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PANATHENAIA: SUMMARY OF RELEVANT ASPECTS OF THE FESTIVAL

Panathenaia: every year
 Great Panathenaia: every four years
(a) They included both games and religious ceremony
(b) Unlike other Panhellenic Games (e.g. The Olympic Games and the Pythian
Games) which included all Greeks, the Panathenaic Games were for Athenians and
they allies only.
All the games were for men only.
 Poetry and Music
The competition begun five days before the Panathenaic ceremony and games. The
poetry and music contest in the Odeon was introduced by a swearing-in ceremony.
 The Athletic Events
(a) The contestants (all men) were divided in 3 groups: (1) 12-16; (2) 16-20; (3) over
the age of 20.
(b)The athletic events were held in the Agora until 330 BC.
 Athletic Games for boys and youths
Boys competed on the second day of the festival and performed only 5 events: sprint
(stadion); pentathlon; boxing; wrestling; all-in wrestling.
 Athletic Games for adults
(a) All athletes performed naked. There were 4 heats, the winner of each heat went to
the final. The winner received as prize a number of amphorae containing expensive
olive oil. As an indication of value, in the fourth century B.C. the prize for the victor
in the stade race (a 600 ft. long foot race) in the men's category was 100 amphoras of
olive oil. In terms of today's sterling, the olive oil would be worth at a minimum
45,000 pounds and the amphoras, which held the oil, about 2000 pounds. Greeks
from other cities were allowed to compete in all the athletic contests among
individuals. The competitions among tribes were limited to Athenians.
(b) Stadion; long-distance race; hippios.
(c) Pentathlon: combined event of discuss, javelin, long jump, sprinting, wrestling and
all-in wrestling (Pankration).
(d) Boxing
(e) Race in armour: naked contestants run wearing helmets and leg guards, and
carrying a shield. This race was the final athletic event.
 The equestrian event (on the fourth day of the festival)
Contest running from outside the city walls to the coast.
The event included: harse races; chariots races with 2 and 4 horses.
 The fifth day of the festival
These events were opened to everyone (included foreigners and allies of Athens),
whereas the events of the fifth day were only for the ten tribes of Athens.
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Among the events people enjoyed watching: (a) male strength and beauty contest; (b)
Pyrrhic dance.
 The night of the fifth day (the nocturnal festival)
(a) Music, singing and dancing
(b) Sacrifice at dawn
(c) The sacred fire was carried from the main City Gate to the Acropolis
 The Peplos
(a) The weaving of Athena’s new tunic (peplos) decorated with the aristeia of Athena.
(b) The tunic, which was replaced every year, was meant to covered the statue of
Athena Polias.
(c) A different but much bigger peplos, made by professional weavers, decorated the
gigantic statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon.

The Procession
This is the order of participants according to the actual sculpture of the frieze of the
Parthenon (now in the British Museum) and drawings:
1. four little girls (arrhephoroi) carrying a peplos for the life-size statue of
Athena Polias
2. priestesses of Athena and Athenian women carrying gifts
3. sacrificial animals (cows and sheep)
4. metics (resident foreigners), wearing purple robes and carrying on trays cakes
and honeycombs for offerings
5. musicians playing the aulos and the kithara.
6. a colossal peplos (for Athena Parthenos) hung on the mast of a ship on wheels
7. old men carrying olive branches
8. four-horse chariots with a charioteer and fully armed man (apobatês)
9. craftswomen (ergastinai - weavers of peplos)
10. infantry and cavalry
11. victors in the games
12. ordinary Athenians arranged by deme
The procession made its way on the Panathenaic Way through the Agora towards the
Acropolis. Some sacrifices were offered on the Areopagus and in front of the temple
of Athena Nikê (Athena Victory) next to the Propylaea ('Gateway'). Only Athenian
citizens were allowed to pass through the Propylaea and enter the Acropolis. The
procession passed the Parthenon and stopped at the great altar of Athena in front of
the Erechtheum.
 The Sacrifices
(a) The most perfect heifers
(b) Sacrifices accompanied by prayers
After the sacrifice, the ergastinai replaced the old peplos with the new one.
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 The Feast
(a) The ceremony ended with a feast.
(b) Selected people, some chosen by lot, some representatives of each deme, ate bread
and cakes with the cooked meat from the sacrificed animals.
 After the feast
(a) Chariot race of the apobates
(b) Boat race
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