Today is the #Pithoigia, the first day of the Athenian #Anthesteria festival in honour of #Dionysos. It lasts three days, from the 11th to the 13th of the month of Anthesterion.
The Anthesteria festival celebrates the beginning of Spring and in particular the maturing of the wine stored at the previous vintage, whose pithoi (storage-jars) were now ceremoniously opened. Spring flowers decorate the house and drinking vessels.
@pagan @antiquidons
#ancientGreece #HellenicPolytheism #HelPol
Today we celebrate the second day of #Anthesteria: #Choës or #Khoaí, 'The Pouring'. The merrymaking continues with dressing up as Dionysos' entourage and going for a round of visits to friends and neighbours for drinks and drinking contests to see who could drain their cups the most rapidly. Less merry is the pouring of libations on the family tombs. Athens' ritual queen, the basilinna, was wed to the god Dionysos, possibly a reenactment of Ariadne's marriage to #Dionysos.
Read Li Österberg's comic "#Anthesteria" in full here:
https://theiamania.thecomicseries.com/comics/454
And follow her on Tumblr if you like:
https://theia-mania-comics.tumblr.com/
@pagan @antiquidons The last day of the #Anthesteria is called #Chytroi or #Khýtroi, 'The Pots'. It's a festival of the dead where fruit or pulse is offered to the souls of the dead, who are then bidden to depart, and to #Hermes Chthonios, who should guide them back to the underworld. No one is supposed to eat the pottage, which is food of the dead. A rehearsal to select the players for the City Dionysia also takes place on this day.
