Aphrodisia
Aphrodisia ( ancient Greek Ἀφροδίσια , German also Aphrodisia ) was the general name for a festival in honor of the goddess Aphrodite in ancient Greece .
The Aphrodisia were not organized by the Poleis like most festivals , but celebrated privately. In contrast to the mostly state celebrated festivals for other Greek deities, the festivals of Aphrodite, with a few exceptions, were not given an individual name. Exceptions were about the hysteria or hybristics . It is assumed that Aphrodisia was celebrated at least in those Poleis in which Aphrodite had her own temple or who had the month names Aphrodision or Aphrodisios in their calendars . In Athens , Aegina and Corinth , the Aphrodisia were celebrations of the hetaerae . The panhellenistic joyous and exuberant character of the festival is shown by the fact that every private festival was increasingly referred to as an aphrodisia on a happy occasion, for example after successful business deals. or after returning home after long voyages.
In Athens there may have been a procession in honor of Aphrodite Pandemos in connection with Aphrodisia, on the occasion of which the sanctuary of Aphrodite was ritually cleansed with the blood of a dove. The Demos Plotheia organized its own aphrodisias. The Aphrodisia on Aegina were included as a final feast in the Poseidonia that took place there ; in Corinth the festival was celebrated by the hetaerae, while the other women celebrated a comos during which they drank wine.
literature
- Paul Stengel : Aphrodisia 4 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2725 f.
Remarks
- ↑ Xenophon , Hellenika 5, 4, 4.
- ^ Plutarch , Kimon 1.
- ↑ Ludwig Deubner : Attic festivals. Heinrich Keller, Berlin 1932, p. 215 f.
- ↑ Martin Persson Nilsson : Greek festivals of religious importance excluding the Attic. Teubner, Leipzig 1906, pp. 374-377 ( digitized version ).