PANATENEE (gr. Παναθήνα). — Among the Athenian festivals, the P. were the most ancient, celebrated in honor of Athena Polias, protectress of the city. The festival (said to have been instituted by the mythical Erichthonius) was originally limited to the city of Athens alone; but, from the time when Theseus united Attica into a single state, it was called the Panathenaea. Indeed, on the occasion of this union, the festival of the Synoikia (Συνολία) was celebrated on 18 Hecatombaeon (July–August), serving as a preparation for the P.
The festival of the P. was annual, but from the time of Pisistratus (566 B.C.), in addition to the annual celebration, another, much more solemn one was instituted: the Great Panathenaea, which were repeated every four years (a penteteric festival), that is, every third year of the Olympiad. They lasted four or six days, between the 23rd and 28th of Hecatombaeon, on the latter day being celebrated the goddess’s birthday.
The exact course of the P. (conducted under the guidance of ten athletic officials) is somewhat obscure, also because over the course of time the festival continued to be enriched with ever new elements. During the first days, chariot races were held, to which horse races, gymnastic contests, and, in a later period, a torch race (lampadedromia) were added: at dusk (the festival fell before the new moon), a selected group of young men set out from the altar of Eros in the Academy, where the torches were lit, in two divisions. The first ran ahead with the torches burning; the second followed at a distance without torches. Whoever was overtaken had to surrender his torch, and the winner was the one who first reached the finishing point with the torch still burning.
Pisistratus (or his son Hipparchus) decreed that the Homeric poems be recited by rhapsodes at the P., and Pericles introduced musical contests, held in the Odeon. In addition to the choruses of dancers, on the last day the P. included trireme races (contested by the various tribes of Attica). The prizes consisted of golden crowns, oil from the goddess’s sacred olive trees, decorated clay vessels, or bronze tripods; for the winners of the regatta, they consisted of a sum of money, part of which was intended for a sacrifice in honor of Poseidon.
The closing of the festival, on the 28th, included a solemn procession, which brought the goddess the exceedingly rich peplos woven by Athenian women (the ergastinae), on which, among other things, the victorious battle of Athena against the Giants was represented. This peplos was taken from the Ceramicus through the city streets on a ship-shaped cart to the goddess’s sanctuary on the Acropolis. This procession was depicted by Phidias in the frieze of the Parthenon.
Cesare D'Onofrio