Torch relay (ancient)

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A torch relay on an Attic red-figure bell crater by the Kekrops painter , around 410/400 BC. BC, Metropolitan Museum of Art (56.171.49)

In ancient Greece, a torch relay was a nighttime race with burning wax torches. They tried to get to their destination as quickly as possible without letting the torch go out. Torch relays (Greek lampadedromia ) were particularly popular in Athens. They were held in honor of the fire gods, at the festivals for Pan , Artemis , Hephaestus , at the Panathenaic Mountains and Prometheen .

But there are also reports of torch relays outside of Athens: Alexander the Great had a torch relay performed in Susa , and the torch relay also took place at a festival in honor of Demeter on Skyros .

There have also been torch relays on horseback since the time of Socrates.

There were no torch relays in the ancient Olympics .

literature

• Torch relay. In: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts in alphabetical order. First section. A - G. 41st part. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1845, pp. 27–32.