tragedians submitted four plays, a trilogy of tragedies, and a
so-called satyr play. Th e Dionysia ran for fi ve or six days.
Th e Lenaea took place in midwinter and was a smaller
and more intimate festival for Athenians alone. Th ere is evi-
dence that slaves could attend performances at the Lenaea
and even act in the plays. It is not clear whether women were
allowed to attend plays at either of the major dramatic festi-
vals. At both of these festivals and at other festivals through-
out the Greek world, there were competitions in other kinds
of poetry and music, especially choral singing and dancing,
reciting Homeric epic, and performing on the double fl ute
and the kithara.
Festivals generally served to reinforce community,
through a shared enjoyment of art, through eating and drink-
ing, and by means of other activities. Some festivals empha-
sized drinking, with drunkenness serving as a release. Others
invited people to invert normal social roles, allowing slaves
to order their masters around or men to dress in women’s
clothing. Some emphasized the shared history, real or mytho-
logical, of a community, such as the Oschophoria and the De-
ipnophoria at Athens, which involved reenactments of events
in the mythology of Th eseus, the legendary king of Athens.
Aft er the fourth century b.c.e., during the Hellenistic Pe-
riod, new festivals arose in parts of the Greek world, in honor
of (and sponsored by) the dynastic monarchs who then held
power over large territories; one such festival was the Ptol-
emeia, in honor of the Macedonian Ptolemies, the dynasty
that ruled Egypt aft er the third century b.c.e.
ROME
BY AMY HACKNEY BLACKWELL
Th e ancient Romans celebrated numerous festivals, or feriae.
Th ese festivals served both as occasions to honor gods and as
days off from work, since most businesses closed for the oc-
casion. Rome’s many priests and legal offi cials fi xed the dates
for festivals on the calendar. Some festivals had set dates, but
others moved around from year to year. Many Roman festi-
vals had their origins in older cultures and religions. Many of
them also form the basis for modern seasonal and religious
festivals.
Some festivals occurred on specifi c dates, but others
were set monthly according to the phases of the moon and
other signs. Every month had signifi cant days. Th e fi rst of
the month, called the Kalends, was considered sacred to the
goddess Juno. It was meant to coincide with the new moon.
Th e fi ft h or seventh day of the month was called the Nones,
and on this day the priest would announce that month’s fes-
tivals. Th e Ides, sacred to Jupiter, occurred in the middle of
the month and ideally coincided with the full moon. Priests
set festivals to occur during the second half of the month be-
cause it was easier to track the moon’s phases then.
Th e Bona Dea, or Good Goddess, was a goddess wor-
shipped only by women, who considered her responsible for
their fertility and the safe development and birth of their
children as well as the fertility of the earth. She was oft en
depicted wreathed with vines next to a jar of wine and a
holy snake. Every year the wife of the consul or of the pon-
tifex maximus (chief priest) and the vestal virgins (priest-
esses of the hearth goddess, Vesta) held a party to celebrate
her feast day. Th e wealthiest women in Rome attended this
party, where they drank wine that they called “milk”; an an-
cient and largely disregarded law forbade women to drink
wine, so calling the wine “milk” was a way to acknowledge
this law while disobeying it. In 161 b.c.e. Publius Clodius
Pulcher, a man, dressed as a woman in order to sneak into
the Bona Dea party. Th e Roman women panicked when they
discovered this, fearing that all childbirth that year would
be cursed.
Th e Magna Mater was the Great Mother goddess, also
called Cybele. People believed that she made plants and
animals grow and celebrated her festival in the spring. One
festival in her honor involved cutting down a pine tree and
placing it in her temple.Hand of Sabazius, Roman (second or third century c.e.), found at
Tournai, Belgium; such hands were associated with the cult of the god
Sabazius and were carried in religious processions. (© Th e Trustees of
the British Museum)festivals: Rome 469