Women in Ancient Greek Celebration
There is a saying that is well known, "What is good for the gander is good for the goose." Ancient Greek religious festivities seem to only concern what is good for the gander, or in their case the men. The Greek civilization was extremely male dominated and Greek religion and its activities are looked upon as being androcentric. Very little is known about women's festivities in the ancient Greek religion, even though women were prominent in religious activities and had celebrations and festivals of there own. Women very rarely went outdoors, and were confined to their houses. But the aspects of Greek religion that revolved around women and the practices included in them did not refuse their admittance. Many cults had priestesses, and women were normally involved in festivals and sacrifices. Some festivals and gatherings were even reserved for the women (Nilsson 96). Just as men had a great amount of merrymaking, in which they would socialize, so did the women. I plan to show that women did participate in religious festivals and have festivals of their own in ancient Greece, by writing about such festivals and giving specific examples. Quite often women would attend feasts and festivals that were
Gordon, R.L. Myth, religion, and society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. "...the cults of Dionysos were distinguished by chases, flagellations, ecstatic dancing, sacrifices, and orgia (secret ceremonies) in which women were the principal participants. It was the women, too, who occupied center stage during the Theoinia and Iobakkheia celebrations at the Anthesteria festival at Athens." (Pantel & Zaidman 200) Women played key roles in certain ancient Greek religious rituals and cult practices. When performing civic sacrifices at the Panthenaia at Athens and the Hyakinthia at Sparta, it was the women "who carried the lustral water," the women "who bore the basket of grain in which the sacrificial knife was concealed," and stood around the altar to participate in the act of ritual slaughter (Pantel & Zaidman 35). The sacred "implements and provisions" were carried by the virgins (Nilsson 96). The "grinders of grain" were the girls who prepared the flour and the bread for the sacrifices in the cult of Athena (Gordon 179). At the moment of the slaughter, all women in attendance would let out the "indispensable ritual scream" (Pantel & Zaidman 35). Women also had their own parties in the ancient Greek world. Most of these festivals incorporated a women's feast and gave evidence of at least a "temporary opposition to men." During the Skira, a summer festival exclusively for women that was held in honor of both Demeter and Athena, women would eat garlic, a very odoriferous food affiliated with sexual abstinence. Haloa, more of a lewd festival in which women feast, is an all-night festival in midwinter associated with both Demeter and Dionysus. Burton states that during the Haloa at Eleusis, Hauley, Richard and Barbara Levick. Women in Antiquity. New York: Routledge, 1995. In Archediato during the women's' feast of Tegea, which was held in adoration of Ares Gunaikothoinas ("feaster of women"), women carried out the sacrifice of the feast and none of the sacrificial meat was disbursed to the men (Burton 46).
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Approximate Word count = 1541
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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