April 26, 2024 · updated April 26, 2024

agones

1. Informal and competitive struggles and rivalries that permeated Greek life.
2. Gatherings of people, usually for formal contests in honor of a god or local hero.

agoras

In ancient Greek settlements, open spaces used as marketplaces or general public meeting places. For similar spaces in ancient Roman settlements, use "forums.".

Anthesteria

An Athenian festival in honor of the god Dionysus. Held annually for three days in the early spring to celebrate the end of winter and the maturing of the wine.

Apaturia

An Ionian festival celebrated by the phatry throughout Attica. It took place in the autumn month of Pyanopsion for three days, and its main function was to enrol new phatry members.

Apellai

Dorian festival of Apollo celebrated at Sparta and elsewhere. Corresponded to the Ionian festival of Apaturia. At Sparta, the festival was celebrated monthly, on the seventh, when the Spartan assembly met.

apophrades

"Impure" days of the Athenian calendar. Associated with the Plynteria, homicide trials, moonless days, and other inauspicious events. Temples were closed and major undertakings were avoided.

auspicia

In ancient Roman religion, the signs of the gods that were inscribed in nature and meant to be deciphered. Auspicia were seen as affirmative or negative answers to proposed courses of action.

Bacchanalia

(also Dionysia) Any of several festivals of Dionysus, the wine god. Suppressed by the Roman senate in 186 BC. Bacchic cults included oaths of loyalty, organized funding, property and membership.

dadouchos

The torchbearer, and second most important priest, of the Eleusian Mysteries. He was chosen from the lineage of the Kerykes for life. He wore a headband with a myrtle wreath, a robe of purple, and carried torches.

Dionysus

(also Bacchus). God of fruitfulness, vegetation, wine and ecstasy. Son of Zeus and Semele.

eiresione

Olive branch carried by singing boys at various festivals, then deposited either at the temple of Apollo or house doors. The branches were hung with symbols of agricultural abundance: figs, fruits, etc.

Eleusinia

Important festival of games held at Eleusis (in Attica) on a grand scale every fourth year and on a lesser scale every two years. The prize was grain from the Rarian field in Eleusis, where grain was believed to have been first cultivated.

Elysian Fields

(also Elysium). Paradise inhabited by the distinguished or the good after their death. First named in Homer's Odyssey as the destiny of Menelaus.

Great Dionysia

Festival of Dionysus in Athens.

hierodouloi

Occasionally it was also used by devotees of a cult to refer to themselves as "slaves of the god.".

hieros gamos

("holy marriage") Specifically, a festival in Athens celebrating the marriage of Zeus and Hera and also known as Theogamia. More generally, the mythical or ritual presentation of a solemn sexual union involving at least one divine partner.

kanephoroi

Young women who carried baskets or vessels (kana) of objects needed for the sacrificial ceremony in processions. They were required to be from a good family, unmarried, and chaste.

makarismos

Greek, "blessed." Used in Homer and possibly in rites of initiations in mystery cults.

nenia

A dirge of lamentation and praise of a deceased person, sung to a flute accompaniment by a hired mourner. Named for Nenia, the goddess of funerary lamentation.

Neo-Platonism

A philosophy developed by Plotinus in Alexandria in the 3rd century CE that consists of a modified version of Platonism combined with aspects of Judaic and Christian thought and possibly Oriental mysticism.

neokoros

"Temple warden." Originally, a temple official. From the late 1st cent. CE, a title for a city that held a provincial temple in the Roman Empire.

Olympian Games

Games held at Olympia once every four years in August or September in honor of Zeus. The original contest was a 200-meter sprint; horse and chariot races were added around the 8th century BCE. The prizes were crowns of wild olive.

Olympian gods

The twelve gods on the Parthenon frieze: Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon and Zeus.

Oschophoria

Attic festival celebrated early in the autumn month of Pyanopsion.

Paean

A ritual exclamation and name for the song addressed to gods of healing (originally Paean, later Apollo and Asclepius).

pannychis

An "all-night" festival for a deity. In comedies, they are sometime the occasion of illicit sexual encounters, and Pannychis was also a common name for an upper-class prostitute.

Platonism

Philosophy of Plato or to any philosophy inspired by Plato, especially to Plato's idea that the phenomena perceived by the senses are an imperfect and transitory reflection of the ideal forms of an unchanging and eternal reality.

proagon

In Classical Athens, an official theatrical presentation taking place a few days before the Great Dionysia began.

Thargelia

Spring festival of Apollo.

Zeus

Chief deity of the Olympian pantheon, god of the sky and weather, and sender of thunderbolts and lightning.