Pandia (festival)

The Pandia was an ancient state festival attested as having been held annually at Athens as early as the time of Demosthenes.^[1] Although little that is known of the Pandia is certain,^[2] it was probably a festival for Zeus,^[3] and was celebrated in the spring after the City Dionysia in the middle of the month of Elaphebolion (late March and early April).

^ Demosthenes, Against Midias 21.8–9; Inscriptiones Graecae, II² 1140, line 5; Harpocration, Lexicon of the Ten Orators s.v.; Pollux, Onomasticon 1.37. Though the earliest mentions of the festival we have date only from the fourth century BC, the festival was probably much older, Parke, p. 136, says that the festival "was probably a survival from the archaic past which had become fossilized", Parker (1996), p. 75 says "The panegyris or 'all-assembly' is in fact as ancient a Greek institution as any that we know of. If, as is likely, the system of tribal competition in Attic cults is archaic, there must always have been some pan-Attic festivals. Some old favourites (the Pandia for instance, the 'all-Zeus' festival or the Dipolieta) perhaps gradually faded away in the classical period", while Robertson sees the festival as marking the spring migration of sheep to mountain pastures, and having originated at least as early as the Mycenean period (Robertson 1991, p. 5; Robertson 1993, p. 15).
^ Burkert, p. 182; Parke, pp. 135–136; Parker 2005, pp. 447–448.
^ Parker 2005, p. 447.

[1] Demosthenes, Against Midias 21.8–9; Inscriptiones Graecae, II² 1140, line 5; Harpocration, Lexicon of the Ten Orators s.v.; Pollux, Onomasticon 1.37. Though the earliest mentions of the festival we have date only from the fourth century BC, the festival was probably much older, Parke, p. 136, says that the festival "was probably a survival from the archaic past which had become fossilized", Parker (1996), p. 75 says "The panegyris or 'all-assembly' is in fact as ancient a Greek institution as any that we know of. If, as is likely, the system of tribal competition in Attic cults is archaic, there must always have been some pan-Attic festivals. Some old favourites (the Pandia for instance, the 'all-Zeus' festival or the Dipolieta) perhaps gradually faded away in the classical period", while Robertson sees the festival as marking the spring migration of sheep to mountain pastures, and having originated at least as early as the Mycenean period (Robertson 1991, p. 5; Robertson 1993, p. 15).

[2] Burkert, p. 182; Parke, pp. 135–136; Parker 2005, pp. 447–448.

[3] Parker 2005, p. 447.

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