Anthesteria

The Anthesteria

(/ˌænθɪˈstɪəriə/; Ancient Greek: Ἀνθεστήρια, [antʰestέːri.a]) was one of the four Athenian festivals in honor of Dionysus. It was held each year from the 11th to the 13th of the month of Anthesterion, around the time of the January or February full moon. The three days of the feast were called Pithoigia, Choës, and Chytroi.

It celebrated the beginning of spring, particularly the maturing of the wine stored at the previous vintage, whose pithoi were now ceremoniously opened. During the feast, social order was interrupted or inverted, the slaves being allowed to participate, uniting the household in ancient fashion. The Anthesteria also had aspects of a festival of the dead: either the Keres (Κῆρες) or the Carians (Κᾶρες) were entertained, freely roaming the city until they were expelled after the festival. A Greek proverb, employed of those who pestered for continued favors, ran "Out of doors, Keres! It is no longer Anthesteria".

### Dates

Three days long, around the time of the January or February full moon.

## Chasing Out the Dead

Among the day's amusements are the Contests of the Khutroi (Agônes Khutrinoi), in which the Comoi (Comic

Revellers) compete for the honor of performing at the City Dionysia next month, but as the day grows old, we carry the pots and escort the Dead to the Marshes. Glutted with wine, They will return at our bidding to the Underworld. We have honored the Dead and now They can depart. At sundown we all shout:

> Begone Ye Ghosts!
>
>
>
> Thuraze Kêres!
>
>
>
>
> {QU/RAZE KH=RES}
>
>

By this spell, as also by the Aiôra and Hudrophoria, the city is cleansed of all impurities and hostile spirits. The paradoxical God Dionysos both descends with the Shades to the Underworld and remains above with us, a divine mystery, simultaneously alive and dead, at once Child and Husband.

## Definition 1

Anthesteria, one of the several Athenian festivals in honour of Dionysus, the wine god, held annually for three days in the month of Anthesterion (February–March) to celebrate the beginning of spring and the maturing of the wine stored at the previous vintage. On the first day (Pithoigia, or “Jar Opening”) libations were offered to Dionysus from the newly opened casks. The second day (Choes, or “Wine Jugs”) was a time of popular merrymaking typified by wine-drinking contests in which even slaves and children participated; but the state performed a secret ceremony in a sanctuary of Dionysus in the Lenaeum, in which the wife of the king archon went through a ceremony of marriage to Dionysus. The fullest description, which omits many details, is found in Apollodorus’s speech “Against Neaera.” On these days, it was believed, the souls of the dead came up from the underworld and walked abroad; people chewed leaves of whitethorn and smeared their doors with tar to protect themselves from evil. The third day (Chytroi, or “Pots”) was a festival of the dead, for which, apparently, pots of seed or bran were offered to the dead.

## Summary 1

by James Lloyd

The Anthesteria celebrated two seemingly disparate things: wine and the dead. Both Dionysos and Hermes Chthonios (Hermes of the Underworld) were celebrated as part of this festival. In many ways, the Anthesteria is similar to our modern Halloween.

The festival took part over three days, from the 11th-13th of the month of Anthesterion (late February to early March by our calendar), with each day being given a special name. Both ‘Anthesteria’ and ‘Anthesterion’ derive from the Greek word anthos (flower), relating to their springtime setting. It should be noted that women, children, and slaves participated in this festival, too.

### 12th Antheseterion: the Choes

However, it was also believed that on this day the ghosts of the deceased walked the city. This meant that the Choes and the Chytroi were ‘unlucky’ days, and all other temples and business were closed during them. To protect themselves from these wandering spirits, the Athenians covered the doors of their houses with pitch and chewed hawthorn leaves. The ghosts would stick to the pitch if they tried to enter the house and the hawthorn had apotropaic qualities.

### 13th Anthesterion: the Chytroi

The Chytroi was named after the pots that were filled with a porridge-like mixture (made from seeds and grains) that were dedicated to Hermes Cthonios by individual families on this day. At the end of this day, families would go round their household rooms and shout “‘Out the door [spirits]! Anthesteria is over.” Generally speaking, we do not know who these ghosts were or why they entered the world of the living during the Anthesteria. However, one specific sacrifice which took place on the Chytroi helps us to better understand the connection between the new wine of the season and the placating of the dead. On the last day of the Anthesteria, a meal was offered to Erigone, the mythological daughter of Icarius. Icarius was the mortal to whom Dionysus had famously given the gift of wine. However, after the death of Icarius, Erigone killed herself, hence giving a mythological precedent for the joint worship of wine and the dead.

## Summary 2

Anthesteria: a passage rite from death to life

The festival lasted for 3 days, from the 11th to the 13th of Anthesterion, an Athenian month which corresponds to our early March. The celebration started in the evening, usually at sundown, and hosted different rituals and events which were given special names; so the 3 days of the festival were called the Pithoigia (the opening of the pithoi—storage jars), the Choes (wine pitchers—beakers) and the Chytroi (special cooking-pots). The rite of the Aiora (swinging), of Skommata ex’amaxis (mocking on wagons), of Hieros Gamos (sacred marriage) and of Hydrophoria (carrying of water-vessels) were also integral parts of the Anthesteria among other rites. Men, women, children and slaves were all taking part into the festival, suggestive of its importance for the community.

### The Pithoigia

On the afternoon of the Pithoigia, a rope was fastened around all temples and sanctuaries of the city (perischinisai, Pollux 8.141), apart from the temple of Dionysus in Limnae. When temples were shut it was an official holiday: no oaths could be sworn, no sacrifices could be performed and so no transactions could be performed in the city. Αll activity would then centre around the temple of Dionysus, which would open its gates at sunset and would stay open just for 24 hours in the year. All free and unfree members of the community were allowed to participate within the precinct of this temple in opening the pithoi and tasting the new wine (Scholiast on Hesiod Works and Days 368-70). Children alike were taking an active part into the 3-day celebrations, taking days off school, sipping their first wine, crowned with flowers and getting presents as in modern Christmas.

### The Choes

The Choes was thought of as a day of pollution (miara imera); people believed that this was when the dead’s souls were walking on earth and so they would paint their house doors with pitch for the souls to stick to or would chew hawthorn (ramnos), since it was thought to prevent the evil and ward off ghosts (Burkert, Homo Necans, 216, 218-9). This memorial day with great associations to ceremonies for the dead would end with rites of purification and libations. The rite of the Aiora which involved the swinging of people, especially of women (with possible allusions to fertility rites) or of things on a tree was a means of purification. It was associated with either the myth of Erigone, the daughter of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, and Orestes (B. C. Dietrich Hermes 89.1 (1961): 36-50) or with the myth of Erigone, daughter of Ikarios, and Dionysus (Eratosthenes Erigone fr. 4 Powell). In both versions of Erigone’s story, the girl finds her father dead (Aegisthus or Ikarios), hangs herself from a tree, casting a curse to Athens averted only through the rite of the Aiora, which was meant to purify the city and so it was practiced that day. Finally, the participants of the Choes would bring the remnants of wine to the priestess at Limnae. These would be poured as a libation to Dionysus, while the wreaths of the beakers would also be offered to him to be placated.

### The Chytroi

On the 13th day of the Athenian month Anthesterion, people celebrated the 3rd day of Anthesteria, called the Chytroi. The term derives both from the cooking pots (chytrai) which were filled with food, mostly vegetables and porridge of seeds and grains (panspermia) and from the (chytroi) which were natural pots or holes in the ground through which according to Hysechius (s.v. χύτρινοι) Spring comes up (Theophrastus Hist. Plant. iv.118; J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the history of Greek Religion, 37). This was a feast to the dead dedicated to the Shades and to Hermes Cthonios. It was also associated with Deucalion’s flood, since it was believed that this food offering on chytrai was first made by the survivors of Deucalion’s flood to the ones who perished. None of these were ever eaten since they were meant just for the dead (Scholiast on Aristophanes Acharnians 1076; Harrison, Prolegomena, 37). Finally, there was the ceremony of bringing water and pouring it into a pit outside the Limnae district which could probably be at the temple of Olympian Zeus next to the Gates of the city of Athens. This was the rite of Hydrophoria, where people would pour water in a hole that it was believed that the waters of the Flood passed away, and so as the offering of the Chytroi, it was a libation to placate the souls of the dead so as life would spring anew.

## Sources and Citations

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthesteria#:~:text=The%20Anthesteria%20(%2F%CB%8C%C3%A6n,January%20or%20February%20full%20moon.
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthesteria#:~:text=The%20Anthesteria%20(%2F%CB%8C%C3%A6n,January%20or%20February%20full%20moon.
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070820203409/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/JO-Anth.html
4. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Anthesteria
5. ↑ https://www.ancient.eu/The\_Anthesteria/
6. ↑ D. Felton. "The Dead." *A Companion to Greek Religion*, edited by Ogden, D. (ed.). Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, 89-90.

Parker, R. *Poytheism and Society at Athens.* Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, 290- 326.
7. ↑ https://www.ancient.eu/The\_Anthesteria/
8. ↑ https://www.ancient.eu/The\_Anthesteria/
9. ↑ http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/history/anthesteria
10. ↑ http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/history/anthesteria
11. ↑ http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/history/anthesteria
12. ↑ http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/history/anthesteria

### Additional References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20070820203409/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/JO-Anth.html
2. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Anthesteria", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 93–94 :
3. Harrison, J.E. (1903), Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion
4. Verrall, A.W. (1900), " ", Journal of Hellenic Studies, xx: 115
5. Image 1: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greek\_-\_Red-Figure\_Chous\_with\_Eros\_-\_Walters\_48206.jpg
6. Image 2: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/244818?rpp=30&pg=1&ft=chous&pos=15&imgno=0&tabname=label