Aphrodite and Adonis[edit]
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The Adonia (Ἀδώνια), or Adonic feasts, were ancient feasts instituted in honour of Aphrodite and Adonis, and observed with great solemnity among the Greeks, Egyptians, etc. The festival took place in the late summer and lasted between one and eight days. The event was run by women and attended exclusively by them. All Athenian women were allowed to attend, including widows, wives and unmarried women of different social classes.[1] The Adonis festival was held annually to honor the death of Adonis, Aphrodite's mortal lover who was killed by a boar. Women would participate in the festival by planting their own gardens of Adonis inside of fractured pottery vessels to transport to the rooftops where the ceremonies took place.[2] On the first day, they brought into the streets statues of Adonis, which were laid out as corpses; and they observed all the rites customary at funerals, beating themselves and uttering lamentations, in imitation of the cries of Venus for the death of her paramour. The second day was spent in merriment and feasting; because Adonis was allowed to return to life, and spend half of the year with Aphrodite. The women would march through the city to the sea, where Adonis was born and buried. This was preceded by wailing on the rooftops that could be heard throughout the city. The Adonis was an event where women were allowed unusual freedom and independence, as they could socialize without constraint under their own terms.[1]
Citizenship Festivals
editThe Apaturia (Greek: Ἀπατούρια) were Ancient Greek festivals held annually by all the Ionian towns, except Ephesus and Colophon who were excluded due to acts of bloodshed. The festivals honor the origins and the families of the men who were sent to Ionia by the kings. The festivals are attended exclusively by the descendants of these men. In these festivals, the males would present their sons to the clan to swear an oath of legitimacy. The oath was made to preserve the purity of the bloodline and their connection to the original settlers. The oath was followed by a sacrifice of either a sheep or a goat, and then the sons' names getting inscribed in the register.[3]
At Athens, the Apaturia, a Greek citizenship festival took place on the 11th, 12th and 13th days of the month Pyanepsion (mid-October to mid-November). At this festival, the various phratries, or clans, of Attica met to discuss their affairs, along with initiating the sons into the clans.[4]
Sacrifice in Athenian Festivals
editBlood sacrifices were an essential part of Athenian life. Athenians used blood sacrifices to make the accord between gods and men, and it renewed the bonds of the community. Many animals were sacrificed in Athenian festivals, but the most common animals were sheep, lamp, and goat because they were readily available in Athens and the cost of them were minimal. Bigger sacrifices included bulls and oxen. Goats were commonly sacrificed at festivals of Dioynous, Apotropaiso, Lykeios, and Pythois.[5]
Sacrifice in Athenian festivals was very formal, and the act was less focused on violence or aggression, and more focused on ritual. Women and men had very specific roles in sacrifices. Only women virgins called kanephoroi could lead the procession, as they were required to carry the sacred implements and provisions at the sacrifices. The woman was also required to raise the ololuge, this is an screaming howl the woman would preform as the men would begin killing the animal. The men were the sacrificers, they would cut their hair and then butcher the animal on the altar. The animal would be skinned and then cooked over the altar for the participants to consume.[5] Sacrifice had three main steps, the preparation of the sacrifice, the distribution and consumption of the sacrificial animal.[6]
Other forms of sacrifice took place at Athenian festivals apart from blood sacrifices. Offerings of agricultural products took place at the Proerosia, the Thargelia, the Pyanospia, the Thalysia and the Pithoigia. These offerings were made to ask for help producing crops and breeding animals from Gods and Goddesses such as Demeter, Apollo, and Artemis. The offerings were more likely to happen in areas prone to frost, drought, rain and hailstorms. The offerings consisted of liquid and solid food, and was usually presented daily or at common feasts.[7]
Women in Athenian Festivals
editAthenian women were allowed to attend the majority of festivals, but often had limited participation in the festivities or feasts. They would have been escorted by a family member or husband to the male domination festivals, as it would have been seen as inappropriate for a unmarried girl or married woman to go unsupervised. Non-citizen women and slaves would be present as prostitutes or workers for the male guests, but were not included in the actual festival. [8] Select male festivals would include women in their festivities. Often it was high-born women who were allowed to attend the Panathenaia as basketbeares, but would not participate in the feast itself. The public festivals of Anthesteria and Dionysia, included women both in attendance and rites of sacrifice.[9] The festival of Argive held in honor of Hera was attended by both men and women. The men and women's involvement in Argive was close to equal, as they shared rites of feasting and sacrifice.[10]
Athenian women held their own festivals that often excluded men. Festivals such as the Thesmophoria, Adonia, and Skira. Festivals hosted by women were not supported by the state and instead were private festivals run and funded by wealthy women. For this reason they were often hosted inside homes and held at night.[11] The Thesmophoria was an major women festival held in the honour of Demeter. Women festivals were often dedicated to an woman goddess and were held as a way of social, religious and personal expression for women. Wealthy women would sponsor the events and the women would elect other women to preside over the festival. Common themes of festivals hosted by women was the transitioning from a girl to a woman, as well as signs of fertility. Rarely select men would be invited to the festivals, and in some cases they would be allowed to participate. These mean were typically supporters of women rights and were often related or married to a woman participant. There were festivals that could also be held as a way to protest the power of the men in Athens, and empower the women in the community. The Skira was an example of a woman only event that held annually in the summer as an opposition to men. This festival was held in honour of the Goddesses Athena and Demeter, and the women would eat garlic as it was linked to sexual abstinence to oppose the men and their husbands.[12]
References
edit- ^ a b Fredal, James (2002). "Herm Choppers, the Adonia, and Rhetorical Action in Ancient Greece". College English. 64 (5): 590–612 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Smith, Tyler Jo (June 2017). "The Athenian Adonia in Context: The Adonis Festival as Cultural Practice". Religious Studies Review. 43 (2 ed.): 163–164 – via Ebsco.
- ^ Herodotus i. 147.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Apaturia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160.
- ^ a b Osborne, Robin (1993). "Women and Sacrifice in Classical Greece". The Classical Quarterly. 43 (2 ed.): 392–405 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Demaris, Richard. E (2013). "Sacrifice, an Ancient Mediterranean Ritual". Biblical Theology Bulletin. 43 (2 ed.): 60–73.
- ^ Wagner- Hasel, B (2016). "GIFTS FOR THE GODS". The Classical Review. 66 (2 ed.): 468–470 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Burton, Joan (1998). "Women's Commensality in the Ancient Greek World". Greece and Rome. 45 (2): 148–149 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Burton, Joan (1998). "Women's Commensality in the Ancient Greek World". Greece and Rome. 45 (2): 150 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Burton, Joan (1998). "Women's Commensality in the Ancient Greek World". Greece and Rome. 45 (2): 157 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Burton, Joan (1998). "Women's Commensality in the Ancient Greek World". Greece and Rome. 45 (2): 152 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Burton, Joan (1998). "Women's Commensality in the Ancient Greek World". Greece and Rome. 45 (2): 151 – via JSTOR.
