The painted vases come to a sudden close at the end of the fourth century.[[427]] The name “Panathenaic vase” occurs occasionally at a later date; but appears merely to denote a particular shape of vase. But a representation of a Panathenaic amphora was found a few years ago on the mosaic floor of a house in Delos, belonging to the early part of the second century.[[428]] The complete absence of any evidence for their existence in the previous century makes it probable that the vase, which represented a chariot-race, was an heirloom which had been won by some ancestor of the builder of the house. The Panathenaic amphora is, however, still represented on Athenian coins, and on a late relief adorning a marble chair which was probably one of the seats reserved for the judges or agonothetai at the Panathenaea[[429]] (Fig. [40]). The vase, which holds a branch, stands on a table, on which are also three crowns. Underneath the table is a palm branch, and by the side of it is represented Athene’s sacred olive-tree. The appearance of the vase on the relief and on coins suggests that at this period the earthenware vase had been replaced by a metal vase, but this theory still awaits confirmation.
Fig. 39. Panathenaic (?) amphora from Camirus. Bibliothèque Nationale, 243.
Though the Panathenaic programme contained a considerable number of local events, these were of quite secondary importance in comparison with the open competitions which, if hardly Panhellenic, were certainly Pan-Ionic. It was for these open competitions that the sacred oil and the Panathenaic amphorae were awarded. In the Thesea, on the contrary, most of the competitions were confined to the youth of Attica, and even in those which were open to foreigners, the extreme rareness of foreign successes sufficiently indicates the local character of the festival.
The Thesea[[430]] were instituted in the year 476 or 475 B.C. to celebrate the discovery and restoration to Athens of the bones of the national hero Theseus. The popularity of the worship of Theseus at this period is abundantly attested by the red-figured vases, on which the story of Theseus now takes the place of the labours of Heracles. The Thesea were associated with certain primitive agricultural rites, the Pyanepsia and Oschophoria, ceremonies of the harvest and the vintage, in which the legend of Theseus had been somehow incorporated. They were followed immediately by the Epitaphia, a funeral festival in memory of those who had fallen fighting for their state, which had been held occasionally from the earliest times, but did not take its place as a permanent festival till the time of Pericles, or even later.
Fig. 40. Marble chair of judge at Panathenaea. Imperial period.
Our knowledge of the programme of the Thesea is derived from inscriptions of the second century B.C.,[[431]] with regard to which I need only repeat that late though they are, such was the religious conservatism of the Greeks, that they may be considered as representing the general character of the festival in the fifth century, and that such changes as had been introduced were merely changes in detail. Theseus was the patron of the Athenian ephebos, and the Thesea were essentially the games of the epheboi. The festival was a yearly one, and included a procession, sacrifice, torch-races, athletics, and horse-races. There was also a banquet provided at the public cost for all free citizens.
The programme of sports opened with the usual competitions for heralds and trumpeters, followed by certain military competitions for general smartness and equipment, εὐανδρία and εὐοπλία. These were divided into three or more classes: first, “the picked troops,” οἱ ἐπιλέκτοι; next the foreign troops, οἱ ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν; lastly, the cavalry, οἱ ἱππεῖς, as a subdivision of which we find the Tarantini, so called from their equipment. The competition was between tribes, or, in the case of the foreign troops, regiments (τάγματα), the captain of the successful tribe or regiment being mentioned in the inscriptions. It is evident that εὐανδρία is used here in a slightly different sense to that in which it is used in the Panathenaic inscriptions. There, as we have seen, the object of the competition was purely ceremonial, here it is manifestly military. εὐανδρία like many another word varies in meaning with the object to which it is applied. When used of a regiment, it implies good physique, activity, and general smartness. There is a certain pathos in the existence of these elaborate military reviews and competitions at an age when Athens had no more any freedom to defend, and when her military service was of no practical value. It may be that with the loss of the reality she clung the more closely to the empty form and semblance of an army. But it seems to me more probable that these competitions were not the futile invention of her decadence, but were the survival of the great outburst of patriotism and militarism in the fifth century.
Next came torch-races. At the Thesea these seem to have been contests between teams. There are torch-races for boys, epheboi, and men; sometimes also for young men, νεανίσκοι, who come between the epheboi and the men. The teams are sometimes representatives of a particular palaestra or gymnasium—boys from the palaestra of Timeas or Antigenes, youths or men from the Lyceum. The mention of a torch-race of the Tarantini indicates that there were also torch-races on horseback.