Panathenaea

The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, location of the athletic competitions

The Panathenaea (or Panathenaia) was a multi-day ancient Greek festival held annually in Athens that would always conclude on 28 Hekatombaion, the first month of the Attic calendar.[1] The main purpose of the festival was for Athenians and non-Athenians to celebrate the goddess Athena.[2] Every four years, the festival was celebrated in a larger manner over a longer time period with increased festivities and was known as the Great (or Greater) Panathenaea.[1] In the years that the festival occurred that were not considered the Great Panathenaea, the festival was known as the Lesser Panathenaea.[3] The festival consisted of various competitions and ceremonies, culminating with a religious procession that ended in the Acropolis of Athens.[4]

  1. ^ a b Shear, Julia L. "Hadrian, the Panathenaia, and the Athenian Calendar". Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 180 (2012): 159. JSTOR 41616930.
  2. ^ Shear, Julia L. Serving Athena: The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 2.
  3. ^ Lewis, David M. "Law on the Lesser Panathenaia". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 28, no. 3 (1959): 247.
  4. ^ Shear, Julia L. Serving Athena: The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 1.

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