GENÉSIE (Τὰ γενέαις). - Funerary commemoration, performed at Athens on the anniversary of the birth (not of the death) of a deceased person, especially the head of the family (Herodotus, IV, 26; Isaeus, II, 46).
As a public festival it fell on 5 Boedromion (Sept.-Oct.), in remembrance of the dead of the various families; the ritual, as in the private g., consisted of offerings on the tombs of fillets, crowns, and foods of a funerary kind. Nor was there lacking a sacrifice to Earth, the mother who receives the dead (Hesychius, Lex., s. v.). In other cities of Argolis and Boeotia as well, an analogous commemoration was celebrated under the name Τὰ νεκάας (δὰ νέκας “dead”). It is not proved that the Nemesiae (Τὰ Νεφέας) are to be identified with the g., since the former were rather intended to appease the vengeance (νέακας) of the dead, angered by the neglect of the living toward them. The great festival of all the dead of the city fell at Athens on the third day of the Anthesteria (v.).