Listed 16 sub titles with search on: Ancients' feasts, games and rituals for wider area of: "ARGOLIS Prefecture PELOPONNISOS" .
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
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)
ALEA (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
In honor of Dionysus they celebrate every other year a festival called Sciereia, and at this festival, in obedience to a response from Delphi, women are flogged, just as the Spartan lads are flogged at the image of the Orthian goddess.(Paus. 8.23.1)
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
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.
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.
ASKLEPIEION OF EPIDAURUS (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOLIS
Asclepiea. The Asclepiean games were conducted in Epidaurus in honor of the hero-doctor Asclepius, the son of Apollo, in the sanctuary dedicated to both father and son. The Asclepiea, already active since the beginning of the 5th century BC, took place every four years, nine days after the Isthmia and lasted from June to July. During the Roman years, the games were called Great Asclepiea in order to be distinguished from the Apolloneia, an annual celebration that took place during the same time. Naked races were performed during the games (stade, diaulos, hippios or four-stade race, hoplite race), jumping, discus-throwing, javelin, boxing, pankration and the equestrian contests, chariot races and finally music, singing and drama competitions. The first day began with a sacrifice to Asclepius and Apollo, which was followed by a banquet with the participation of the believers. The contests began the following day.
This text is cited June 2005 from the Foundation of the Hellenic World URL below, which contains images.
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
IREON (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOS - MYKINES
Heraea. The Heraean games were conducted in honor of goddess Hera in the sanctuary dedicated to her, at Prosymna in the wider Mycenae area, 8 km northeast of Argos. The Heraea were conducted already from the Geometric and Archaic period, originally every three years and later on every five years, from the end of June to the beginning of July. The competitions were athletic (running, stade, hoplite, dolichos, pentathlon), equestrian and chariot races, as well as music and drama competitions. The winners received a crown of myrtle and bronze prizes, such as shields, tripods, caldrons and urns. As a result of the bronze prizes, the Heraea were also known by the name of "Chalkeos agon" (Bronze competition). During the 4th-3th century BC, the games were known as "Ekatomboea" whereas from the second half of the 3rd century BC the games were celebrated in Argos along with the Nemean and were named "Heraea at Argos". From the 1st century AD the games were referred to as "the shield from Argos", as a result of the bronze shield that was given as a prize to the winners, a prize that had a particular religious significance to the city. Furthermore, inside Larissa, the acropolis of Argos, lay a sacred fortress named Aspida (shield).
This text is cited June 2005 from the Foundation of the Hellenic World URL below, which contains images.
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.)
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