THE PANATHENAIC FESTIVALS

‘Two Panathenaic festivals are held at Athens, one annually and one, called the Great Panathenaia every 4 years’

The Panathenaea (‘all-Athenian festival') was Athens' most important festival and one of the grandest in the entire Greek world.

Except for slaves, all inhabitants of the city and suburbs could take part in the festival.  The Panathenaea was one of those occasions when women could get out of the house and take an active role in a public function. 

Even metics (resident aliens) and freed slaves could participate (up to a certain point).  

The holiday fell on the 28th day of the month called Hekatombaion, roughly equivalent to the last ½ of July and first ½ of August, and the first month of the Athenian year. 

This holiday was believed to be an observance of Athena's birthday (on which she sprang fully grown and dressed in armour, from the head of Zeus) and honoured the goddess as the city's patron divinity: Athena Polias ('Athena of the city').

The arrangements for the festival were so complicated that a board of 10 officials, called Athlothetai, were appointed for a four-year term.  For the last hectic 24 days, they were fed at the public expense.

The festival began with all night singing and dancing on the Acropolis (called a pannychis), a dawn procession, a sacrifice and a feast. 

By the late fifth century, there were competitions in music and dancing as well as athletic contests and horse races.

The prizes were sets of ‘Panathenaic amphorai’, pots two foot high filled with sacred oil.  On the front was a black figure Athene with a spear; on the back a picture of the appropriate contest.

There were also contests between musicians and rhapsodes, who recited the poems of Homer.  Some contests were limited to citizens, like the ‘contest in manliness’ in which teams from the tribes competed in size and strength.

There was also a torch race, where each competitor had to run from an altar in the Academy gymnasium to the altar of Athene on the Acropolis without the torch going out.

The climax of the festival was a great procession to escort  a new robe (peplos) for Athene Polias, Protector of the City, to her ancient olive-wood statue, the most holy object on the Acropolis.

The new peplos was woven over a period of nine months by girls from noble families.

The procession is illustrated on the frieze of the Parthenon.  It included the girls who had made the peplos, girls carrying baskets of grain for the sacrifice on their heads, metics wearing purple robes and carrying trays of offerings, old men with olive branches, allies and colonists bringing cows for sacrifice and weapons, as required by law.  There were also hoplites, chariots, cavalry, marshals and Athenian officials.

After the Peplos had been presented, there was a great sacrifice of cows and sheep, and everyone had a chance to eat and drink.

The festival gave the Athenians a powerful sense of the magnificence and power of their city under the protection of Athene.