MR5

• The City Dionysia and the Great Panathenaia were key festivals in ancient Greece
• The Lupercalia and Saturnalia were key festivals in ancient Rome
• There are no prescribed sources for this topic, but you should draw upon any other appropriate sources and evidence you have studied when you write extended responses to exam questions
• For Greece you will examine the Great Panathenaia that was held to honour the city's patron Athena. You will also study the city Dionysia held in honour of Dionysus, God of wine and revelry
• For Rome he will study the Lupercalia held in honour of Lupercus and the Saturnalia held for Saturn
• In classical Athens around 140 days of the year were given over to religious celebrations, festivals and entertainment days. In Rome around 159 days were given over to these days
• Panathenaia


  Festival celebrating Athena's birthday, held annually in Athens
• Great Panathenaia


  Expanded 8-day version of the Panathenaia held every four years, with more athletic and literary competitions
• Programme of the Great Panathenaia

  1. Day 1: Rhapsodic and musical contests

  2. Day 2: Boys' and youths' athletics

  3. Day 3: Men's athletics

  4. Day 4: Equestrian events

  5. Day 5: Tribal contests

  6. Day 6: All-night celebrations, procession and sacrifice

  7. Day 7: Apobates and boat race

  8. Day 8: Prize-giving
• Rhapsodic and musical contests

  • Competitors recited verses from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and competed in aulos and kithara performances
• Sporting events


  • Wide variety of athletic events, with winners receiving Panathenaic amphorae filled with olive oil as prizes
• Sporting events


  • Stadion (running), wrestling, boxing, pankration, pentathlon, equestrian games
• Tribal contests


  • Series of strength trials, boat race, war dance competition
• All-night celebration, procession and sacrifice

  Torch race, singing and dancing, presentation of the peplos (dress) to Athena, procession to the Acropolis, animal sacrifices
• The Panathenaic Procession was depicted on the Ionic Frieze of the Parthenon
• City Dionysia


  Festival held in honour of Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, founded in the 6th century BC
• Origins of the City Dionysia


  Linked to the alliance between Eleutherae and Athens, and the acceptance of the wooden statue of Dionysus into Athens
• Sanctuary of Dionysus


  • Contained the temple and altar of Dionysus, surrounded by a short wall
• Eponymous archon


  Elected official who had administrative responsibilities for the City Dionysia, including selecting playwrights and choregoi
• The City Dionysia was open to wide participation, not just elites
• Sanctuary


  • Communal importance of the altar as it sat in the centre of the large open area
  • Temple was relatively small and situated in the north-west corner of the sanctuary
• The eponymous archon was an elected official who had various administrative responsibilities over the year
• The eponymous archon would select three tragic playwrights and five comic playwrights who would have to write plays, seventeen in total
• After the playwrights were chosen the archon had to choose a choregos to finance the plays
• Participants in the City Dionysia


  • 100 members from each tribe in the dithyramb competition
  • Professional actors
  • Amateur chorus members
• Programme of events at the City Dionysia

  1. Day 1: Pompe, dithyrambic contests, komos

  2. Day 2: Opening ceremony, 5 comedies

  3. Day 3: 3 tragedies, 1 satyr-play

  4. Day 4: 3 tragedies, 1 satyr-play

  5. Day 5: 3 tragedies, 1 satyr-play; Judging and prize giving
• Pompe


  Grand procession that accompanied the wooden statue of Dionysus
• Dithyramb


  Choral song and dance written in honour of Dionysus
• Komos


  Party that took place in the streets in honour of Dionysus, involving singing, dancing and wine drinking
• The theatrical contests at the City Dionysia cost 2 obols to attend, which would have been a day's wage for an unskilled worker
• The Athenians set up the Theoric Fund in the late fifth-century BC to help the poor to attend the festival
• Comedy


  • Developed later than tragedy, themes were usually war, politics or social life
  • Characters often had reversed roles, slaves acted superior to masters, women controlled men, politicians were openly mocked
  • Offered relief from the everyday world of Athens and allowed playwrights to voice feelings about contemporary issues
• Tragedy


  • Inspired by well-known myths and historical events of the past
  • Focused on human suffering and sought to answer questions about human nature
  • Audience was meant to consider how what they were watching was reflected in their own lives
• Satyr-play


  Comic respite after the three tragedies had been performed, with a mythological theme
• Judging of the plays


  1. On the 5th day, each judge wrote the plays in order of preference and placed the list in a single urn

  2. The eponymous archon then drew five of the ten lists

  3. The play with the most votes was declared victor and given a Garland of Ivy
• The origins of the Lupercalia festival were debated by ancient writers, but it was originally developed from a festival of purification and fertility in honour of the god Lupercus
• Lupercus


  God known for protecting farmers, harvesting, fertility, purification and packs of wild animals
• The priests of the Lupercalia were called Luperci and were chosen especially for the day from the noble male population
• Programme of the Lupercalia

  Priests gathered in the Lupercal cave, performed a sacrifice, then the two teams of Luperci took part in a race around the foot of the Palatine Hill
• Interpretations of the origins of the Lupercalia


  • Plutarch links it to the Arcadian Lycaea, the feast of wolves
  • Ovid links it to the Greek god Pan and the story of Faunus' sexual humiliation