 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Panathenaic Games" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
ThePanathenaic Games (Ancient Greek:Παναθήναια) were held every four years inAthens inAncient Greece from 566 BC[1] to the 3rd century AD.[2] These Games incorporated religious festival, ceremony (including prize-giving), athletic competitions, and cultural events hosted within astadium.
The Panathenaic festival was formed in order to honor the goddess Athena who had become the patron of Athens after having a competition with the god Poseidon where they were to win the favor of the Athenian people by offering the people gifts. The festival would also bring unity among the people of Athens.[3]
The attempted assassination of thetyrantsHippias andHipparchus during the Panathenaea in 514 BC byHarmodius and Aristogeiton was often regarded as the birth of Athenian democracy.
As the birthplace of Athena isLake Tritonis in North Africa,[4] Athenians did not contest North Africans to also participate in the Panathenaic games since they considered them to have a similar culture of that of Hellenists, one example of this is princeMastanabal of Numidia the son ofMasinissa, who won forNumidia 4 gold Medals in chariot racing.[5][6]
The competitions for which the festival came to be known were part of the GreatPanathenaia, a much larger religious occasion. These ritual observances consisted of numerous sacrifices to Athena (the namesake of the event and patron deity to the hosts of the event) as well as Poseidon and others. The Lesser Panathenaia, a sister-event to the Great Panathenaia, was held every year with 3 to 4 days shorter in celebration. The competitions were the most prestigious games for the citizens of Athens, but not as important as the Olympic Games or the other Panhellenic Games.
The Panathenaea also included poetic and musical competitions. Prizes were awarded forrhapsodic recitation ofHomeric poetry, for instrumental music on theaulus andcithara, and for singing to the accompaniment of the aulus and cithara (citharody). In addition, the Games included a reading of epic poetry by early poets such asHomer,Pindar andHesiod.
The athletic events were staged at thePanathenaic Stadium, which is still in use today. In 1865,Evangelis Zappas left a vast fortune in his will with instructions to excavate and refurbish the ancient Panathenaic stadium so that modern Olympic Games could be held every four years "in the manner of our ancestors".[7] The Panathenaic Stadium has hosted Zappas Olympics in1870,[8] and1875, as well as the modernOlympic Games in1896 and2004. The stadium also hosted the1906 Intercalated Games.
The Panathenaic Games held contests in a number of musical, athletic, and equestrian events. Due to the fact that there were so many contests held, the games usually lasted a little over a week. On a fourth century marble block, experts explain that on the block is written a program for the games, as well as individual events and their prizes. The inscription also says that there are two age categories for the music events but three age categories for the athletic events. According to scholars, the age groups are boys: 12–16; beardless youths: 16–20; men: over 20.[9] One thing that was different about these games than normal funeral games is that prizes were given to runners-up, not just the lone victor.
Using the inscription, experts put together a general program like so:
Experts reasonably came up with how the games went based on the order of prizes which were written on the marble block. Wrestling and discus were also included in the contest.[9]
The musical events which took place were Kithara players, Flute players, and singers. The athletic events were the stadion, pentathlon, wrestling, boxing, and pankration. The equestrian events were two-horse chariot race, horse race, and javelin throw on horseback. Based on the inscription, we learn that the prizes given to the men and the youth were different. Men were rewarded a certain amount of drachmas and/or a valuable crown worth a certain amount of drachmas. Boys and youths were given a certain number of amphorae of olive oil.[9]
The Panathenaic games were a chrematitic ('monetary') event where the winner would take home prizes with a monetary value, as opposed to stephanitic ('crowned') games like the Olympics which awarded the winner with only a crown. Award ceremonies included the giving ofPanathenaic amphorae, which were large ceramic vessels containing olive oil given as a prize.[10] The winner of thechariot race received as a prize one-hundred and forty Panathenaic amphorae full of olive oil.[11]
In the myth of theMinotaur,Minos' sonAndrogeus is killed during the Panathenaic Games. Some accounts, likePseudo-Apollodorus'sBibliotheca, state he won and his jealous competitors ambushed and murdered him. Others, such asGraeciae Descriptio byPausanias, say he was trampled to death by amad bull.
As for Athena, they say that she was daughter of Poseidon and the Tritonian lake", "They celebrate a yearly festival of Athena, where their maidens are separated into two bands and fight each other with stones and sticks, thus (they say) honoring in the way of their ancestors that native goddess whom we call Athena
