in fantastic curves and windings. Soon it meets the quiet waters of the
Cladeus coming from the north. Between the two, and not far from their
confluence, lie the wooded slopes of Mount Cronion. In the triangular
space thus formed by the rivers and the mountain is situated the sacred
grove known as the Altis, the hallowed precinct of Olympian Zeus. Here
was his temple, and not far from it the shrine of his consort Hera; and
just outside the sacred precinct lay the racecourse, where were
celebrated the Olympic games which have made the name of Olympia famous
throughout the world. This was the national centre of Greece, where
citizens from all parts of the Greek world assembled to join in friendly
contests of physical prowess and poetry and song. The situation was
indeed a beautiful one. Northward and westward were the mountain peaks
of Achaea and the high tablelands of Arcadia; southward, the rugged
mountain chain of Messene; westward, the Ionian sea. The well-watered
valley, bounded by undulating hills, was covered with luxuriant
vegetation. The pine woods of Mount Cronion, the dense grove of plane
trees within and about the sacred precinct, the vine, the olive and the
myrtle of the valley, and the quiet waters of the sacred streams, were
elements that constituted a landscape of indescribable beauty, renowned
in ancient times and the delight of modern travellers.
The festival in honor of Olympian Zeus recurred every four years, at the
time of the full moon following the summer solstice.
Sacred heralds
carried to all parts of the Greek world the official message announcing
the festival, and a sacred truce was declared for a sufficient length of
time to allow all desirous of doing so to attend the gathering and to
return home. As the great day approached, men and youths, matrons and
maidens, set out to take part in or to witness the various features of
the festival. Cities sent sacred embassies, or _theoriae_, resplendent in
purple and gold, bearing offerings to the god. Artists and poets,
merchants and manufacturers, found in this gathering of the Greeks a
great mart in which they could make known their talents or their wares
and receive lucrative orders, the former for a statue or an ode, the
latter for the sale of their merchandise. Tents stood in rows upon the
plain, and everywhere were scenes of busy traffic or of social
entertainment.
We are not concerned here with the various exercises that constituted
the festival, nor with the games which were celebrated in the stadium,
nor with the horse and chariot races in the hippodrome, except in so far
as women were participants; and their part was but slight. When the
games were held, a priestess of Demeter was present, seated on an altar
of white marble opposite the umpires' seats, but she was the only woman
to whom this privilege was granted. While their loved ones were
contending in the stadium, mothers and wives and sisters had to remain
on the southern bank of the Alpheus. Only one instance is recounted
where this rule was broken. "Pherenice, daughter of a celebrated
Rhodian wrestler, whose family boasted that they were descended from
Hercules, could not bear to leave her son while the contest was going
on, and disguising herself as a man, and pretending to be a teacher of
gymnastics, she mingled with the groups of gymnasts.
When her son was
proclaimed victor, however, her feelings carried her away, and forgetful
of prudence she rushed to embrace her child. In her haste her robes
became disordered, and her sex was revealed. The law was explicit: every
woman found within the sacred precinct was condemned to death.
Nevertheless, the judges acquitted her, in recognition of the fame her
family had won; but to prevent any repetition of the occurrence, the
masters, as well as their pupils, had thenceforth to present themselves
naked."
Women could, however, run their horses in the hippodrome and thus win a
prize, as was done by Cynisca, daughter of Archidamnus, King of Sparta,
who was the first woman that bred horses and gained a chariot victory at
Olympia. After her, other women, chiefly Spartans, won Olympic
victories, but none of them attained such fame as did Cynisca. So
honored was she by her people that a shrine was erected to her at her
death; there was also erected at Sparta a statue of the maiden Euryleon,
who won an Olympic victory with a two-horse chariot.
Though excluded from the games at the great festival of Zeus, there were
yet some games at Olympia in which women took part.
These were a feature
of the festival of Hera, whose temple was also in the Altis. At this
festival, sixteen women, duly appointed, wove a robe for the goddess and
conducted games called the Heraea, participated in by the maidens of Elis
and surrounding districts. Pausanias thus describes the spectacle: "The
games consist of a race between virgins. The virgins are not all of the
same age; but the youngest run first, the next in age run next, and the
eldest virgins run last of all. They run thus: their hair hangs down,
they wear a shirt that reaches to a little above the knee, the right
shoulder is bare to the breast. The course assigned to them for the
contest is the Olympic stadium; but the course is shortened by about
one-sixth of the stadium. The winners receive crowns of olive and a
share of the cow which is sacrificed to Hera; moreover, they are allowed
to dedicate statues of themselves, with their names engraved on them."
From a consideration of woman's part in the religious ceremonials at the
national centres of Greece,--Delphi and Olympia,--we must now turn to
Athens, with whose festive calendar we are much better acquainted. The
Athenians were rightly characterized by the Apostle Paul as being very
religious. In all parts of the city were temples and statues; according
to one writer, it was easier to find there a god than a man. More than
eighty days out of each year were given up to religious festivities.
Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, was the patron goddess of Athens, and
the Acropolis was her sacred precinct; but other deities were
worshipped, even on the Acropolis, and throughout the city there were
shrines to numberless gods and goddesses.
From earliest times, women were intimately associated with the worship
of Athena. Varro preserves a tradition which records that it was women's
votes that determined the choice of Athena over Poseidon as patron deity
of Athens. Originally, women took part in the public councils with men
and had a voice therein, and when the weighty question of the rivalry of
the two divinities came up they outvoted the men by a majority of one in
favor of the goddess. Poseidon was angered, and submerged the land of
Attica. To appease the god, the citizens deprived the women of the right
to vote and forbade them in future to transmit their names to their
children and to be called Athenians. But though their political rights
were thus sadly infringed and they were relegated to ignorance and
obscurity, they retained their part in the exercises of religion,
especially in the worship of their patron goddess.
Little is known of
the various priestesses of Athena, who figured so prominently in the art
of Athens and who presided at the goddess's temples on the Acropolis. It
was an important office and was always held by a woman of great wisdom,
high moral character, and mature years. Under her direction were the
maidens of the city who were chosen from time to time from the noblest
families to take part in the festivals of the goddess.
Pausanias gives
us a glimpse of the duties of certain of these maidens, and we could
wish that he had cleared up the mystery that surrounded their office.
"Two maidens," said he, "dwell not far from the temple of the Polias;
the Athenians call them Arrephorae. They are lodged for a time with the
goddess; but when the festival comes around, they perform the following
ceremony by night. They put on their heads the things which the
priestess of Athena gives them to carry, but what it is she gives is
known neither to her who gives nor to them who carry.
Now, there is in
the city an enclosure, not far from the sanctuary of Aphrodite, called
Aphrodite in the Gardens, and there is a natural underground descent
through it. Down this way the maidens go. Below, they leave their
burdens; and getting something else which is wrapped up, they bring it
back. These maidens are then discharged and others are brought to the
Acropolis in their stead." Other maidens resided for a time on the
Acropolis, engaged in weaving the saffron-colored peplus which was to be
presented to the goddess at the Great Panathenaea--the most brilliant
festival of the Athenians. This was the highest honor that could be
conferred on Athenian maidens, and while engaged in this work they
shared in the deference shown the goddess. They dwelt with the great
priestess, and were under her immediate direction when they appeared in
public; they were clad in tunics of white, with cloaks of gold, and were
universally recognized as votaries of Athena. It has been conjectured
that the mysterious bundles which the Arrephorae carried down from the
Acropolis contained the remnants of the wool which had served to make
the peplus of the preceding year, and that they brought back the
material destined for the future peplus; but of this there is no
positive evidence. Certain it is, however, that the garment intended for
the goddess was a masterpiece of the textile art, woven of the finest
fabrics and embroidered in gold with scenes of Athena battling with the
gods against the giants, and of such other incidents as the State had
judged worthy to figure beside her exploits. Athena was, among her many
functions, also the goddess of weaving and other feminine arts, and as
such had a shrine on the Acropolis, where she was worshipped under the
title of Athena Ergane. Within this precinct were statues to Lysippe,
Timostrata, and Aristomache, maidens thus honored because of their skill
in womanly occupations.
For the origin of the Panathenaea--the greatest of Athenian festivals--we
must go back to the heroic days of Athens when King Erechtheus dedicated
on the Acropolis the archaic wooden statue of Athena, reputed to have
fallen from heaven, and established the custom of offering to the image
once a year a new mantle, embroidered by noble maidens of the city.
Later, Theseus united the various tribes under one rule, with the
Acropolis as its centre, A festival to celebrate this event was united
with the festival to Athena, and the enlarged festival was known as the
Panathenaea, symbolizing the union and political power of Athens and the
sovereignty of the goddess. Pisistratus increased the splendor of this
festival, and, in the golden days of Athens after the Persian War,
Pericles added to its pomp and magnificence. He erected on the Acropolis
an imposing temple to the goddess, the Parthenon, and placed within it
her image of gold and ivory. The worship of Athena and the political
supremacy of Athens now became synonymous. Her festival was the highest
expression of the ideals of Athens in its greatest epoch. The greater
Panathenaae was Athens in its glory, possessed of an overflowing
treasury, supreme among the States of Greece, the exponent of poetry and
art and beauty.
There was great rejoicing when the sacred peplus was at length completed
by the maidens, and there arrived the season of the festival, which was
to culminate on Athena's birthday, the twenty-seventh of the month
Boedromion, which corresponded nearly to our September.
The earlier days
were spent in gymnastic games, horse and chariot races, and contests in
music and poetry. On the fifth and last day occurred the most brilliant
feature of the entire festival, the solemn procession which attended the
delivery of the sacred peplus to the priestess of Athena that she might
place it around the wooden image of the goddess. So important was this
procession that Phidias selected it as the theme to be portrayed on the
frieze of the Parthenon. The procession formed in the Outer Ceramicus,
just outside the principal gate of the city, and the peplus was placed
on a miniature ship (for which it served as a sail), which was set on
wheels and drawn by sailors. Through the market place, round the western
slope of the Areopagus, along its southern side, the procession wended
its way till it reached the western approach to the Acropolis. Then the
peplus was removed from the ship, and, borne by those chosen for this
service, it was carried at the head of the procession up the western
slope, through the Propylaea, and delivered to the magistrate appointed
to receive it before the temple of Athena. The frieze of the Parthenon
presents the most important details of the procession.
Its western end
shows the stage of preparation--the flower of Athenian youth and
nobility preparing to mount or just mounting their steeds to join in the
cavalcade. As we turn to the northern and southern sides, we observe
that the procession has formed and is now in motion. The cavalcade is
composed of youthful horsemen, who move forward in compact array, with
all the dash and spirit of youth. Just ahead of the horsemen are the
chariots, driven by their charioteers, with the warriors either standing
by the driver or just stepping into the moving chariot.
As the eastern
end of the temple is approached, restlessness of movement gives place to
solemnity, and impatient riders and charioteers are succeeded by more
stately figures. Elderly men, bearers of olive branches; representatives
of the foreign residents, carrying trays filled with offerings of cakes;
attendants, bearing on their shoulders vessels filled with the sacred
wine; musicians, playing on flutes or lyres-march in slow, measured
steps. In advance of them are the cows and sheep led to sacrifice,
conducted by a number of attendants.
The frieze on the eastern end of the temple represents the culmination
of the festival. The crowning act is about to be performed, and the
solemnity becomes absolute. Figures at one end are balanced by
corresponding figures at the other, all advancing toward a common point.
First come slowly moving maidens, who are carrying the sacrificial
utensils--their noble birth manifesting itself in their dignity of
demeanor. The five maidens in the rear bear the ewers used in the
libations; those forming the central group carry, in pairs, large
objects resembling candlesticks, whose uses are not definitely known;
while in the lead, on each side, are two maidens, bearing nothing in
their hands--probably the Arrephorae, whose duties have been already
performed. Both in costume and in coiffure these maidens represent what
was characteristic of their age and sex in Athens during the supremacy
of Pericles. Next comes a group of men, probably the magistrates
appointed to await the arrival of the procession on the Acropolis. They
border the seated divinities who have assembled to do honor to Athens at
its greatest festival--seven figures on each side of the central slab,
directly over the door of the temple, whereon is represented the climax
of the solemn occasion,--the delivery of the new peplus to the priest or
magistrate, whose office it was to receive it; while at his side stands
the priestess of Athena, receiving from two attendants certain objects
of unknown significance.
Other pieces of sculpture on the Acropolis magnify the office of woman
in the religious ceremonials in honor of the patron goddess. One of the
porticoes of the Erectheum represents maidens of dignified mien and
great beauty holding up the entablature with perfect ease and stately
grace. These figures are usually called Caryatides, a name applied by
the architect Vitruvius to designate figures of this kind; he ascribes
its origin to the destruction of the town of Carya, in the Peloponnesus,
by the Athenians, because it espoused the Persian side, the women of the
town being sold into slavery; but surely the Athenians would not have so
honored the disgraced women of a hostile city. Could they not portray,
in marble, the Arrephoric maidens, and could not the basket-like
burdens on their heads represent the burdens which they carried down
from the Acropolis, and those which they received instead? The
Athenians, indeed, called the figures merely _Korai_, or
"the maidens."
Furthermore, excavations at Athens made in 1886 brought to light a
number of statues of maidens, which now adorn one of the rooms of the
Acropolis Museum. They are all of one type,--life-size figures of young
women, all standing in the same attitude, with one arm extended from the
elbow, while the other hand holds the long and elegant drapery close
about the figure; their hair is elaborately arranged, and ringlets fall
over their necks and shoulders. These statues are relics of days before
the Persian War. The Persians sacked Athens in B.C. 480, and wrought
general havoc on the Acropolis, burning temples, throwing down columns,
demolishing statues. When the Athenians, flushed with victory, returned
to their ruined homes, they regarded as unhallowed all that had been
touched by the hands of the barbarian, and therefore, in building up
anew the Acropolis as the sacred precinct of Athena, they extended and
levelled its surface and filled in the hollows thus made with the debris
of the Acropolis--architectural blocks, statues, and vessels; and these
relics of pre-Persian art lay thus securely buried for ages, to be
revealed to modern eyes by the pickaxe of the archaeologist. Now, who are
these maidens, standing in conventional pose, with regular and finely
moulded features, and with richly adorned drapery and elaborate
headdress? They cannot represent priestesses of Athena, for the
priestess was always an elderly lady, who, after being chosen, held
office for the rest of her life. Nor can they represent the goddess
herself, for all her usual attributes--the aegis, the spear, the helmet,
the snake--are absent. Hence we probably have in these statues
portraits of votaries of Athena, young women of the aristocratic
families of Athens, who placed statues of themselves in the sacred
precinct of the goddess to serve as symbols of perpetual homage.
Finally, certain maidens of Athens of the Heroic Age were later deified
and themselves given sacred precincts on the Acropolis.
King Cecrops had
three daughters--- Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosus. When Erectheus, the
son of Earth by Hephaestus, was born, half of his form being like that of
a snake,--a sign of his origin,--the child was put into a chest by
Athena, who then gave it to the daughters of Cecrops to take care of, at
the same time forbidding them to open it. Aglauros and Herse disobeyed,
and, in terror at the serpent-shaped child, went mad and threw
themselves from the rock of the Acropolis. Pandrosus, the faithful
maiden, was rewarded by being made the first priestess of Athena, and
was later honored by having a sanctuary of her own, next to that of the
goddess; while Aglauros had to rest content with a cavern on the
northern slope of the Acropolis, near where she had thrown herself down.
The celebrations in honor of Dionysus, the god of luxuriant fertility
and especially of the grape, were exceedingly simple at first, according
to Plutarch, being merely "a rustic procession carrying a vine-wreathed
jar and a basket of figs"; but later there was a festival at every stage
in the growth of the grape and in the making of the wine, and especially
at the approach of vintage time, and when the vintage was put into the
press. There were processions and rustic dances, and all the usual
features of the carnival, as the revellers became more and more under
the influence of the god. In these revels, women consecrated to this
divinity, and called Bacchantes or Maenads, formed a special group. The
symbol of their worship was a thyrsus--a pole ending with a bunch of
vine or ivy leaves, or with a pine cone and a fillet. At intervals the
procession would stop, and one of the revellers would mount a wagon or a
platform and recount to those below, disguised as Pans and Satyrs, the
adventures of the god of wine and joy. From these rustic masquerades
emerged in time both Tragedy and Comedy.
Of the festivals in the city, the Anthesteria, or Feast of Flowers, was
of most interest to the fair sex. This festival occurred in the
spring--when the preceding year's wine was tasted for the first
time--and lasted three days. Its principal feature was the Feast of
Beakers, which began at sunset with a great procession.
Those who took
part in it appeared, wearing wreaths of ivy and bearing torches, in the
Outer Ceramicus. This festival was in the especial charge of the
king-archon, and the wife of that magistrate played the chief role in
the ceremonies. Maidens and matrons appeared, disguised as Horae, Nymphs,
or Bacchantes, and crowded round the triumphant car on which the ancient
image of Dionysus, was conveyed to the town. At a certain stage in the
procession, the king-archon's wife, known as the Basilissa, was given a
seat in the car, beside the image of Dionysus, for on this day she was
the symbolical bride of the god. Thus, on this joyous wedding day, the
nuptial procession conducted the car to the temple of the god in Limnai.
In the inmost shrine of the temple a mystic sacrifice for the welfare of
the State was offered by the Basilissa and the fourteen ladies of honor
expressly appointed by the archon for this purpose.
After the sacrifice,
with which numerous secret ceremonies were connected, the mystic union
of Dionysus, and the Basilissa was celebrated, symbolizing the sacred
marriage of the god with his much-loved city. On the following day,
among other ceremonies, the ladies of honor offered sacrifices to
Dionysus, on various specially erected altars.
These were joyous occasions; there were, however, sombre Dionysia, which
were celebrated by night, in the winter season, when the god was thought
to be absent or dead; because the vine was then withered and lifeless.
Such celebrations commemorated only grief and regret. At this season,
women of Athens left their homes and sought the slopes of Mount
Parnassus, to join the women of Delphi in savage rites celebrating the
sufferings of Dionysus. In these Bacchantes, religious fervor was
transformed into the wildest delirium. "With dishevelled hair and torn
garments they ran through the woods, bearing torches and beating
cymbals, with savage screams and violent gestures. A nervous excitement
brought distraction to the senses and to the mind, and showed itself in
wild language and gestures, and the coarsest excesses were acts of
devotion. When the Maenads danced madly through the woods, with serpents
wreathed about their arms, or a dagger in their hands, with which they
struck at those whom they met; when intoxication and the sight of blood
drove the excited throng to frenzy--it was the god acting in them, and
consecrating them as his priestesses. Woe to the man who should come
upon these mysteries! he was torn to pieces; even animals were thus
killed, and the Maenads devoured their quivering flesh and drank their
warm blood." In the ardor inspired by their mad orgies, these votaries
did not distinguish between man and beast, and a mother once tore to