Synoikia
The Synoikia ( ancient Greek Συνοίκια ) were an annual festival in ancient Athens in honor of the city goddess Athena , which was later expanded to include the worship of the goddess of peace Eirene .
The festival was celebrated on the 16th of Hekatombaion , it should keep alive the memory of the Synoikismos brought about by the hero Theseus . According to the myth, Theseus convinced the twelve rival Trittyes around Athens to give up their independence and join Athens, which brought peace to Attica . The festival took place on the Acropolis , where an animal sacrifice was made by the Demos Skambonidai . The victim's meat was then sold raw. The festival can be safely carried out until 508 BC. Backdate.
A sacrifice to the Eirene, donated by the city's strategoi , was connected with the festival to celebrate the general peace . The sacrifice was made after 374 BC. Introduced when Athens made peace with Sparta after the successful sea battle of Timothy . Around this time, the statue of Eirene, created by Kephisodotos , was erected on the Acropolis.
Erika Simon points out that Aphrodite was regarded as the patron goddess of Theseus , whose festival Aphrodisia was celebrated on the 4th of Hekatombaion. She was worshiped as Aphrodite Pandemos , that is, as "Aphrodite of the united demes". Located in the rich style of frequent emergence of Aphrodite and her companion Pandemos Peitho , which serves as a goddess of persuasion in political issues, points despite a lack of written sources on a cultic involvement Aphrodite in memory to the hard synoecism out.
literature
- August Mommsen : Festivals of the city of Athens in antiquity, organized according to the Attic calendar. Teubner, Leipzig 1898, pp. 35-40. (Digitized version)
- Martin Persson Nilsson : Synoikia. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV A, 2, Stuttgart 1932, column 1435.
- Ludwig Deubner : Attic festivals. Keller, Berlin 1932, DNB 361403984 , pp. 36-38.
Remarks
- ↑ Thucydides 2:15 , 2.
- ↑ See Ludwig Deubner: Attische Feste. P. 37.
- ^ Robert Parker : Athenian Religion. A history . Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-19-815240-X , p. 14.
- ↑ Isocrates 15, 109f; Cornelius Nepos , Timotheos 2, 2.
- ↑ Erika Simon: Festivals of Attica. An archaeological commentary . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1983, ISBN 0-299-09180-5 , p. 50.