they were still frequent, one
usually taking place every two or three months. They were started by one of the
women, whereupon all the others followed suit." See Ivor H. N. Evans, "Further
Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of Pahang," Journal of the Federated Malay
States Museums, ix:1, January 1920, p. 27 (Calcutta, 1920).
2. According to Bacch. 10.95ff., ed. Jebb, the father of the
damsels vowed to sacrifice twenty red oxen to the Sun, if his daughters were healed:
the vow was heard, and on the intercession of Artemis the angry Hera consented
to allow the cure.
Hecatombaea (Hekatombaia). A festival celebrated in honour of Here by the Argives and people of Aegina. It received its name from hekaton and bous, being a sacrifice of a hundred oxen, which were always offered to the goddess, and the flesh distributed among the poorest citizens. There were also public games, first instituted by Archinus, a king of Argos, in which the prize was a shield of brass with a crown of myrtle
Anthesphoria. A flower-festival ... were also solemnized in honour of other deities, especially in honour of Here, surnamed Antheia, at Argos.
ΑΣΙΝΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΚΟΡΩΝΗ
Γινόταν κάθε δύο χρόνια προς τιμή του Δρύοπα, που τον θεωρούσαν γιο του Απόλλωνα (Παυσ. 4,34,11).
ΓΥΘΕΙΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΑΚΩΝΙΑ
Carneia were also celebrated at Gythion
The object most worthy of mention is a sanctuary of Demeter on Pron. This sanctuary
is said by the Hermionians to have been founded by Clymenus, son of Phoroneus,
and Chthonia, sister of Clymenus. But the Argive account is that when Demeter
came to Argolis, while Atheras and Mysius afforded hospitality to the goddess,
Colontas neither received her into his home nor paid her any other mark of respect.
His daughter Chthoia disapproved of this conduct. They say that Colontas was punished
by being burnt up along with his house, while Chthonia was brought to Hermion
by Demeter, and made the sanctuary for the Hermionians.
At any rate, the goddess herself is called Chthonia, and Chthonia
is the name of the festival they hold in the summer of every year. The manner
of it is this. The procession is headed by the priests of the gods and by all
those who hold the annual magistracies; these are followed by both men and women.
It is now a custom that some who are still children should honor the goddess in
the procession. These are dressed in white, and wear wreaths upon their heads.
Their wreaths are woven of the flower called by the natives cosmosandalon, which,
from its size and color, seems to me to be an iris; it even has inscribed upon
it the same letters of mourning.2
Those who form the procession are followed by men leading from the
herd a full-grown cow, fastened with ropes, and still untamed and frisky. Having
driven the cow to the temple, some loose her from the ropes that she may rush
into the sanctuary, others, who hitherto have been holding the doors open, when
they see the cow within the temple, close the doors.
Four old women, left behind inside, are they who dispatch the cow.
Whichever gets the chance cuts the throat of the cow with a sickle. Afterwards
the doors are opened, and those who are appointed drive up a second cow, and a
third after that, and yet a fourth. All are dispatched in the same way by the
old women, and the sacrifice has yet another strange feature. On whichever of
her sides the first cow falls, all the others must fall on the same.
Such is the manner in which the sacrifice is performed by the Hermionians.
Before the temple stand a few statues of the women who have served Demeter as
her priestess, and on passing inside you see seats on which the old women wait
for the cows to be driven in one by one, and images, of no great age, of Athena
and Demeter. But the thing itself that they worship more than all else, I never
saw, nor yet has any other man, whether stranger or Hermionian. The old women
may keep their knowledge of its nature to themselves. (Paus. 2.35.4-8)
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Chthonia, a festival celebrated at Hermione in honour of Demeter, surnamed Chthonia (Eurip. Herc. Fur. 608). A description of it is given by Pausanias (ii. 35,4, &c.), and it is also mentioned by Aelian (H. A. xi. 4). The Lacedaemonians adopted the worship of Demeter Chthonia from the Hermioneans, some of whose kinsmen had settled in Messenia (Paus. iii. 14,5); hence we may infer that they celebrated either the same festival as that of the Hermioneans, or one similar to it.
ΚΑΡΝΑΣΙΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΜΕΛΙΓΑΛΑΣ
Ο Παυσανίας δεν τα αναφέρει αναλυτικά, λέει όμως ότι τα θεωρεί ως τα πιο σεβαστά μετά τα Ελευσίνια μυστήρια (Παυσ.4,33,5).
ΚΑΡΥΑΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΑΚΕΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ
Από τη γιορτή και τους λατρευτικούς χορούς όπως παραθέτουν : ο Παυσανίας,
ο λεξικογράφος Ησύχιος, ο Πατριάρχης Φώτιος, Ο Λουκιανός, ο Πολυδεύκης, ο βυζαντινός
γραμματικός Διομήδης προκύπτει ότι τα κύρια στοιχεία της γιορτής ήταν η θυσία
και οι χοροί. Η γιορτή άρχιζε με ύμνο που έψαλλε όμιλος παρθένων, ακολουθούσε
η θυσία των ζώων, η στέψη του αγάλματος και οι καθιερωμένοι χοροί των παρθένων
γύρω από το άγαλμα. Τα ωραιότερα κορίτσια της περιοχής έπαιρναν μέρος στο χορό.
Κατά τον Λουκιανό ο χορός δεν χορευόταν πουθενά αλλού και το ρήμα καρυατίζω σημαίνει
μιμούμαι το χορό αυτό. Σιγά - σιγά δημιουργήθηκε ο υπέροχος τύπος των Καρυάτιδων
που έδωσε τόση ζωή και έμπνευση όχι μόνο στην γλυπτική τέχνη αλλά και στην αρχιτεκτονική
και αυτό γιατί οι χορεύτριες αυτές έγιναν περίφημες για τον καλλιτεχνικό χορό
και την αρμονική κορμοστασιά τους. Ο Ρωμαίος αρχιτέκτονας και μηχανικός λέει ότι
επειδή οι Καρυάτες κατά τους περσικούς πολέμους "εμήδισαν" οι άλλοι
Έλληνες τους τιμώρησαν σκληρά. Κατέστρεψαν την πόλη και έσυραν στην αιχμαλωσία
όλους τους κατοίκους. Στις γυναίκες δεν επέτρεψαν να βγάλουν τις στολές και τα
κοσμήματα τους για μεγαλύτερη ταπείνωση. Έτσι καταστόλιστες έσκυβαν κάτω από το
βάρος της διπλής ντροπής και γι' αυτό οι αρχιτέκτονες της εποχής τοποθέτησαν αγάλματα
στη θέση των κιόνων για να σηκώνουν αιώνια το βάρος της κακής εκείνης πράξης.
Στη συνέχεια και αυτές οι Καρυάτιδες του Ερεχθείου (421 - 407 π.Χ.) ονομάστηκαν
έτσι, ενώ όταν κατασκευάστηκαν λέγονταν "Πρόσταση των Κορών". Ο Γερμανός
αρχαιολόγος Πρέλλερος μάλιστα γράφει ότι στην τελετή οι παρθένοι Καρυάτιδες έφεραν
και ήστρο στην κεφαλή και χόρευαν λατρευτικούς χορούς. Οι Καρυάτιδες έπειτα τοποθετούταν
σε οικοδομές, τάφους κλπ, όμως το χαρακτηριστικό είναι ότι το είδος της στολής
οι παρθένοι των Καρυών που χόρευαν προς τιμήν της Αρτέμιδος.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται τον Σεπτέμβριο 2004 από την ακόλουθη ιστοσελίδα της Κοινότητας Καρυών
ΚΕΛΕΑΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΝΕΜΕΑ
Γίνονταν κάθε τέσσερα χρόνια και κάθε φορά ο ιερέας ήταν διαφορετικός, είχε μάλιστα το δικαίωμα και να παντρευτεί. Αυτές ήταν μόνο οι διαφορές από τα Ελευσίνια Μυστήρια, ενώ κατά τα άλλα η τελετή παρέμενε ίδια, δηλαδή αυτά τα μυστήρια αποτελούσαν μίμηση των Ελευσινίων (Παυσ. 2,14,1).
ΚΟΡΙΝΘΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣΟΣ
A festival celebrated at Corinth in honour of Artemis. It is mentioned only by Xenophon, and no particulars are known about it.
A festival with a torch-race celebrated at Corinth in honour of Athene as a goddess of fire.
ΛΥΚΑΙΟΝ (Βουνό) ΑΡΚΑΔΙΑ
Τα αρχαία Λύκαια ήταν αθλητικοί και μουσικοί αγώνες του αρκαδικού
λαού προς τιμήν του Λυκαίου Δία και του Πάνα, προστάτη της φύσης, και γίνονταν κοντά στην "Ιερή Κορυφή" των Αρκάδων, στο όρος Λύκαιο. Καθιερώθηκαν από
το μυθικό Λυκάονα που βασίλεψε μετά τον Πελασγό. Την πρώτη αναφορά τους έχουμε
από τον Πίνδαρο που χαρακτηρίζει τα Λύκαια σαν τη σημαντικότερη γιορτή των Ελλήνων
μετά τα Ελευσίνια. Οι μετέπειτα συγγραφείς, καθώς και διάφορες επιγραφές, αναφέρονται
στα Λύκαια ή παραθέτουν καταλόγους Λυκαιονικών. Τα αρκαδικά νομίσματα του 6ου
π.Χ. αιώνα έχουν σχέση με τα αρχαία Λύκαια.
Τα αρχαία Λύκαια ήταν οι τρίτοι στην τάξη αγώνες που διαργανώνονταν
στην αρχαία Ελλάδα. Μάλιστα σύμφωνα με τον Αριστοτέλη:
"Πρώτα μεν τα Ελευσίνια δια τον καρπόν της Δήμητρος, δεύτερα δε τα Παναθήναια
επί Αστέρι τω γίγαντι υπό Αθηνάς αναιραθέντι, τρίτος ον Αργει
Δαναός έθηκε δια τον γάμον των θυγατέρων αυτού, τέταρτος ο εν Αρκαδία τεθείς υπό
Λυκάονος ος εκλήθη Λύκαια, πέμπτος ο εν Ιωλκώ
Ακάστου καθηγησαμένου επί Πελία τω πατρί, έκτος ο εν Ισθμώ
Σισύφου νομοθετήσαντος επί Μελικέρτη, έβδομος ο Ολυμπιακός Ηρακλέους νομοθετήσαντος
επί Πέλοπι, όγδοος ο εν Νεμέα
ον έθηκαν οι επτά επί Θήβας επί Αρχέμορω, ένατος ο εν Τροία
ον Αχιλλεύς επί Πατρόκλω εποίησεν, δέκατος ο Πυθικός ον οι Αμφικτύονες επί τω
Πύθωνος φόνω έθηκαν.Ταύτην την τάξιν εις Πέπλους συνθείς ο Αριστοτέλης εξέθετο
των αρχαίων και παλαιών αγώνων''.
Το όρος Λύκαιο ήταν πασίγνωστο στους αρχαίους Ελληνες για τις μεγάλες
γιορτές των Λυκαίων οι οποίες ήταν εφάμιλλες των Παναθηναίων και των Ελευσινίων.
Κάθε εννέα χρόνια μαζεύονταν οι Αρκάδες κι οι Πελοποννήσιοι στην ιερή κορυφή για
να τιμήσουν τον Δία και να πάρουν μέρος στους αγώνες.
Μέχρι το 2ο μ.Χ. αιώνα τα Λύκαια τελούνταν στο Λύκαιον όρος δίπλα
στα ιερά των θεών Δία και Πάνα και αποτελούσαν μέρος των εορταστικών εκδηλώσεων
που ένωναν το νικητή με τη θεία δύναμη. Μετά το 2ο μ.Χ. αιώνα τα Λύκαια μεταφέρθηκαν
στην Μεγαλόπολη. Οι αγώνες
διεξάγονταν κάθε τέσσερα χρόνια, μάλλον στις αρχές του Αυγούστου.
Τα Λύκαια ήταν η πρώτη μορφή κοινής γιορτής των ανθρώπων, η πρώτη
μαζική ανθρώπινη εκδήλωση και γεννήθηκαν στο μεταίχμιο της απογείωσης του ανθρώπου
προς τα πνευματικά ενδιαφέροντα, οι δε μύθοι γύρω από αυτούς έχουν τα στοιχεία
της εποχής τους. Θεωρούνται αγώνες πιο παλιοί από τα Παναθήναια και τους Ολυμπιακούς
αγώνες, και κατά τον Παυσανία:
"Δεν πιστεύω η γιορτή των Παναθηναίων να καθιερώθηκε πριν τα Λύκαια... τους Ολυμπιακούς αγώνες τους αφήνω έξω απο τη διήγηση αυτή, γιατί την αρχή τους την τοποθετούν σε χρόνους παλαιότερους από το ανθρώπινο γένος, αφού η παράδοση λέει ότι εκεί αγωνίστηκαν ο Κρόνος και ο Δίας στην πάλη και ότι έτρεξαν πρώτοι οι Κουρήτες."
H πανάρχαιη καταγωγή των Λυκαίων είναι δύσκολο να αμφισβητηθεί, αφού
στο Πάριο Χρονικό -μία μεγάλη στήλη από μάρμαρο Πάρου πάνω στην οποία έχουν γραφτεί
τα σπουδαιότερα γεγονότα από το 1582-263 π.Χ. και είχε τοποθετηθεί ΒΑ
της πόλεως της Πάρου- χαράχτηκε
στα μέσα του 3ου π.Χ. αιώνα από κάποιο λόγιο η επιγραφή: "......και τα Λύκαια
εν Αρκαδία εγένοντο, και αι εκεχειρίαι του Λυκάονος εδόθησαν εν Ελλησιν, έτη
[Χ].[Δ]...., βασιλεύοντος Αθηνών Πανδίονος του Κέκροπος". Το παραπάνω κείμενο
- μέρος της επιγραφής - χρονολογείται κάπου ανάμεσα στα 1398-1294 π.Χ.
Ως εκ τούτου, τα Λύκαια ήδη τελούνται μέσα στην εν λόγω χρονική περίοδο.
Από την πλευρά τους οι Αρκάδες θεωρούσαν τα Λύκαια μεγάλη γιορτή γι'
αυτό και την τιμούσαν όταν ερχόταν η εποχή της, όπου και αν ευρίσκονταν. Ο Ξενοφώντας
στην Κύρου Ανάβαση μας περιγράφει πώς τιμήθηκαν τα Λύκαια επίσημα, ενώ ο στρατός
βρισκόταν σε εκστρατεία στα βάθη της Ασίας: "Ενταύθα έμεινεν (Κύρος) ημέρας τρεις
εν αις Ξενίας ο Αρκάς τα Λύκαια έθυσε και αγώνα έθηκε, τα δε άθλα ήσαν στλεγκίδες
χρυσαί, εθεώρη δε τον αγώνα Κύρος". (Ξενοφώντος Κύρου Ανάβασις 2.1) [ "Εδώ έμεινε
(ο Κύρος) τρεις ημέρες, κατά τις οποίες ο Ξενίας ο Αρκάς έκανε θυσία και οργάνωσε
γιορτή για τα Λύκαια, τα δε έπαθλα ήσαν χρυσές στελγκίδες (ξύστρες κορμιού), την
γιορτή δε παρακολουθούσε και ο Κύρος." ]
Κατά την τέλεση των Λυκαίων πρώτα γινόταν η θυσία στο βωμό του
Λυκαίου Δία στην κορυφή του Λυκαίου όρους και κατόπιν διεξάγονταν τ' αγωνίσματα
των ανδρών και των παίδων καθώς και οι μουσικοί αγώνες. Είχαν δε το όνομα του
αρχιερέα του ιερού του Δία ή του Πάνα που είχε την ιερατεία κατά την διεξαγωγή
των αγώνων.
Τα κυριότερα αγωνίσματα των Λυκαίων ήταν: το στάδιο, ο δίαυλος, ο
δόλιχος, το πένταθλο, το παγκράτιο, η πάλη, η πυγμή, καθώς κι οι αρματοδρομίες:
η συνωρίς, το τέθριππο τέλειων ίππων και το τέθριππο πώλων. Τα αγωνίσματα τελούνταν
με σωστή οργάνωση και κάτω από ορισμένους κανονισμούς συμμετοχής και άθλησης,
και είχαν σαν απώτερο σκοπό την πνευματική, ψυχική και σωματική άσκηση και υγεία
των νέων και πάντα απέβλεπαν στην τελείωση της ανθρώπινης φύσης.
Στα Λύκαια όλοι οι αρχαίοι Αρκάδες εκδήλωναν έμπρακτα τη φυλετική τους
ενότητα: έπαιρναν μέρος με το εθνικό τους όνομα, Αρκάδες, σαν μια ομάδα, χωρίς
να αναφέρεται η πόλη της ιδιαίτερής τους πατρίδας και της καταγωγής τους. Επίσης,
και σαν Αρκάδες αναγράφονταν Λυκαιονίκες στις αναμνηστικές στήλες και στα αγάλματα.
Οσο κι αν ήταν διαιρεμένοι μεταξύ τους, όταν έφταναν στο Λύκαιον όρος, ένοιωθαν
ότι βρίσκονταν στην κοινή αρχική κοιτίδα των προπατόρων τους και διαγωνίζονταν
στα Λύκαια με τους άλλους Ελληνες θεωρώντας τους εαυτούς τους μέρος ενός κοινού
λαού.
Το κείμενο παρατίθεται τον Μάρτιο 2003 από την ακόλουθη ιστοσελίδα, με φωτογραφίες, του ARCADIA website, του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών
A festival celebrated in honour of Zeus on the Lycaean Mount in Arcadia. In the sacred enclosure on its highest peak, where, according to popular belief, no object cast a shadow, there was an altar of heaped-up earth, and before it two columns with gilt eagles on top of them, looking to the east. At the festivals, probably celebrated every ninth year, the priests, who alone were allowed to enter the precincts, offered mysterious sacrifices to the god, including a human sacrifice. These were said to have been instituted by Lycaon, and were kept up till the second century A.D. The man who had been chosen by lot to perform the sacrifice was afterwards compelled to flee, and wandered about for nine years; like Lycaon, in the shape of a wolf, so the people believed. In the tenth he was allowed to return and regained his human form--i. e. the taint was removed. Besides the festival there were also athletic contests.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited April 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Lycaea, a festival celebrated by the Arcadians in honour of Zeus Lycaeus on Mount Lycaeon. The account given by Pausanias (viii. 38) is that it was founded by Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, and that besides the games (of which we have no particular account) there was a sacrifice to Zeus of a child, whose blood was poured over the altar, after which Lycaon himself was turned into a wolf, and he records the tradition that ever after at the annual festival a man was turned into a wolf for a period of ten years, or, if he tasted human flesh, for life. It is not improbable that these wehrwolf stories, however ancient, are a perversion of something older still from a false connection of the name with lykos, and similarly that the references to the sacrifice as a rite of the pastoral Arcadians as a protection against wolves, like the Roman Lupercalia are equally illusory. It is more likely that the name of the mountain belongs to the root lyk- (luk-), light, as in the Attic hill Lycabettus, with which we may compare many mountain names of other countries, such as the Strahlhorn. These names come from the fact of the mountain peak catching the sunlight first and retaining it last. It is a remarkable coincidence that Pausanias, speaking of Lycosura, the town founded by Lycaon on the Lycaeon mountain, which he calls the most ancient in Greece, uses the phrase kai tauten eiden ho helios proten. In accordance with this origin of the name, the worship was the earliest Pelasgian worship of Zeus, represented by no statue, but dwelling in light on the summit of the Lycaeon mountain, where was the altar of human sacrifice on the highest point, with two pillars standing eastward of it surmounted in later times by two golden eagles. Below the altar was a grove, which no man might enter, where it was believed that no shadow could fall, and in the grove the holy spring Hagno, in which the priest in time of drought dipped an oak-bough after sacrifice (Paus. viii. 38.) The sacrifice was particularly connected with prayers for rain; and it is probable that human sacrifices were retained to a late period. Pausanias does not mention their discontinuance, and says, epi toutou tou bomou toi Lukaioi Dii thuousin en aporretoi. polupagmonesai de ou moi ta es ten thusian hedu en, echeto de hos echei kai hos eschen ex arches. The contests seem to have included horse-races and foot-races; for Pausanias mentions in front of the grove of Pan on the same mountain hippodromos kai stadion, where at one time the Lycaean festival was held.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Γιορτή με αγώνες που την καθιέρωσε ο Λυκάων (Παυσ. 8.2.1, 8.38.5).
ΜΕΣΣΗΝΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΙΘΩΜΗ
Carneia were also celebrated at Messene
ΜΥΣΑΙΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΡΙΚΑΛΑ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΑΣ
Η γιορτή αυτή κρατούσε εφτά μέρες. Την τρίτη μέρα οι άντρες, αλλά ακόμα και τα αρσενικά ζώα, απομακρύνονταν από το Ιερό και τις ιεροπραξίες τελούσαν μόνες οι γυναίκες κατά τη διάρκεια της νύχτας. Την επόμενη μέρα οι άντρες επέστρεφαν και άρχιζαν με τις γυναίκες ανταλλαγή πειραγμάτων και αστείων (Παυσ. 7,27,9-10). Η γιορτή αυτή ήταν μάλλον συγγενική προς τα Θεσμοφόρια, που τελούνταν αυστηρά και μόνο από γυναίκες με σκοπό την καρποφορία της γης.
ΣΙΚΥΩΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΑ
A propitiatory festival solemnized at Sicyon in honour of Apollo and Artemis.
Carneia were also celebrated at Sikyon
ΦΛΙΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΝΕΜΕΑ
Πριν να τελέσουν τα μυστήρια, οι Φλιάσιοι έκαναν σπονδές στον Αραντα και στους γιους του κοιτάζοντας προς τους τάφους τους στον Αραντίνο λόφο (Παυσ. 2,12,5).
ΑΡΓΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΡΓΟΛΙΔΑ
Antinoeia, annual festivals and quinquennial games, which the Roman emperor Hadrian instituted in honour of his favourite, Antinous, after he was drowned in the Nile, or, according to others, had sacrificed himself for his sovereign, in a fit of religious fanaticism. The festivals were celebrated at Athens, Eleusis, in Bithynia, at Argos, and Mantineia, in which places he was worshipped as a god. Afterwards this festival appears to have been discontinued. (Spart. Hadr., c. 14; Dio Cass. lxix. 10; Pans. viii. 9, 4)
ΕΠΙΔΑΥΡΟΣ ΛΙΜΗΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΜΟΝΕΜΒΑΣΙΑ
Inoa, festivals celebrated in several parts of Greece, in honour of the ancient heroine Ino. At Megara she was honoured with an annual saerifice, because the Megarians believed that her body had been cast by the waves upon their coast, and that it had been found and buried there by Kleso and Tauropolis (Paus. i. 42, § 8). Another festival of Ino was celebrated at Epidaurus Limera, in Laconia. In the neighbourhood of this town there was a small but very deep lake, called the water of Ino, and at the festival of the heroine the people threw barley-cakes into the water. When the cakes sank it was considered a propitious sign, but when they swam on the surface it was an evil sign. (Paus. iii. 23, § 5.) An annual festival, with contests and sacrifices, in honour of Ino, was also held on the Corinthian Isthmus, and was said to have been instituted by king Sisyphus. (Tzetzes ad Lycophr. 107.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΙΣΘΜΙΑ (Αρχαίο ιερό) ΛΟΥΤΡΑΚΙ ΠΕΡΑΧΩΡΑΣ
Festivals celebrated at Megara, at Epidaurus Limera (in Laconia), and on the Corinthian Isthmus in honour of Ino
Με εκφωνήσεις λόγων και τέλεση αγώνων στους οποίους μόνο Σπαρτιάτες μπορούσαν να λάβουν μέρος (Παυσ. 3,14,1).
Hecatombaea (Hekatombaia). An anniversary sacrifice called by this name in Laconia, and offered for the preservation of the hundred towns which once flourished in that country.
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