Festivals we know (almost) nothing about – Part 2

This is the second part of this post. Please refer to its introduction for details if you haven’t read it yet. As stated in the disclaimer last time: this list is in no way exhaustive, as I have taken out deme-specific festivals, festivals relating to hero-worship or political events/commemorations. Again, all information comes from Parker

Festivals we know (almost) nothing about – Part 1

Once in a while, it’s good to remember that none of our calendars are complete. This is much more obvious with non-Attic/Athenian calendars, and anyone who decides to jump into attempting to reconstruct the cultic calendar of Delphi, Delos, Sparta, Argos etc. will know exactly what I mean, as they are painfully fragmentary (not to

The protective function of ancient Greek sanctuaries

It is very tempting to look at the kind of protection sanctuaries granted to people and call it “asylum”. To some extent, it would be correct, but not quite. The ancient world had an institution called asylia, which literally translates as “prohibition against stealing” and guaranteed the safe conduct of the people who went outside of