The
Anthesteria

A Festival of Death and Flowers

Ariadne, John William Waterhouse

Date: 11-13 Anthesterion

Theoi Honored: Dionysos, (likely) Ariadne, and Hermes Khthonios

Heroes Honored: Ikarios, Erigone, and their dog Maira

Purpose: To open and purify the new wine, to welcome the dead while being mindful of miasma and malicious spirits, to celebrate youth and the new spring flowers, to enjoy Dionysos' divine gift of wine and honor his wife and heroes.

Offerings: New wine on the first and second days, and a boiled cereal dish of wheat, nuts, raisins, and honey on the last day.

Rites: The opening of the new wine, the masked procession on a boat to welcome the god to the city, children of 3 receive their first khoe (wine-jar), young girls hang masks and dolls in trees & swing over the wine-jars to purify them, a somber drinking contest, the Sacred Marriage of Dionysos & Ariadne, the meal for the dead.

Summary

The Anthesteria or the Older Dionysia, as it was sometimes called even in ancient times, is one of the oldest Dionysos festivals dating to possibly before the migration, and is where the month gets its name. It occurs sometime between early-to-mid spring, depending on the year when the first flowers began to return promising new light at the end of a rough winter. It also marked the time when the wine pressed and jarred away from the previous fall harvest was finally drinkable. It was a three-day festival celebrating the first flowers, return of spring, and the divine gift of wine. Flower garlands would be given, worn, and offered, with much drinking and revelry in celebration of the god's gift. In addition to the jovial nature, the Anthesteria also had a darker undertone, with violent myths and the spirits of the dead and malicious roaming the land. Dionysos' heroes Ikarios, Erigone, and their dog Maira also received offerings for the festival, but the associations are strongest for the second day (12 Anthesterion), if not honored also on the prepatory day (11 Anthesterion).


The first day of the festival (11 Anthesterion) was mostly spent in preparation. The wine-jars stored before winter across Athens' countryside would be brought back to the city. In the evening (technically 12 Anthesterion, since the ancient days began at sunset) all sanctuaries in the city would be closed to protect them from the pollution of the wandering dead and the sanctuary to Dionysos unique to this festival would be officially opened. Finally the jars would be broken open and the first-fruits offering of the new year's wine would be given to Dionysos. Then the wine would be mixed and the revelers would drink and party all night.


The second day  (12 Anthesterion) was the biggest and most important day of the festival: a day for the dead and wandering spirits,  and a day of joy celebrating youth and flowers. First thing in the morning fresh pitch would be painted over the doorways and buckthorn leaves passed out to the household to chew on and ward off the malicious spirits that roamed alongside the ancestors. But most of the day was a happy day of youth, flowers, and purification. The agora would overflow with citizens of every age, gifting each other flowers and flower crowns, especially to young children. As at other occasions, one can imagine the agora filled with vendors selling snacks, toys, and flowers of every kind. A grand procession of masked mummers (the mask being a sacred symbol of Dionysos) would ride a wheeled boat through the city to welcome the god's arrival and insult passerby on their way.


The day also served as a rite of passage for the children that had reached 3 years of age, and they'd receive miniature wine-jars in commemoration. In honor of Erigone, young girls would hang dolls and wooden swings from trees, decorated in flowers, and swing over the sealed jars of unmixed wine, purifying them for the drinking contest later in evening. The drinking contest was weirdly somber for a Dionysos drinking contest. Everyone sat at separate tables with their own personal wine-jars, as sharing wine was prohibited for this affair, and drank in silence. This was because of the inherent miasma of the day and the deep associations with the dead. The winner would receive a cake, and their flower crowns taken to the sanctuary and left on their wine-jars to offer them in thanks to the god. Once at the sanctuary the real event of the night took place: a ritual re-enactment of the sacred marriage between Ariadne and Dionysos, which was followed by ecstatic all-night celebration and drinking. Afterwards, the sanctuary was closed for the rest of the year until the next Anthesteria.


The last day of the festival (13 Anthesterion) wasn't for Dionysos at all, instead it was for Hermes Khthonios, on the last day for the dead to roam before they're sent back home. Wheat, nuts, and raisins would be boiled and honeyed and offered as a meal for Hermes and the dead, and then enjoyed by all for a sweet and hearty breakfast. The ancient meal is culturally linked in modern memory with koliva, an orthodox dish given exclusively at funerary rites. After this final meal, it was said the spirits lost their power. The miasma of the festival was lifted, and everything returned to normal.

Day 1. Pithoigia | The Jar Opening
11 Anthesterion

large wine-jars left at an archeological site

Pithoi in Knosses, Olaf Tausch

"The clay vessels are carted in from the small vineyards scattered throughout the countryside, small-holders, day-labourers, and slaves come into the city, and friends and strangers wait for nightfall outside the sanctuary. Then, as the jars are broken open, the god is honored with the first libations."

- Burkert, Greek Religion

Bringing in the Wine

The first day of the festival is named for the pithoi (πίθοι), the ceramic jars used specifically for holding wine. The Pithoigia was mostly a preparatory day for later in the evening when the sanctuary officially opened at sunset. The daylight hours were spent transporting all the jars of wine out of storage and people journeyed from far and wide into the city to join friends and wait for the sanctuary to open in the evening.


Once the sanctuary was opened the main rite of the day could be performed and the jars that were sealed during the previous fall harvesting of the grapes could finally be opened. The pithoi were broken, the wine mixed, and a libation poured for the god as a first-fruits offering in thanks for aiding another successful harvest of the god's divine gift. The worshipers would then partake in the wine themselves and descend into a night of revelry, song, and dance, invoking Dionysos as the Fair-flowing, the Dithyrambos, the Reveller, and the Stormer. At some point, presumably in the early hours of the new day, the revelers returned home to sleep off their worship, leaving many jars of opened wine for the swinging girls to purify in the morning.


Mixing wine with water was typical in Ancient Greece and was a practice in moderation, and is an important part of Dionysos' cult since it is said he taught mortals to mix their wine. Drinking unmixed wine was widely considered uncivilized, and more to the point, when wine was at its most dangerous (see the myth below). In a more practical sense, drinking diluted wine would allow revelers to drink and celebrate all through the night, which they did!

Bacchus, Caravaggio

MYTH

Ikarios Makes Killer Wine

It was said that when Dionysos arrived in the land of the Ikarions (a deme in Athens), Ikarios (Ικαριος) invited him into his home and showed him hospitality. In thanks for his xenia (ξενία), Dionysos introduced him to his mysteries and taught him the secrets of the vine and wine making. Ikarios in turn shared the gift with his neighbors, but when they drank the unmixed beverage and began to feel the effects of the pure wine take hold, they accused Ikarios of poisoning them and drunkenly stoned him to death. 

When they awoke the next morning well-rested from their drunken stupor, they realized the great wrong they had committed, hid the body, and fled the city. Saddened by Ikarios' death, Dionysos immortalized him by placing him amongst the stars as the constellation Boötes or Arcturus. In another tradition it is said that the murderers fled to the city of Cos which immediately suffered a terrible drought until Apollon advised the city to propitiate offerings to Ikarios.

This was a foundational cult myth for the Ikarions and Athenians of this sanctuary and follows the tradition of tying an initiated mortal's death to the god's mysteries. Ikarios was a hero of the deme Ikarion and received offerings during this festival alongside his daughter Erigone, and their loyal dog Maira, but more on them later.

Day 2. Khoes | The Wine Jugs
12 Anthesterion

A Festival of Life & Death

Seated Dionysos with a kantharos
GR 1837.6-9.31, British Museum

The second day of Anthesteria, Khoes, is named directly after the particular jugs used for carrying personal mixed wine, often depicted in pottery for Dionysos festivals. Thucydides tells us it was the most important day of the festival. A day of spirits and miasma, but also a day of drinking, revelry, and a celebration of youth and springtime. In the evening was a curiously silent drinking contest followed by the main event of the night: the Hieros Gamos, or the Sacred Marriage, of Dionysos and Ariadne.


The day would begin smearing pitch over doorways and chewing buckthorn leaves to ward off Keres (ηρες). Keres were goddesses or daimons (sometimes the same thing) of violent death. They were harpy-like creatures, likened sometimes to Erinyes (Ερινυες), and said to be under the retinue of or sisters of the Moirai (Μοιραι), the Fates. It was also said to be a day that all spirits and ancestors would walk the earth, and scholars believe that this day would have been similar to an All Souls Day. There is also evidence to suggest that khoes used to be used in funerary rites, which makes for interesting symbolism in relation to the mysteries.


On this day all other sanctuaries in the city would be closed to keep them clean of the miasma from the dead. It was then in effect a day of revelry dedicated in sole honor of Dionysos. While worshipers were mindful of the precense of the dead, they hosted grand processions of masked mummers and a boat on wheels would roll through the streets to the sanctuary with an actor doning a Dionysos mask portraying the god's grand arrival to the city. In typical Dionysos festival fashion, men on the float would verbally harass and mock bystanders. Flowers also held significance for the Anthesteria, as it was so close to spring, and flower garlands would be worn and given in joyous celebration to everyone, but especially to children.

While Anthesteria is a remembrance of death, it is also a celebration of life and was a notable children's festival. Flowers in Ancient Greece and the concept of youth and fragility of life were intimately tied in the mythos, and in Athenian society the children who had survived to three years of age would have been gifted miniature khoes. Surviving until three years of age meant that the child had lived long enough to have gone through the festival officially introducing them to the family and as citizens of the state and was a significant life marker, as was receiving their khoes at their first Anthesteria festival. In this spirit, Burkert mentions of a beautiful and heartbreaking case where a miniature khoe was left in an infant's grave who hadn't survived to their first Anthesteria. Thus the idea of the khoes, the flowers, the children, the ancestors, and the wine, all come together as intimate expressions of both life and death.

a tiny wine-jar that would be gifted to children with a depiction of eros

Red-Figure Chous with Eros, Walter Art Museum

a painting of Erigone with vines in her hair harvesting grapes

Erigone, Charles-Andre Van Loo, High Museum of Art

MYTH

Erigone
TW: Self-harm

We return to the story of Erigone, Ikarios' daughter. After he was unjustly killed for giving the shepherds wine and they fled the city for their crime, Erigone was earnestly searching for her missing father. Ikarios' dog, Maira, led her to the tree he had been buried under. When they found Ikarios' body Erigone hung herself from the tree out of grief and the dog Maira jumped off a cliff. 

Immediately afterwards, the city suffered a terrible curse in which young maidens would journey to the same tree and hang themselves as Erigone had. Myths differ as to whether this curse was inflicted by Erigone in her grief, or by Dionysos himself as penance for Ikarios, Erigone, and Maira's deaths. The city at a loss for what to do about the curse sought out the council of the Pythia, Apollon's Oracle at his temple in Delphi, who told them to hang figures and masks from trees and ordered that the city's maidens should "swing" as Erigone had to appease Erigone's spirit and to purify themselves. 

Myths of swinging girls in this way share similarities in that they all harken back to purification rites in vegetative cults. What's more, Dionysos' cult myths often emphasize the relationship between blood and wine, and the violent deaths of his heroes with the brutal pressing of the grapes.

The Swinging Ritual

In memory of Ikarion's hero, Erigone, the young girls of Ikarion performed the purification rite known as the Aiora by hanging dolls, masks, and wooden swings in the trees and decorating them in flower garlands. Weirdly enough, swinging in this way in order to purify and sanctify both objects and people is a rite seen in Ancient Greek Religion often enough (including to initiate children into Dionysos' rites). Thus by swinging playfully the maidens of the city could "swing" as the Oracle had ordered and purify both themselves, as well as the impure wine that was opened and left out the night before for them. One can assume this was a rite of passage for the young girls, as well as a sacred duty they performed for their city in a time of miasma and spirits. The rest of the day was spent in joviality and in celebration of children, both boys and girls, until the gloomier drinking rites of the evening.

Painting of Erigone holding grapes and wearing maenad attire

Erigone, Jacques-Antoine Vallin

MYTH

A Polluted Orestes goes to Ikarion

Background Mythology

When Prince Paris brought Helen to Troy, the King Agammemnon called for war and assembled his ships to set sail, but the Goddess Artemis promised him unsailable winds unless he sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia. Agammemnon, set on war for Troy, told his wife to prepare Iphigenia for marriage, that she was to wed the famed warrior Achilles, and that she must be brought to him right away. He lied, sacrificed Iphigenia, and for that spilt blood his wife in turn conspired his death.  


When Agammemnon returned from conquered Troy, his wife Clytemnestra had him killed and promptly put her lover on the throne. This destabilized the legitimacy of Orestes' claim to the throne, as he was Agammemnon's heir, and he was forced to flee from his homeland or risk being killed. Eventually he returns to get justice for his father by killing his mother Clytemnestra at Lord Apollon's guidance.  Though it was an act of Justice, Orestes invoked the wrath of the Erinyes because of his kinslaying and was tainted with an unwashable miasma. 


painting of Orestes cupping his ears against the erinyes' screams (behind him)

Orestes Pursued by the Furies, William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Orestes in Ikarion

Forced once again to flee his homeland or risk infecting the city with the miasma he'd incurred, and chased by the Erinyes, he found himself in the Attic deme of Ikarion on the second day of the Anthesteria festival. The King, wishing to protect his city and people from Orestes' miasma, but also not wanting to exclude Orestes from such a sacred rite, ruled that the sanctuaries would be closed and the communal krater for mixing and sharing wine be put away. Instead, everyone would drink from a personal khoe that held nearly 3 liters of wine and drink in silence at separate tables to keep from tainting each other. Therefore, Orestes was able to take part in the Anthesteria even while tainted from murder. Orestes later made his way to Athens, where the first murder trial was performed, and was eventually acquitted and purified.

The Weirdly Somber Drinking Contest

"After the drinking was over, the ivy garlands which had been worn should not be laid in the sanctuaries - since they had been under the same roof as Orestes; instead, each person should twine his garland around his Choes jug and take it to the priestess in the sanctuary in the marshes and then carry out the remaining sacrifices in the sanctuary."

- Burkert, Greek Religion

The story of Orestes coming to Ikarion during the festival is a foundational cult myth meant to explain the odd drinking habits of the day. Usually drinking was a communal and boisterous affair, but on this day the drinking contest was out of the norm. Everyone was meant to drink as if "defiled by murder" like Orestes. However, the solemn affair was inherently mindful of the miasma of the day, and may also have been because of the ghosts and Fury-like Keres said to be active.


As with many other cult myths, it is likely the myth came about as a means to explain the rites already in practice, rather than the other way around like we might assume. Therefore, just as in the myth, the sanctuaries were closed and everyone who took part in the drinking contest sat at a separate table with their personal khoes filled with nearly 3 liters of mixed wine. The drinking contest was done in silence as if death were in the air, the only sign of a festive nature being the beautiful flower garlands on everyone's heads. The Ritual Leader of the night, playing the "King", started the contest at the blow of a horn, and the first to finish their massive wine jug was awarded a cake.


Usually at a festival the worshipers would offer their garlands to the gods at their sanctuaries after a contest, but due to the fact all the sanctuaries were closed and that the garlands had in effect been tainted through the miasma of the day, the garlands were instead placed around the necks of their khoes and carried to Dionysos' sanctuary in a "drunken throng" to leave as offerings there, and to kick off the biggest celebration of the night: the Hieros Gamos, a re-enactment of the "Sacred Marriage" between the god Dionysos and the princess Ariadne. 

MYTH

Ariadne & the Minotaur

painting of ariadne giving theseus the ball of string

Theseus and Ariadne, Antoinette Befort

Background Mythology

The story of the Minotaur, like so many others in Greek Mythology, starts with a prideful mortal rebuking the gods and a cruel and unusual punishment.


To put a long story short, the sea-god Poseidon had aided King Minos in aquiring the throne by proving Minos' divine favor with a glorious bull that walked out of the sea. Minos was meant to return this bull to the god, but didn't, and so Poseidon infected Minos' wife, Pasiphae, with lust for the bull. The cursed union resulted in the Minotaur, a half-bull half-man monster with a horrible hunger for human flesh, who was quickly locked in the famed Labyrinth. Every nine years, as payment for a wrong, Minos demanded 7 young men and 7 young maidens be brought from Athens and sacrificed to the Minotaur.


Athens had been plagued by Minos' cruel demands for years when at long last their missing Prince returned home. Theseus, appalled, declared he would put a stop to the sacrifices by sailing as one of them to Crete and slaying the Minotaur. His father, King Aegeus, agreed, but made his son promise to change the black mourning sails to white if he was successful, so he would know when he saw the ship on the horizon if Theseus had lived or died.

When he arrived in Crete, Minos' daughter Ariadne resolved to betray her kin and help Theseus defeat her family's monster. She told him the secret of the Labyrinth, and pressed a ball of string into his hand. She bid him tie the string to the door once he was inside, and to unravel it as he wandered in the darkness. This way, if the hero was successful in slaying the Minotaur, he would be able to find his way back out with the other victims and escape. Theseus was, of course, triumphant, and when he set sail to escape back to Athens he took Ariadne with him (staying would have put her in danger after betraying her family) and promised to marry her.

Betrayed and Immortalized

On their way to Athens the couple stopped at the island of Naxos, now called Dia. The myths tell many different stories about what happened on that island and why Theseus left his wife behind, but they all agree that he did (usually after consummating the marriage). Some say he realized he couldn't take a foreign princess to Athens as his wife, one that a pregnant Ariadne stood on the shore while he fixed the sail and a gust of wind took him away, or that Artemis killed her after they made love in her temple. In others it is said Dionysos fell in love with the sleeping Ariadne when he saw her, and demanded Theseus abandon her, or else he infected Theseus with a divine madness so he forgot about her all-together. When he returns home to Athens, he famously forgets the promise he had made to his father and left the ship sails black instead of white. When his father, King Aegeus, saw the black mourning sails he assumed his son was dead and leapt into the sea, which is the origin myth for why we call it the Aegean Sea.


When Ariadne awoke to find herself alone on the island and the ship gone, she mourned her betrayal. In some versions she died on the island, but in most Liber Dionysos finds her, falls in love, and marries her. He placed her wedding crown in the sky as the constellation Corona, each gem a star, and made her his immortal wife (sometimes after retrieving her from the Underworld). It is this Ariadne that is celebrated in the last grand rite of the night and depicted most often in pottery.

roman fresco of sleeping ariadne

Dioniso ed Arianna, Museo Archeologico, ed. Sailko

A Ritual Reenactment of Dionysos & Ariadne's Wedding

The Wedding Feast of Bacchus and Ariadne, Metropolitan Museum of Art

"The [dancing Graces] surrounded Naxos with foliage of spring, the Hamadryas sang of the wedding, [...]  Ortygia cried aloud in triumph, and chanting a bridal hymn for Lyaios (Dionysos), the brother of Phoibos, she skipt in the dance, that unshakeable rock. Fiery Eros made a round flower-garland with red roses and plaited a wreath colored like the stars, as prophet and herald of the heavenly Crown (the constellation Corona); and round about [Ariadne] danced a swarm of the Erotes which attend on marriage. The Golden Father (Dionysos) entered the chamber of wedded love and sowed the seed of many children."

- Nonnus, Dionysiaca 

After the weirdly somber drinking contest, the drunk revelers carried their empty khoes up to the sanctuary where they'd offer them to the god and where the main rite of the evening would take place: The Hieros Gamos, or Sacred Marriage, between Dionysos and Ariadne. The wedding was essentially a theatrical event where two actors, the King and Queen of the night, would play the roles of Dionysos and Ariadne. The King and Queen were usually played by the Achon Basileus and his wife, who would have done most of the organizing for both the festival and this rite in particular, and who also served as heads of Dionysos' cult in Athens throughout the year.

Roman mosaic of comedy and tragedy masks, Capitoline Museums

The "Queen", or the Archon Basileus' wife, oversaw the gerairai, fourteen "Venerable Women", who she handpicked to erect a wooden column at the sanctuary and garb it in robes and ivy. At some point during the festivities (presumably before the men arrived), the Queen would make a show of retrieving a smiling theater mask with a beard and ivy crown and placing it on the column to represent Dionysos in attendance at his festival. The decorated pillar icon with the theater mask is a recurring theme in Dionysian cults across Greece. Flowers, garlands, khoes, and offerings galore would be left under the icon, and the revelers and Venerable Women (gerairai) would dance around the god in classic bacchic fashion, which is to say, wild and frenzied. It is hard to say how the ritual itself was performed, but it was probably to the tune of bridal hymns and drunken song.

Ritual dramatization with actors and masks is an ancient focal point of Dionysos' cult and pre-dates Ancient Greek theater. It was believed that by wearing a mask the actor quite literally and spiritually assumed a new identity, and in the case of Dionysos, could be possessed by the god. The vase paintings for the Anthesteria blur these same lines by depicting Dionysos and Ariadne's wedding surrounded by the khoes and revelers of the Anthesteria or depicting the Queen / Basileus' wife surrounded by the satyrs of the godly wedding. Thus the ritual is a reenactment of the Sacred Marriage, which could also be divine possession, and emphasized the Basileus' wife's role in Dionysos' cult as she symbolically marries the god. The Hieros Gamos plays with the literal, spiritual, and metaphorical connections between Ariadne, the Queen, and the Basileus' wife (or the actor playing her).


At the end of the ritual, likely in the early hours of the next day, the sanctuary of Dionysos would be closed for the rest of the year until the next Anthesteria, and the drunken revelers would stagger home.

Bacchus and Ariadne, Antoine-Jean Gros

Day 3. Khytroi | Day of Pots
13 Anthesterion

MYTH

The Great Flood

drawing of deucalion and pyrrha throwing rocks; the rocks are in the process of turning into humans

Deucalion and Pyrrha Casting the Bones of their Mother, Logan Marshall

Background Mythology

Zeus became angered with mortals and decided to wipe the slate clean with a great flood. Prometheus, having the foresight to see the flood coming and wishing to save his beloved mortals, warned his son Deucalion and his son's wife Pyrrha, the daughter of Pandora, and instructed them to save themselves by getting inside a giant chest and riding out the flood.

When the waters finally began to recede, Decualion and Pyrrha found themselves beached on the peak of Mt. Parnassos, the only survivors of the mortal race as far as the eye could see. Not sure of what else to do, the old couple climbed towards the Oracle in her temple above and asked how they could replenish the earth when they were both past their child-bearing years. The Oracle told them to throw the bones of their mother over their shoulders. Since their mortal mothers were both dead and buried long before the flood, and also not wishing to risk such a taboo as disturbing their mother's graves, they quickly realized that the Oracle must have been referring to Gaia and threw rocks (the bones in this case) over their shoulders.

The rocks sprang up into the fully-formed men and women that would replenish the earth, the new race of mortals descended from Prometheus, Pandora, and Gaia.


The Origins of The Meal

A local Ikarion addition to the myth brings the cultural memory of a horrible flood and great death to the forefront. The local myth says that the flood waters drained into a deep chasm near Olympieion, and that the spirits of the flood victims were so distraught they terrorized the city until the survivors threw whatever they could find into a pot to boil, both as a meal to placate the dead, and to regain their own strength. As they shared in the ordeal, they shared in the meal and remembered their dead. 

A Meal for the Dead

"Out you Keres, the Anthesteria is over!"

On the third and final day of the festival we have said our goodbyes to Dionysos; the last day belongs to khthonic Hermes. The morning began with pots cooking over the hearth preparing meals of grain and honey in honor of Hermes Khthonios and the dead (and presumably would be a good hangover meal after the rite the night before). The cereal dish made for the Anthesteria is ancient and the recipe pre-dates flour-milling and bread-making. It is similar in description to panspermia, another festival porridge made from legumes of all kinds, but differed in spirit. 


This porridge was sweet, with wheat, honey, raisins, and nuts, (with no legumes) and was deeply associated with the dead and funeral rites, which falls in line with the themes running through the festival. Burkert mentions the meal has survived in funeral customs today, possibly referring to koliva, an Orthodox funerary meal of wheat, nuts, and raisins. Koliva is etymologically linked to "kollybos", which referred to wheat kernels used to make pie as well as well as a small coin (referring to the pie-puck shape). 


In Ancient Athens, everyone met to make offerings of the honey cereal stew to Hermes Khthonios and the dead, and then enjoy the meal together in their memory. With the meal for the dead finished and offerings to Hermes Khthonios completed, it was said the masks and Keres lost their power. Worshipers would shout "Out you Keres, the Anthesteria is over!" and the ominous miasma of the festival was banished, and like the cry, the Anthesteria was over.

Bibliography