Anthesteria

A pig is the one animal in Greek religion that actually had sacrifice made to it.

The third feast, the Anthesteria, belongs in classical times to the Olympian Dionysus and is said to be the oldest of his feasts.

On the surface there is a touch of the wine god and he is given due official prominence.

But as soon as we penetrate anywhere near the heart of the festival, Dionysus and his brother gods are quite forgotten and all that remains is a great ritual for appeasing the dead.

The important thing is to get them properly placated and purified, free from the contagion of ancient sin or underworld anger.

For nothing is so dangerous as the presence of what I may call raw ghosts.

The Anthesteria contained, like other feasts of the kind, a hieros gamos or holy marriage between the wife of the basileus or sacred king and the imaginary god.

Whatever reality there ever was in the ceremony has apparently by classical times faded away.

A pig is the one animal in Greek religion that actually had sacrifice made to it.

The third feast, the Anthesteria, belongs in classical times to the Olympian Dionysus and is said to be the oldest of his feasts.

On the surface there is a touch of the wine god and he is given due official prominence.

But as soon as we penetrate anywhere near the heart of the festival, Dionysus and his brother gods are quite forgotten and all that remains is a great ritual for appeasing the dead.

And they were often linked to Dionysus, of course.

Um, and there was one in particular called an- which was basically the, an antici- antis- antecedent, antecedent? I never quite know how to pronounce that, uh, to a Carnival, which usually takes place around February, um, uh, around mid-February, and this was called Anthesteria.

Uh, and it was one of four, uh, Athenian festivals that were held in honor for Dionysus, and it celebrates the beginning of spring, the maturing of wine.

Um, and during this feast, uh, the social order will be interrupted or inverted, and indeed even slaves were allowed to participate.

A pig is the one animal in Greek religion that actually had sacrifice made to it.

The third feast, the Anthesteria, belongs in classical times to the Olympian Dionysus and is said to be the oldest of his feasts.

On the surface there is a touch of the wine god and he is given due official prominence.

But as soon as we penetrate anywhere near the heart of the festival, Dionysus and his brother gods are quite forgotten and all that remains is a great ritual for appeasing the dead.

The important thing is to get them properly placated and purified, free from the contagion of ancient sin or underworld anger.

For nothing is so dangerous as the presence of what I may call raw ghosts.

The Anthesteria contained, like other feasts of the kind, a hieros gamos or holy marriage between the wife of the basileus or sacred king and the imaginary god.

Whatever reality there ever was in the ceremony has apparently by classical times faded away.

We read of judges in the 17th century who believed that witches ought to be burned and that the persons before them were witches, and yet would not burn them, evidently under the influence of vague, half-realized feelings.

I know a vegetarian who thinks that as far as he can see, carnivorous habits are not bad for human health and actually tend to increase the happiness of the species of animals eaten, as the adoption of Swift's modest proposal would doubtless relieve the economic troubles of the human race, and yet feels clear that for him the ordinary flesh meal, or quote feasting on corpses unquote, would partake of the nature of sin.

The path of progress is paved with inconsistencies, though it would be an error to imagine that the people who habitually reject any higher promptings that come to them are really any more consistent.

The hardest part was figuring out where to go.

The surest test to apply in this question is the evidence of actual cult.

Miss Harrison has here shown us the right method, and following her we will begin with the three great festivals of Athens, the Diasia, the Thesmophoria, and the Anthesteria.

The Diasia was said to be the chief festival of Zeus, the central figure of the Olympians, although our authorities generally add an epithet to him, and call him Zeus Milikios, Zeus of Placation.

A god with an epithet is always suspicious, like a human being with an alias.

Both here and still more markedly in the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis, we regularly find the most lovely of all goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, habitually, I will not say represented by, but dangerously associated with, a sacred sow.

A pig is the one animal in Greek religion that actually had sacrifice made to it.

The third feast, the Anthesteria, belongs in classical times to the Olympian Dionysus, and is said to be the oldest of his feasts.

On the surface there is a touch of the wine-god, and he is given due official prominence.

The surest test to apply in this question is the evidence of actual cult.

Miss Harrison has here shown us the right method, and following her we will begin with the three great festivals of Athens, the Diasia, the Thesmophoria, and the Anthesteria.

The Diasia was said to be the chief festival of Zeus, the central figure of the Olympians, although our authorities generally add an epithet to him, and call him Zeus Milikios, Zeus of Placation.

A god with an epithet is always suspicious, like a human being with an alias.

Both here and still more markedly in the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis, we regularly find the most lovely of all goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, habitually, I will not say represented by, but dangerously associated with, a sacred sow.

A pig is the one animal in Greek religion that actually had sacrifice made to it.

The third feast, the Anthesteria, belongs in classical times to the Olympian Dionysus, and is said to be the oldest of his feasts.

On the surface there is a touch of the wine-god, and he is given due official prominence.