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| Map of Magna Graecia Courtesy of Napoli Unplugged |
The Greek settlements in southern Italy, collectively known as Magna Graecia, are an important part of our culture and history. More so than many other cultural influences, because these Greeks are also the direct ancestors of the southern Italian people. Along with several indigenous populations, such as the Sicani, Samnites, Messapians (among others), they form the base of our ethnicity. There were, of course, a few Greek settlements elsewhere in Italy (e.g. Ancona), and some blending with the various northern Italian peoples during and after the long lived Roman Empire, but it has been said that one of the main differences between the people of northern and southern Italy is the southerner's Greek ancestry.
Long before the Roman Empire spread through the entire peninsula to encompass the sea, there were prominent Greek cities and settlements throughout southern Italy and Sicily. These areas were well populated and centers of trade. The Greeks brought their religious and cultural practices with them. Some of these traditions continued after the Roman subjugation, and were actually similar to the Roman's own way of doing things. This isn't surprising because these cultures had already been influencing each other for centuries. Rituals of spiritual purification were common in ancient times, and both the Romans and the Greeks had feasts to honor their ancestors and placate the dead. The Greek tradition was called Anthesteria. "Though some of the Baccic scenes of sirens and maenads are not in the spirit of the Attic choes (for instance the naked dancing maenad), there is no indication that the Anthesteria in Southern Italy differed essentially from the Athenian." Choes and Anthesteria, by G. Van Hoorn p51
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| Terracotta oinochoe (jug) Greek, Attic, red-figure, mid-4th century B.C. Pompe, the female personification of a procession, between Eros and Dionysos, probably in honor of the Anthesteria Photo by New York Scugnizzo |
The Anthesteria takes place on the 11th through 13th of the Greek month Anthesterion, which roughly corresponds to February. The name of the month is actually derived from the name of the festival, signifying how important the tradition was to our ancestors. A cursory look will show a wine-festival in honor of the Greek god Dionysus, similar to the Roman Bacchanal, but an underlying tone of gloom and certain rituals speak of a deeper and older meaning to the holiday. It is believed that Anthesteria was originally a feast of the dead which, over time, was overlaid with the wine festival of Dionysus, yet retained elements of both. This is not as strange as it might sound, the dual nature of some of the rituals fit very neatly into both categories, and is not uncommon for a "Day of the Dead" to be festive. Although the purpose of each of the three feast days is distinct, elements of the three days seem to overlap or blend together during the actual festivities. One reason for this is that the days of the Athenian calendar did not end at midnight, but at sunset. The rituals of the second day began immediately when evening fell, not on the next morning.
"...Anthesteria, rites of Greek origin that were very popular in southern Italy. In their later, Olympian form, these three days were dedicated to Dionysus: the casks of new wine were opened on the Day of the Casks, the Day of the Cups was devoted to drunken revelry, and the festival ended with the dramatic contests held on the day of the Pots. In the archaic period, however, this may have been a festival of all souls, in which the casks were grave jars and the cups signified the pouring out of libations to the souls of the dead, who, once feasted, were bidden to depart on the third day through the natural, chtonic potholes of the earth." On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal, by Mary Taylor Simeti
The first day of Anthesteria was called Pithoigia (The opening of Jars), and was held on the 11th of Anthesterion. It was the day they opened casks, or great clay jars containing new wine, a popular event which is often celebrated in other cultures (Saturnalia, St. Martin's day, etc.). The people prayed that the wine would be healthy for them and not harm them in any way, a reminder of the dangerous and uncertain times in which our ancestors lived. A drinking contest was presided over by the King, and the man who drained his cup first received a cake; "each man crowns his cup with a garland and deposits the wreath in keeping of the priestess of the sanctuary of Dionysos in the Marshes." (Harrison p33). Slaves and servants were allowed to participate in the drinking at some point during the rituals, it was prohibited to stop them, and from the evidence nearly everyone involved ended up inebriated to some degree. One would think a drinking contest to be at least as merry as the surrounding festivities, but other than the necessary ritual interactions it is thought that the men in the contest drank alone and in silence, creating a more sober, reflective mood.
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| Terracotta skyphos (deep drinking cup) Greek, Attic, red-figure, ca. 350 B.C. Three women with an openwork basket used in religious processions. The presence of a satyr and Eros suggests that the festival is the Anthesteria Photo by New York Scugnizzo |
The rituals of the following two days (Choes & Chytroi) bear unmistakable evidence that they served as festivals of ghosts, but there was little evidence to link the first day, Pithoigia, to the dead. The exception was the existence of vase paintings that remind us that wine jars were not the only type of jars that were ritualistically opened.
"The vase-painting in [the image below] must not be regarded as an actual conscious representation of the Athenian rite performed on the first day of the Anthesteria. It is more general in content; it is in fact simply a representation of ideas familiar to every Greek, that the pithos was a grave-jar, that from such grave-jars souls escaped and to them necessarily returned, and that Hermes was Psychopompos, Evoker and Revoker of souls. The vase-painting is in fact only another form of the scene so often represented on Athenian white lekythoi, in which the souls flutter round the grave-stele. The grave jar is but the earlier form of sepulture; the little winged figures, the Keres, are identical in both classes of vase-painting." Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, by Jane Harrison, p43-44
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Vase-painting from a lekythos
in the University Museum of Jena
showing Keres (in this case the
souls of the dead), escaping
and returning to a grave jar
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After sunset Pithoigia became Choes (cups), the second day of Anthesteria. The temple of Dionysus was opened for the symbolic marriage of the Kings wife to the god. It was the only day of the year this temple was open to the public, and on this day all the other temples were closed. The drinking and celebrations of the previous day continued. Choes was an important rite of passage for children of the age of three. They were no longer considered babies after the ceremony, but adolescents. A small pitcher of wine was given to them to drink. If a child died before the age of three, one of these little pitchers was buried with them so they could complete the ritual symbolically in the afterlife (Burkert p221).
The view that the wine was also used for funeral libations clarifies the meaning of some of the rituals (Harrison p41), and in the Mediterranean wine was known to be symbolic substitute to blood sacrifice (Burkert p224). On Choes, despite the joyous festivities, there was also an underlying apprehension. People would practice rituals to protect themselves and their homes against ghosts or evil spirits.
“[T]he Choes was a dies nefastus, an unlucky day, a day to be observed with apotropaic precautions."..."such a day occurred 'in the Choes in the month of Anthesterion, in which (i.e. during the Choes) they believed that the spirits of the dead rose up again. From early morning they used to chew buckthorn and anointed their doors with pitch.' Pitch is a plant of purgative properties and was believed to ward off evil spirits or eject them from the possessed.” Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, by Jane Harrison p39
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| Terracotta lekythos (oil flask) Apulian, red-figure, ca. 375-350 B.C. Woman pushing girl on a swing, depicting the Apulian counterpart of the Anthesteria Photo by New York Scugnizzo |
This began the returning of things to normal. The social order was restored and the slaves and laborers were sent back to their usual stations. The interweaving of joyous themes with those of death occurred on this day as well. Children and virgins would swing on swings much as children would in a playground today, and have as much fun; but, as some say about the nursery rhyme "Ring around the Rosie," the symbolism behind the swinging was tied to death. (Burkert p241) On the day of Chytroi, the ghosts of the dead were ritually banished back to the underworld after being feasted and appeased in an act of spiritual purification.
"The clue to the real gist of the Anthesteria is afforded by a piece of ritual performed on the last day, the Chytroi. The Greeks had a proverbial expression spoken, we are told, of those who 'on all occasions demand a repetition of favours received.' It ran as follows: 'Out of the doors! ye Keres; it is no longer Anthesteria.' Suidas has preserved for us its true signification; it was spoken, he says, 'implying that in the Anthesteria the ghosts are going about in the city.' From this fragmentary statement the mandate, it is clear, must have been spoken at the close of the festival, so we cannot be wrong in placing it as the last act of the Chytroi." .... "The formula used at the close of the Anthesteria is in itself ample proof that the Anthesteria was a festival of All Souls; here at last we know for certain what was dimly shadowed in the Diasia, that some portion at least of the ritual of the month Anthesterion was addressed to the powers of the underworld, and that these powers were primarily the ghosts of the dead. The evidence is not however confined to an isolated proverbial formulary. The remaining ritual of the Chytroi confirms it. Before they were bidden to depart the ghosts were feasted and after significant fashion." Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, by Jane Harrison, p34—36
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| Terracotta oinochoe (jug) Greek, Attic, red-figure, ca. 420-410 B.C. Two women making preparations for the Anthesteria Photo by New York Scugnizzo |
"The winter drew to an end, and the first flowers sprang from the ground, sometimes though the snow; hense -from the verb anthein, 'to flower'- come the names of the festival and the month, 'Anthesteria' and 'Anthesterion.' There now began a time for which the Romans coined the expression mundus patet: for some days the lower world was open." Dionysos, Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life Vol 2, by Carl Kerenyi, p300
Spring is still a special time for mankind. We continue to celebrate it and we should; we still survive because of the food that the seasonal cycles brings us. The fear and awe of death is also still with us, as is our fascination with the afterlife. The Christian feast of All Souls Day is one contemporary equivalent to our ancient feasts of the dead, and people from most cultures and all eras seem to have a spiritual need for a holiday of this type. Our ancestors will always be part of us. We owe them our very existence and we continue to build on their foundation, reminding us of the famous words of Sir Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” This February I will drink to my ancestors, and feast in their memory.
References:
• On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal, by Mary Taylor Simeti eISBN 978-0-307-77311-1
• Choes and Anthesteria, by G. Van Hoorn
• Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, by Jane Harrison ISBN: 0850362636
• Dionysos, Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life Vol 2, by Carl Kerenyi (Translation by Ralph Manheim) ISBN: 0-691-09863-8
• Homo Necans, The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth, by Walter Burkert, 1972 (translated by Peter Bing) ISBN 0-520-03650-6
* Photos taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
* Photos taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
