constitution of the various worshiping groups, which coincided with the organization
of the political order, ranging from the entire political society to its smaller subdivi-
sions; at the same time these groups were independent economic entities. Among
the more important functions of group religious activity is the manifestation of the
group to itself: the acknowledgment in the action of communal belonging. Through
ostentatious participation religious activity contributes to community solidarity – or,
when activity is articulated in smaller groups, it can promote social tension.
The association of state and worship is attested in the political codification of
religious observances. The earliest known sacrificial code in Athens dates to the
archaic period and was traditionally associated with the name of the lawgiver Solon.
We know that it was publicly displayed into the classical period. This ‘‘Solonian’’ code
was revised and re-displayed at the end of the fifth century by decree of the state, on
the initiative of a certain Nikomachos. This ‘‘Nikomachean revision’’ of the state’s
religious code is mentioned in literary sources (notably Lysias 30), and fragments of
its inscriptional display have been discovered in the excavations of the Athenian agora.
The entire community participated in many of the great religious festivals of
Athens, and the organization of participants mirrored the categories of ‘‘political
society.’’ At the festival of the Panathenaea almost the entire Athenian population
turned out to parade and sacrifice. They were organized according to political status:
young women carried a garment they had woven to the Acropolis to dedicate to
Athena; citizen males, organized according to military age categories, including for
example adolescents, mature men, and the superannuated elderly, accompanied them
in a grand procession from the city’s gate in the Kerameikos to the Acropolis.
Resident aliens, or metics, had their places in the proceedings, and a late source
(Bekker,Anecdota Graeca1.242.3) even claims that freedmen and barbarians par-
ticipated. At the Great Dionysia Athenians and metics marched in the procession to
the theatre that marked the beginning of the festival; members of the classical empire
brought their tribute and colonies sent symbols of their subordination; some of the
performances, notably the twenty tribal choruses of adults and young men, observed
and reinforced administrative and age discriminations among the male political
citizens; the audience was seated according to civic category.
At crucial moments of life, transition from one status to another was mediated by
religious observance, initiation rites. By such observances individuals are assimilated
to society and status-boundaries articulated. In the earliest initiation rites, for
example, gender differentiation was not observed. At the Amphidromia fathers
acknowledged their newborn babies, both male and female, by picking them up
and carrying them around the family altar. Their status was witnessed when the father
presented his child to hisphrateresand offered the sacrifice called themeion. At about
the age of 5 children were given their first taste of wine on one of the days of the
spring festival of the Anthesteria: once more, both boys and girls participated in this
festival, but future adult gender roles were evoked in the images painted on the little
wine bottles used in this ceremony.
In subsequent initiation rites children were segregated by gender. For girls, an
exemplary, if aristocratic, sequence of rituals is described in an often cited passage
from theLysistrata(641–7): ‘‘When I reached the age of 7 I straightaway became an
arre ̄phoros; then at 10 I became a grain grinder [aletris] for the goddess; after that,
wearing a yellow shift, I was a bear at Brauron. And once as a lovely child I bore the
290 Charles W. Hedrick Jr.