The gate of the year

The Anthesteria and the Dionysia

Painting on an Attic cup, dating to about 480 B.C., in the National Museums (Staatliche Museen), Berlin, Germany. At the centre of the scene is pictured a cultic representation of the god Dionysus, probably the god’s mask put on a pillar, from which some leafy branches spring up. Around the simulacrum which manifests the presence of the god, there is a group of Maenads dancing and playing the flute beside the altar. In the iconography of the Dionysian cults, frequently the god is personified with a simple mask hanging from a pole or a pillar, a unique phenomenon among the Hellenic deities.
To Dionysus were dedicated several festivities in the course of the year, in particular the Anthesteria, held in the springtime, in the month Antesteriòn (February-March), to celebrate the new wine, but also the blossoming and renewal of vegetation. The feasts lasted for three days. On the first day, were opened the jars containing the wine of the preceding year, which were deposited in the sanctuary of Dionysus Limnaios (“of the marshes”), located outside the urban area, and the wine was first distributed and tasted. The elation provoked by wine and the neglect of social hierarchies and distinctions were characteristic elements of the festival, to which was also associated a motif of greater restlessness, having to do with the forthcoming return of the dead. On the second day, a procession took place, bringing Dionysus’s effigy on a wagon shaped like of a ship, followed by celebrants costumed as Satyrs and playing flutes. The procession was directed towards the quarters of the Archon Basileus, the magistrate who had the task of supervising the organization of religious ceremonies. Here the god had a meeting with the Basileus’s wife, in a sort of “sacred marriage” (hieros gamos), a nocturnal ritual to which only a restricted group of priestesses attended. The day ended with the sacrifice of a he-goat, poured over with wine. On the third day, performers called ithyphalloi, with an erect phallus, formed choruses and song competitions, parading behind a carved and painted phallus pole through the streets. Ceremonies were held in honor of Hermes, in his quality of subterranean god, associated with the world of the dead. To the latter were offered food prepared with cereals and honey, which had to be consumed before nightfall, when the feast was over and the dead were invited to definitively go away (Robertson 2005). The relationship between the inhabitants of the Underworld and the renewal of springtime, between the living and the dead, was associated to the principle of fertility, a quality which pertained, paradoxically, to the latter. As Eliade has affirmed, “the dead and the powers of the Afterlife rule over fertility and wealth and are the dispensers of them”, recalling the words of an Hippocratic treatise, according to which “from the dead come nourishment, growth and seed”. Dionysus himself appeared at the same time both as a god of fertility and of death. Heraclitus (fragm. 15 DK) already said that “Hades and Dionysus […] are one and the same” (Eliade 1976, p. 377).
In December-January were held the Little Dionysia or Rural Dionysia, unrestrained and lively festivals celebrated in the countryside. They had a continuation in the following month (January-February) with the Lenaia, still in honor of Dionysus, at the time of pruning the vines in winter, during which parades of floats took place, accompanied by licentious jokes and mottoes, and where the protagonists were the Lenai (term analogous to those of Maenads or Bacchae), the “mad women” participating to the ritual and being possessed by the god (Robertson 2005). In the month of Elafeboliòn (March-April) were held the Great Dionysia, which was for the Athenians the most prominent feast, after the Panathenaia. In this occasion, Dionysus’s effigy was brought in procession, on a ship-shaped chariot, starting from the sanctuary in the marshes and ending to the Lenaion, a precinct in which was located the most ancient temple of Dionysus “with the winepress”. The parade took place overnight, by torchlight, and was accompanied by unrestrained songs and dances. The god’s effigy was then moved on the theatre altar, where dance, music and poetry competitions were performed, as well as theatrical plays.

[Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




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The Anthesteria and the Dionysia Painting on an Attic cup, dating to about 480 B.C., in the National Museums (Staatliche Museen), Berlin, Germany. At the centre of the scene is pictured a cultic representation of the god Dionysus, probably the god’s mask put on a pillar, from which some leafy branches spring up. Around the simulacrum which manifests the presence of the god, there is a group of Maenads dancing and playing the flute beside the altar. In the iconography of the Dionysian cults, frequently the god is personified with a simple mask hanging from a pole or a pillar, a unique phenomenon among the Hellenic deities. To Dionysus were dedicated several festivities in the course of the year, in particular the Anthesteria, held in the springtime, in the month Antesteriòn (February-March), to celebrate the new wine, but also the blossoming and renewal of vegetation. The feasts lasted for three days. On the first day, were opened the jars containing the wine of the preceding year, which were deposited in the sanctuary of Dionysus Limnaios (“of the marshes”), located outside the urban area, and the wine was first distributed and tasted. The elation provoked by wine and the neglect of social hierarchies and distinctions were characteristic elements of the festival, to which was also associated a motif of greater restlessness, having to do with the forthcoming return of the dead. On the second day, a procession took place, bringing Dionysus’s effigy on a wagon shaped like of a ship, followed by celebrants costumed as Satyrs and playing flutes. The procession was directed towards the quarters of the Archon Basileus, the magistrate who had the task of supervising the organization of religious ceremonies. Here the god had a meeting with the Basileus’s wife, in a sort of “sacred marriage” (hieros gamos), a nocturnal ritual to which only a restricted group of priestesses attended. The day ended with the sacrifice of a he-goat, poured over with wine. On the third day, performers called ithyphalloi, with an erect phallus, formed choruses and song competitions, parading behind a carved and painted phallus pole through the streets. Ceremonies were held in honor of Hermes, in his quality of subterranean god, associated with the world of the dead. To the latter were offered food prepared with cereals and honey, which had to be consumed before nightfall, when the feast was over and the dead were invited to definitively go away (Robertson 2005). The relationship between the inhabitants of the Underworld and the renewal of springtime, between the living and the dead, was associated to the principle of fertility, a quality which pertained, paradoxically, to the latter. As Eliade has affirmed, “the dead and the powers of the Afterlife rule over fertility and wealth and are the dispensers of them”, recalling the words of an Hippocratic treatise, according to which “from the dead come nourishment, growth and seed”. Dionysus himself appeared at the same time both as a god of fertility and of death. Heraclitus (fragm. 15 DK) already said that “Hades and Dionysus […] are one and the same” (Eliade 1976, p. 377). In December-January were held the Little Dionysia or Rural Dionysia, unrestrained and lively festivals celebrated in the countryside. They had a continuation in the following month (January-February) with the Lenaia, still in honor of Dionysus, at the time of pruning the vines in winter, during which parades of floats took place, accompanied by licentious jokes and mottoes, and where the protagonists were the Lenai (term analogous to those of Maenads or Bacchae), the “mad women” participating to the ritual and being possessed by the god (Robertson 2005). In the month of Elafeboliòn (March-April) were held the Great Dionysia, which was for the Athenians the most prominent feast, after the Panathenaia. In this occasion, Dionysus’s effigy was brought in procession, on a ship-shaped chariot, starting from the sanctuary in the marshes and ending to the Lenaion, a precinct in which was located the most ancient temple of Dionysus “with the winepress”. The parade took place overnight, by torchlight, and was accompanied by unrestrained songs and dances. The god’s effigy was then moved on the theatre altar, where dance, music and poetry competitions were performed, as well as theatrical plays. [Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/]