legendary Athenian lawmaker Solon may have converted it into a national celebration
(Parke 1977:53). The Genesia thus may have become an equivalent to the British
Remembrance Day or the US Memorial Day, a day on which the state of Athens
recognized its debt to the dead, mainly their sacrifice in battle; this would help to
explain why the Genesia took place in the fall, at the end of the campaign season,
though the Athenians observed the festival not only during war but also during times
of peace (Parke 1977:53–4). Not much specific information survives about how the
Genesia was celebrated, but the rituals probably included libations to the dead. Apart
from cult festivals to worship dead heroes, such as those who died at Marathon, the
Genesia appears to have been the only public festival in Athens devoted solely to
honoring the dead. Other states probably had similar festivals of the dead, though we
have virtually no specific information about any of them (Johnston 1999a:43).
The one-day Genesia, however, was a relatively minor festival for the dead com-
pared to the three-day Anthesteria. This holiday, the name of which derives from the
Greekanthos, or ‘‘flower,’’ was a major festival honoring the god Dionysus, but the
last two days, particularly the third day, were devoted to the dead. Unlike the Genesia,
during which the Athenians reverenced and remembered their dead, part of the
Anthesteria was evidently intended to appeasethe dead and avert any evil they
might intend toward the living. The Anthesteria took place on the 11th, 12th, and
13th of the month of Anthesterion (our late February/early March), the time in
spring when flowers come into blossom. The festival consisted of three phases: the
Pithoigia, the Choes, and the Chytrai. On the Pithoigia, the day of ‘‘jar-opening,’’
new wine was tasted and offered to Dionysus (Parke 1977:107–8).
The Choes, or day of ‘‘wine-jugs,’’ the main day of the Anthesteria, included a
procession and sacrifices in honor of Dionysus, followed by evening parties to which
guests brought their own wine (quite different from the usual Greek symposium, at
which the host provided the drink). On this second day of Anthesteria, however, the
ghosts of the dead were believed to roam the city and stay until they were intention-
ally driven away by certain rituals at the end of the festival. Because the living and the
dead were supposed to remain separate, as the extramural burials suggested, the
possibility of contact with the spirits made the last two days of the Anthesteria
‘‘unlucky,’’ and to avoid pollution by contact with the dead businesses closed,
temples shut down, and people stayed home. For protection against the unseen
spirits, the Athenians smeared their doors with pitch (to which the spirits would
stick if they tried to enter the house) and chewed hawthorn leaves (which were
supposed to have some sort of protective quality, perhaps similar to the alleged
power of garlic against vampires).
On the third day of the Anthesteria, the Chytrai, or day of ‘‘pots,’’ each family
made its own offerings to the dead, cooking a meal of mixed grains in a pot and
offering it to chthonic Hermes (Hermes of the underworld) for the sake of the dead.
At sunset, the head of the household went through all the rooms shouting, ‘‘Out the
door [spirits]! Anthesteria is over.’’ In short, the Greek Anthesteria seems to have
served a function similar to Halloween, a night when ghosts are believed to wander
the earth. If the spirits are not appeased by the ritual offering of food (‘‘treat’’), they
may cause harm to the living (‘‘trick’’). In the case of the Anthesteria, it is not entirely
clear how or why the ghosts wandered the earth, or even whose spirits they were,
except perhaps for one. On the last day of the Anthesteria a meal was offered to the
The Dead 89