Sections in this chapter follow a rough chronological order: the archontic or
festival calendars are undoubtedly the most ancient, followed by the prytanic
calendar (instituted at Athens in the early or midfifth century BCE), the
astronomical calendars (from the latefifth centuryBCE), andfinally the so-
calledkata theoncalendar (from about the third centuryBCE). One of the
questions I shall raise is whether this chronological succession reveals any
development or evolution in the ancient Greek concept and use of calendars.
On the whole, the answer to this question will be negative, since the festival
calendars appear to have remained dominant in the Greek world until the end
of Antiquity.
- THE FESTIVAL CALENDARS
Although the term‘festival calendar’is only necessary for Athens, to distin-
guish it from the prytanic calendar, it can be legitimately applied to all other
Greek civil calendars because of their close connection to the religious festi-
vals. The months in Greek calendars are very commonly named after the
major festivals occurring in them, and it has thus been argued that originally,
the primary use of the calendar would have been the determination of festival
dates (Hannah 2005: 27–8). In the historical period, however, Greek calendars
were used for a wide range of purposes: religious, political, and economic,
public and private, etc. Outside Athens, I shall prefer to refer to these calendars
more neutrally as‘civil’.
The new moonIn principle, all Greek calendars were lunar, and so they were generally
perceived.^3 According to later writers such as Geminus (first centuryBCE),^4
the Greek month began when the new moon crescent wasfirst sighted.^5
(^3) As stated e.g. by Aristotle,Ath. Pol.43. 2; Geminus,Elem. Astr.8. 10–15 (Aujac 1975:
49 – 50); and Plutarch,Solon25. 3. This is also evident from Selene’s speech in Aristophanes,
Clouds(615–26), which will be discussed below.
(^4) Geminus,Elem. Astr.8. 11, 9. 7 (Aujac 1975: 49–50, 59–60). For this revised dating of
Geminus, see A. Jones (1999a). See also Philo,Special Laws2. 11 (41), 2. 26 (140–1), on which see
Stern (2001) 116–19; it may be argued, however, that Philo is only referring to the Jewish
calendar. Pliny,NaturalHistory18. 75 (321–5), is often cited in this context but actually
irrelevant, as he refers not to a calendar month, but to the cycle of the moon.
(^5) First visibility of the new moon crescent always occurs in the evening, shortly after sunset,
and only for a relatively short period (see Stern 2001: 99–103). If this marked the beginning of
the month, thefirst day of the month would have been reckoned from that evening or from the
following morning. The beginning of the day in the Greek calendar remains a matter of
26 Calendars in Antiquity