This list, though probably far from complete, will give some idea of the number of competitions and festivals in Attica. The competitions fall into two divisions, those, like the Panathenaea, which, though not Panhellenic, were open to competitors from all parts of Greece, and those, like the Thesea, which were practically confined to inhabitants of Athens. The character of these festivals will be readily understood from the programme of the Panathenaea and the Thesea, with regard to which we have considerable information from inscriptions and other sources.
The Panathenaic festival undoubtedly occupied several days. According to the highly probable scheme suggested by August Mommsen,[[389]] it began on the 21st day of Hekatombaion, and lasted nine days. The first three days were occupied by musical competitions, the next two by athletics, the sixth by horse and chariot races, the seventh by the Pyrrhic and other military competitions. The seventh day closed with the torch-races in the evening, which were the beginning of an all-night revel, Pannychis, which preceded the procession and sacrifices on the 28th day of the month—the great day of the festival. A regatta on the last day brought the festival to the end.
The details of the sacrifices and procession do not concern us here. The procession is known to us from the frieze of the Parthenon. Its object was the offering to Athena of the new peplos or mantle wrought by certain selected maidens of Athens, and interwoven with scenes representing the battle between the gods and the giants. In the procession the whole population of Athens was represented, and not only that of Athens but also that of Athenian colonies and allies who sent to the Panathenaea official deputies bearing their offerings and sacrifices.[[390]] An admirable account of the procession will be found in the British Museum Guide to the Parthenon Sculptures, while those who wish for fuller information as to the literary evidence will find it in Michaelis’ Parthenon or Mommsen’s Feste der Stadt Athen.
The musical competitions certainly date back to the time of Peisistratus, who reorganized the earlier yearly festival as a pentaeteris, increased the programme, and gave to the festival a wider and more popular scope. It was either Peisistratus himself or his son, Hipparchus, who organized recitations by rhapsodists of the Homeric poems, which had perhaps taken place at a yet earlier date at Brauron. These recitations were confined to Homer, and it is recorded as a special mark of honour that an exception was made in favour of the Perseis of Choerilus, which described the triumph of Athens over Xerxes.[[391]] There seem also to have been competitions in lyric and elegiac poetry.
According to Plutarch[[392]] Pericles was the first to introduce contests in singing and playing on the lyre and on the flute. The competitions were held in the newly built Odeum, and Pericles himself presided as judge. In the first part of his statement Plutarch is mistaken. Midas of Agrigentum, whose Pythian victory on the flute is celebrated in one of Pindar’s earliest odes, is also credited with a victory in the Panathenaea.[[393]] The existence of musical competitions at a yet earlier date is proved by two small sixth-century Panathenaic amphorae in the British Museum.[[394]] One represents a citharist playing on the chelys, the other a player on the double flute, standing on a platform before a bearded man, clothed in a long chiton and striped himation, while at the side of the platform is seated a judge similarly clothed and holding a wand. The vase from which our illustration is taken belongs to the class of vase described as imitations of Panathenaic amphorae (Fig. [32]). The musical competition is represented on both sides. At a later date the musical prizes consisted in a sum of silver and crowns of gold. In any case, the small amphorae cannot have been used to hold oil, and may be regarded as commemorative prizes bestowed on musicians, perhaps in addition to some more substantial prize, on the analogy of the larger amphorae bestowed on victors in athletics or chariot-races.
Fig. 32. Small Panathenaic(?) amphora, in British Museum, B. 188. Sixth century.
An early black-figured kylix in the British Museum points to the existence of choral and dramatic competitions at the Panathenaea (Fig. [33]). The central group represents a sacrifice to Athene, who stands beside her altar armed with shield and spear, much as she is depicted on Panathenaic vases. Advancing towards the altar is a procession formed of a tragic chorus, a comic chorus, and a dithyrambic chorus. Diogenes Laertius[[395]] states that dramatic competitions existed at the Panathenaea, but we have no further information concerning them.
Fig. 33. B.-f. kylix, in British Museum, B. 80.