Anthesteria

vol. I p.2371-2375

Anthesteria

(Ἀνθεστήρια) is, as the name suggests, one festival - though not the main festival - of the month Anthesterion. We know best of the Anthesteria in Athens, though according to Thuc. II 15 it was common to all Ionians; since according to the ideas of the 5th century, and, as Solon in Aristot. resp. Ath. c. 5, 2 shows, the 6th century, <60> Athens was the metropolis of the twelve cities, Thucydides naturally considered the festival to have its home there. Amongst other places, we know of Anethesterias in Teos (CIG 3044), Branchidai i.e. Miletus (CIG add. 2883 c erg. Ἀν[θεστηρί]οις), in Kyzikos, the colony of Miletus (CIG 3655, ibid. Διονύσια and the month Ἀνθεστηριών), also in Rhodes (according to Dittenberger De sacris Rhodiorum I p. IXf. Hesych. s. Ἀνθεστηριάδας. Bekk. An. 215, 16); <page break 2371/2372> perhaps the Floralia in Messalia also suggest an Anthesteria in Phokeia (Iustin. XLIII 4, 6. K. F. Hermann Gott. Alt.² § 68, 40). According to the Μαγνητικά of Possis frg. 1 (FHG IV 483), Themistokles first introduced the Χόες in Magnesia on the Maeander, so it was a later copy of Athens. Outside of the Ionian area, it also seems that Χόες, so also likely an Anthesteria, were put on in Syracuse at the time of a Dionysios (Timaeus frg. 28, FHG I 225) and in the pontic Herakleia (? Antig. Caryst. p. 126 Wilamow. on Ath. X 437 e). <10> The god who the old-Ionian festival was for, according to Thucydides loc. cit., was Dionysos; it is difficult to imagine there ever being an Anthesteria without Dionysos, as A. Mommsen Heortologie 19f. does, although the festivals in Athens did have very different components. For the Athenian festival celebrations, we have a rich tradition about the 5th-2nd century, though it is in no way without gaps; <20> Aristophanes’ Acharnians, the Atthidographers, the orator Apollodorus (Ps.-Demosth. or. LX, henceforth only ‘in Neaeram’), and the Alexandrian scholar of the same name all make up the most predominant part of tradition. The full name Ἀνθεστήρια is found, amongst other places, in Apd. frg. 28 (FHG I 433) and in the saying θύραζε Κᾶρες (see below) οὐκέτ’ Ἀνθεστήρα in Zenob. IV 33 and the parallel-sources collected by Leutsch Paroem. Gr. I 93. <30> Thucydides loc. cit. was also able to describe it as essentially being τὰ ἀρχαιότερα Διονύσια, and in informal language, people could also refer to it by the main festival day/days (eg. Aristoph. Ach. 1076 ὑπὸ τοὺς Χόας … καὶ Χύτρους). Mommsen loc. cit. 347ff.

The date is certain: on 11th Anthesterion, the Πιθοιγία took place (Plut. qu. conv. III 7, 1), on 12th the Χόες (Harp.; in Thuc. II 15 many consider the date as being interpolated), on 13th the Χύτροι (Philoch. frg. 163, FHG I 411). <40> The days should be considered from evening to evening (cf. Unger Handb. d. kl. Alt. I 552); just as modern scholars, Didymos placed the Choes and Chytroi on one day (Schol. Ar. Ach. 1076). The festival was celebrated at the time of year when the fresh wine of the previous autumn had finally finished fermenting and was drinkable, Plut. qu. conv. VIII 10, 3, i.e. at the end of February. More than the grammarians’ etymologies of the name Anthesteria (Et. M. s. Διονύσια, Ἀνθεστηριών), <50> the celebrations of the first day Πιθοιγία, barrel-opening, probably suggests an evening of preparation with the family. Sacrifices were made, the new wine was tapped, and it was almost certainly tried during the Χόες; the slaves were allowed to take part in this (Schol. Hes. op. 370). This last point, however, was hardly the case for the whole festival and to the extent that Mommsen 350 and K. F. Hermann Gott. Alt.² § 43. 10 assume, based on a false etymology of the saying θύραζε Κᾶρες etc.; see below. <60>

The day which follows on from this evening still belonged to the Πιθοιγία until the sun set, at which point the main festival, the Χόες, began. However, in reality, people wouldn’t have been so strict with the timings. About the preparations, the most detail is in Mommsen 351ff. The myth of Orestes’ arrival in Athens explains the name of the festival, Eur. Iph. T. 947-60. Phanod. frg. 13 (FHG I 368). <page break 2372/2373> Apd. (περὶ θεῶν) frg. 28. Plut. qu. conv. II 10, 1; Aristoph. Ach. 1000ff. gives an image of the actual celebrations, though of course with comedic license. It is the traditional side, the public feast and the banquet, which the βασιλεύς put on: in the 5th century the ἄρχων, in the myth of the real king Demophon (Phanod.) or his sons (Plut.) or Pandion (Apd.), since he is the absolute leader (in the time of the empire, changes may have been made; <10> in the inscription CIA III 1160 the βασιλεύς organised the (Ephebe-) agon at the Lenaia, and the ἀγορανόμοι lead the Κύθρους; time: 192/3 CE). Every person brought their own food and a χοῦς with them; the king (according to Aristophanes) organised places to relax, wreaths and anointments, sweets and πόρναι (? Ar. Ach. 1084ff.), and arranged a competition for the revellers; the victor received a skin of wine as a prize from the judges (as well as an ivy crown, Schol. Ar. Ach. 1002; a cake, Phanod. loc. cit., an exceptionally expensive prize Timaeus frg. 28). <20> This does not, however, mean that it was impossible for there to have been private gatherings as well: teachers invited their students which they had just received their payment from (Ath. X 437; cf. the painting of the boys in Didymoi ἐν τοῖς Ἀν[θεστηρί]οις CIG add. 2883), and they would sit down together on the streets with wine (the oracle in Demosth. XXI 52 goes εὐρυχόρους κατ’ ἀγυιὰς ἱστάναι ὡραίαν Βρομίου χάριν ἄμμιγα πάντας; cf. E. Maass De Lenaeo et Delphinio V and in general Mommsen 360. Stengel Kultus-Alt. 164, 14). <30> All children over the age of three were crowned with flowers; the fact that boys and epheboi keenly took part in the festival celebrations, according to the view of a few scholars, is shown by the images on two vases, the latter of which also shows a depiction of the shape of the χοῦς (one in Berlin: Arch. Ztg. X 1852 Taf. XXXVII, on this Gerhard p. 404ff. = Furtwängler Berl. Vas. Kat. II nr. 2658; <40> the other Gaz. arch. IV 1878 pl. 7, and on it Fivel ibid. p. 155f. V 1879, 6-18; particularly 16ff. about the participation of boys. Daremberg et Saglio Dict. des ant. I 1128; about the χοῦς Krates in Ath. XI 495 a). A state subsidy to a few people for the costs of the festival is an invention of the 4th century. Demades provided every ½ mina (Plut. praec. reip. ger. 25. Schäfer Demosth.² III 211). <50>

The symbolic worship of Dionysos with the βασίλιννα, the future wife of the archon βασιλεύς, forms the more serious religion part of the Choes-festival (in Neaer. 72-78). As well as her, there were 14 honoured virgin women, γερα(ι)ραί, representing the 14 altars which were set up at the Chytroi-festival of Dionysos (Et. M. 227, 36. Poll. VIII 108), and a ἱερὸς κῆρυξ (Euneide according to Toepffer Att. Geneal. 183f.) for the sacrifices. The law which contained the instructions for the βασιλεύς stood next to the alter on a column, <60> in the oldest sanctuary of Dionysos, at Limnai, which was only opened once per year, on the Choes-days, when all other temples were closed (see below). This temple and the room which only the βασίλιννα was allowed to enter on the day of the γάμος seem to be inseparable from each other. Aristotle resp. Ath. 3, 5 has told us that the γάμος took place in the (τὸ νῦν καλούμενον) Βουκολεῖον, <page break 2373/2374> but this was near the Prytaneion. If the Prytaneion was in the same place from the time of Aristotle up to Pausanias I 18, 3, then we have to place the Bukoleion and with it, as it seems, most likely the Limnai too in the north of the citadel. Following W. Dörpfeld’s ideas, E. Maass De Lenaeo et Delphino, Ind. schol. hib. Greifsw. 1891/2 has done this logically. <10> Of course, he is forced to accept Thuc. II 15, who describes Olympieion, Pythion, the sanctuary of Ge and of Dionysos in Limnai, as being suburban ἱερά of the pre-Theseion city, which lay predominantly in the south. Just as logically, E. Curtius places the Bukoleion, Prytaneion, and Limnai in the south, in the disputed ἀρχαία ἀγορά; in the Hellenistic time period, each state building was supposedly built facing north, where Pausanias saw them (Stadtgesch. v. Athen 51. 244). <20> On the other hand, Judeich Rh. Mus. XLVII 53 does take the Bukoleion as being in the north, but they also stick with v. Wilamowitz’s previously defended suggestion Herm. XXI 617 that the Limnai was in the south-east at the Olympieion. While this issue remains undecided, it is impossible to get a clear picture of the Dionysian festival; and yet it would hardly be possible to get a solution in any way other than digging. The γάμος was connected to the πομπή, <30> whose exuberance is shown by the mocking speeches ἐκ τῶν ἁμαξῶν (Phot. s. v. Harp. Phot. Suid. s. πομπείας καὶ πομπεύειν) and the fact that they swarmed around dressed as horai, nymphs, and bacchae (Philostr. Ap. Tyan. IV 21). According to Mommsen, the timings for the Χόες are: in the evening, the πομπή and γάμος, on the following day the feast; however, only the γάμος had to be at a specific time; the carnival didn’t have such strict laws imposed upon it. The cheerful banquet ended in the evening, the Χύτροι began, <40> which was dedicated to Dionysos and the Chthonian Hermes, as well as to the departed souls. Everyone wrapped their wreath around the χοῦς and with it, they went (out of the city?) πρὸς τὸ ἐν Λίμναις τέμενος to the priestess of the god; in the sanctuary, everyone would sacrifice the rest of their wine (Phanod. frg. 13, cf. the 14 altars, Alciphr. II 3, 11, and the sacrifice of Themistokles in Magnesia a./M. to Dionysos Χοοπότης). <50> The day (or all days of the Anthesteria) was seen as an unpure one (Phot. s. μιαρὰ ἡμέρα. Hesych. s. μιαραὶ ἡμέραι; cf. Eustath. II. XXIV 526, which describes the πιθοιγία as ἀποφράς = dies nefastus), on which the souls of the dead descended; in order to avoid them being dirtied, they closed the temples (Phanod. frg. 13 for the Χόες, apparently for the first time because of Orestes) and made use of all kinds of defensive tools in their homes (pitch and buckthorn); mainly, they would sacrifice to Hermes χθόνιος so that he would be gracious towards the dead, Theop. frg. 342 (FHG I 332). <60> About the whole festival, Preller-Robert Griech. Myth.⁴ I 406 and particularly Rohde Psyche I 216ff. In every house, they would cook the πανσπερμία in a pot, χύτρα (Theop. loc. cit.), and they may have thought that the souls took part in the feast, which meant that they chased them out at the end with the cry θύραζε κῆρες, οὐκέτ’ Ἀνθεστήρια (as according to Phot. s. v. Crusius in Ersch and Gruber s. Keren. Rohde loc. cit. 219). <page break 2374/2375> People have also connected the Χόες with the χοαί for the dead, Schol. Ar. Ach. 961 according to an oracle. Mythically, the sacrifice was connected to those who perished in the Deucalion-flood (cf. Maass loc. cit. VIII, and in contrast Judeich loc. cit. 57); because of this, people have also connected the customs associated with the flood with the Chytroi: <10> the ὑδροφορία (Et. M. Hesych.) and the sacrifice of flour and honey in the chasm in the τέμενος of Ge (inside the area of the Olympieion), which the flood supposedly ran down through (Paus. I 18, 7), Rohde 218, 3. Finally, the ἀγῶνες χύτρινοι belong here, for details of which, of course, the articles drama and comedy should be referenced. The orator Lykurgos gave a law which, as before, stated that a comedic agon should take place in the theatre at the Chytroi, καὶ τὸν νικήσαντα εἰς ἄστυ καταλέγεσθαι, <20> ‘should be included in the poets competing at the City Dionysia’ (Mommsen 368. Vit. X orat. 841 e. f according to Philochoros, cf. his frg. 137, FHG 407 and on it Müller p. 405). The frogs of Aristophanes strike up a song (215ff.) which they have already sung to the god before at the Chrytoi-festival in Limnai, when the swarming komos was approaching their τέμενος, i.e. they are croaking on the stage now, just as their predecessors, the actual frogs, once croaked ἐν ταῖς λίμναις; <30> the κῶμος is the end of the Choes-feast, Phanod. frg. 13, see above (else Mommsen 369.)

Literature mostly already named; the most detailed is A. Mommsen Heortologie 345-373. cf. Stengel Griech. Kultusaltertümer 163-65. F. A. Voigt in Roscher’s Lex. d. Myth. I 1071ff.

[Hiller v. Gaertringen.]

This article is referenced by: Dionysia (1-2), Dionysos (1-2)