PANATHENAEA (Gr. Πανάθηνα) — Among the Athenian festivals, the Panathenaea were the oldest celebrated in honor of Athena Polias, the city’s protectress. The festival (said to have been instituted by the mythical Erichthonius) originally was confined to the city of Athens, but when Theseus united the whole of Attica into a single state, it was called the Panathenaea, and indeed on the occasion of this union the 18th of Hekatombaion (July–August) was celebrated as the festival of the Synoikia (*Συνοδία*), which served as a preparation for the Panathenaea.
The festival of the Panathenaea was annual, but from the time of Pisistratus (566 B.C.), besides the annual celebration, a much more solemn one was instituted, the Great Panathenaea, which recurred every four years (a penteteric festival), i.e., every third year of the Olympiad. It lasted four or six days, falling between the 23rd and the 28th of Hekatombaion, on which last day the goddess’s birthday was observed.
The exact proceedings of the Panathenaea (conducted under the supervision of ten athlothetai) are rather obscure, especially since in the course of time the festival was enriched with ever new elements. In the first days there were chariot races, to which were later added horse races, gymnastic contests, and, in more recent times, a torch race (lampadedromia): at the new moon (the festival fell before the new moon) a select group of young men would set out from the altar of Eros in the Academy, where torches were lit, in two divisions; the first ran ahead with lit torches, the second followed at a distance without torches. Whoever was overtaken had to yield his torch, and the winner was the one who first reached the goal with his torch still burning.
Pisistratus (or his son Hipparchus) ordained that Homeric recitations by rhapsodes be included in the Panathenaea, and Pericles introduced musical competitions, held in the Odeon. Besides choruses of dancers, on the last day of the Panathenaea there were also trireme races (contested by the various tribes of Attica). The prizes consisted of gold crowns, oil from the goddess’s sacred olive trees, decorated clay vases, or bronze tripods, and for the victors of the regatta, a sum of money, part of which was destined for a sacrifice in honor of Poseidon.
The closing of the festival on the 28th included a solemn procession that carried to the goddess the richly woven peplos, made by Athenian citizen-women (the ergastinai), on which was represented, among other scenes, Athena’s victorious struggle against the Giants. This peplos, from the Ceramicus, was carried through the city’s streets on a ship-shaped chariot to the goddess’s sanctuary on the Acropolis. This procession was depicted by Phidias in the frieze of the Parthenon.