PIANOPSIA (Πυανόψια). - From πύανος "bean" and ἔψω "I eat." A festival celebrated in Athens on the seventh day of the month Pyanepsion (October 22) in honor of Apollo.
This festival, which according to tradition was instituted by Theseus after his return from Crete, derived its name from the cooked beans offered to the god on this day as first-fruits; for the occasion a branch of olive (εἰρεσιών) adorned with fillets and laden with every kind of fruit was also carried in solemn procession. The eiresione was borne along the route by a boy whose parents were still living, and while the participants sang a hymn
(the hymn is partly preserved by Plutarch, Theseus, 22) the procession made its way to the temple of Apollo, at whose doors the olive branch was hung.
This public festival, however, also had private aspects, in that, according to some (scholia on Aristophanes, Plut. 1050), every Athenian on that day planted an olive branch before his own house, where he kept it until the P. of the following year, that is, until the old branch was replaced with the new one. The meaning of the ceremony was that of giving thanks to Apollo-Sun for the harvest of fruits ripened by the sun. There was also a foot race among young men whose parents were still living, which started from the temple of Dionysus and ran as far as the harbor of Phalerum: the winner received a "fivefold" cup (πεντεπλῆ) of wine, honey, cheese, flour, and oil. This race too had the meaning of a harvest festival, specifically of the grape harvest. It was later linked with the myth of Theseus, to whom funeral offerings and libations were paid.
Bibliography
Cesare D'Onofrio