Ancient Greek calendars

Various ancient Greek calendars began in most states of ancient Greece between autumn and winter except for the Attic calendar, which began in summer.

The Greeks, as early as the time of Homer, appear to have been familiar with the division of the year into the twelve lunar months but no intercalary month Embolimos or day is then mentioned, with twelve months of 354 days.^[1] Independent of the division of a month into days, it was divided into periods according to the increase and decrease of the moon. Each of the city-states in ancient Greece had their own calendar that was based on the cycle of the moon, but also the various religious festivals that occurred throughout the year.^[2]

The Greeks considered each day of the month to be attributed to a different entity, such as the seventh day of each month being dedicated to Apollo.^[2] The month in which the year began, as well as the names of the months, differed among the states, and in some parts even no names existed for the months, as they were distinguished only numerically, as the first, second, third, fourth month, etc. Another way that scholars kept time was referred to as the Olympiad. This meant that the Olympic Games had just occurred and according to the four-year span, the games would not be held for another three years.^[2] Of primary importance for the reconstruction of the regional Greek calendars is the calendar of Delphi, because of the numerous documents found there recording the manumission of slaves, many of which are dated both in the Delphian and in a regional calendar.

It was not until the second century BCE that the ancient Greek calendars adopted a numerical system for naming months.^[3] It is theorized that this was more for uniformity across the regions than to secularize the calendar.^[3] The newly numerical calendars were also created in regions federated from the leagues of Phokis, Ozolian Locris, and Akhaia.^[3]

Below are fifteen regions of the ancient Greek world and the corresponding information of the yearly calendar.