Daphnephoria
Daphnephoria ( ancient Greek Δαφνηφορία ) were a festival in ancient Greece in honor of the god Apollon Ismenios , which was celebrated in a cycle of eight years in Thebes in Boeotia .
procedure
The main part of the festival consisted of a procession to Ismenion outside the city of Thebes, the top of which was an ephebe , from which both parents had to live. He was accompanied by a close relative who carried a stick made of olive tree wood called a kopo ( κωπώ ), adorned with bay leaves and flowers and wrapped with purple and crocus-colored ribbons. At the top of the kopo was an iron ball from which other smaller balls hung. Behind them the youthful priest of Apollon Ismenios, the Daphnephoros , walkedwho was dressed in rich costume. Behind this followed a choir of virgins. Both the priest and the virgin choir wore laurels ( δαφνή ), the virgins performed a song called Daphnephorikon .
A sanctuary called Daphnephorion was also located in the Attic Demos Phlya , which is why the celebration of the festival is also assumed in Athens .
reception
The dapnephoria were taken up in an imaginative neoclassical painting by the painter Frederic Leighton in 1876 .
literature
- Paul Stengel : Daphnephoria. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 2, Stuttgart 1901, column 2140 ( digitized version ).
- Martin Persson Nilsson : Greek festivals of religious importance excluding the Attic. Teubner, Leipzig 1906, p. 164f. ( Digitized version ).
