A is for Ἀνθεστήρια (Anthesteria)

Normally, this post would actually be right on time for the festival. However, Anthesteria doesn’t come until next month, a prospect I’m actually happy for because it might line up with the temperatures here meant for the festival.

Anthesteria is a Dionysian festival through and through. Sex, death, (new) wine, flowers, and sacred kingship; what more can a pagan ask for? (Nothing, that’s what. Except for perhaps more kittens.) The festival spans three days: Pithoigia (“Opening of the Jars”), Khoes (“Cups”), and Khutroi (“Pots”). Each day has it’s own theme, although the prevalence of the themes I mentioned above remain over all three days. Despite the time discrepancy I made about, the festival dates are always Anthesterion 11, 12, and 13. The month, as you can gather, is named after the festival.

Pithoigia is when the casks were opened for the first time and the people got their first taste of the new wine. It’s bitter, sharp, and pungent… all the things, I think, of Dionysos and Spring emerging from Their long sleep. (Perhaps the latter even more so: Spring here isn’t all that beautiful, but it’s welcomed like an old lover and embraced, muddy, sandy streets, strange odors and all.) Child and servants also participated in the festivities, and the people let loose as they let the Mad God take them in their wine.

Khoes is an… interesting day. It’s very packed with symbolism and different events happened depending on who or where you were. For the wife of the Arkhon Baselios and the people with her (household, the attending priestesses, etc.) it was a day of sexuality, of renewing the life of the land as the Basilinna mated with the God in the boukoleion (cow-shed), as she was seen as a symbol of the land and country (and Dionysos is well… Dionysos). While the connection between Ariadne (the abandoned wife of Theseus, future king of Athens) and Dionysos I don’t think was attested in ancient sources, it’s definitely very noticeable.

However, for the rest of the community, including the King and his retinue, it was a merry festive occasion to play drinking games and often participate in nocturnal orgies. However, when Orestes killed his mother and had come to Athens during the festival, the king had to do something. He couldn’t turn Orestes away, but he also couldn’t invite him in to be near holy shrines. Here is some more information from Anthesteria for the lonely soul by Sannion:

The account given to us by Phanodemus (Athenaeus 10.437c-d) informs us of this part of Khoes and the alleged origins of the festival.

“Demophon the King instituted the festival of the Pitchers at Athens. When Orestes arrived at Athens after killing his mother Demophon wanted to receive him, but was not willing to let him approach the sacred rites nor share the libations, since he had not yet been put on trial. So he ordered the sacred things to be locked up and a separate pitcher of wine to be set beside each person, saying that a flat cake would be given as a prize to the one who drained his first. He also ordered them, when they had stopped drinking, not to put the wreathes with which they were crowned on the sacred objects, because they had been under the same roof with Orestes. Rather each one was to twine them around his own pitcher and take the wreathes to the priestess at the precinct in Limnai, and then to perform the rest of the sacrifices in the sanctuary. The festival has been called Khoes ever since.”

And yet another (yes, another! Dionysian festivals are fun things, arn’t they?) aspect to the festival on this date was the Aiora, a festival instituted to commemorate the death of Erigone, her father, and their dog Maera. The story told to us is that when Dionysos came to Attica, he was given hospitality by Ikarios. In return for this, Dionysos taught him how to grow, harvest, and make wine (and in some accounts this is actually a bride price from Dionysos for Erigone). However, when Ikarios shared this with his fellow men, they drank it deeply, and their families thought they had been poisoned. So the town gathered up and hunted down Ikarios, killed him, then stuffed his body down a well (or buried him under a tree). Erigone went looking for her father, but it was their faithful dog, Maera, who found him and led Erigone to him. Wrought with grief, she hung herself in the tree over the well/her father’s grave. Maera threw herself down a/the well soon after, also in grief at losing her masters.

When Dionysos found out, he was enraged and cursed the daughters of the men who killed Ikarios to hang themselves and turned the land barren. The Athenians went to the shrine of Far-Shooting Apollon at Delphi and asked the oracle there on what they should do. Apollon told them that they needed to appease Erigone’s spirit (and by proxy her father), so the Athenians found and buried Ikarios, Erigone, and Maera with honors, and instituted a festival where young Athenian maidens swung in swings, and would hang ribbons, cups, and dolls in trees. The maidens stopped hanging themselves and fruitfulness returned to the land.

Khutroi is the last day of Anthesteria, and is a day of pollutedness (miasma), honoring the dead and Hermes Khthonios, and later banishing the dead so they’ll kindly stop hanging around. A stew called panspermia, made of beans, grains, and seeds was made and no one was to eat it because it was for only the dead. All shrines and temples were closed on this day, as well. At the end of the day purification rituals were held, and buckthorn was hung up and/or chewed. A common phrase to banish the dead on this day was “Out keres, it is no longer Anthesteria!” (Keres being spirits of the dead).

So as you can see, it’s a very intense, and dense, couple of days in honor of Dionysos, spring, and the dead. You can also tell that like most Hellenic festivals, it was very community-based. But fear not, for Sannion wrote an article a number of years ago that I also linked above titled “Anthesteria for the lonely soul“. It contains quite a bit of background information on the festival as well as what one can do if they are solitary or only have a couple of people with them.

Now, after that info dump… what do I do for Anthesteria? I haven’t done much, other than mark the occasion as it comes… and then passes by. Other than discussing in the past issues I have with doing ritual (which I am currently trying to resolve), I live in a household where it’s hard for me to do much of anything without comment and the alternative would be to do more outdoors. The problem with that? It’s still winter in mid-February, which is when this festival normally is. And winter in Winnipeg is deathly cold. In fact for the next couple of days we’re at -41C with the windchill, despite having a very warm winter this year. So it’s hard to get into the spirit of a festival when you already feel disconnected from it temperature-wise.

This year, however, I’m going to do more planning ahead of time (my major reason for failing? not planning enough) and begin doing small bits of ritual or observance before the festival. That way I can ease myself in, rather than starting up again cold on one of the biggest Dionysian festivals all year. So expect some pictures and discussions come mid-March (and hopefully this holds me to it)!

So… have you celebrated Anthesteria, or you’re interested in celebrating it? You don’t need to follow Dionysos like many do, or want to drink wine (in fact in most cases the libations you pour for Hellenic gods are not drunk, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pour yourself a glass — I usually just have one or two come Anthesteria), or think you need to do drugs or drink wine or whatever.  In fact, this article written by Sannion titled “The Paths to Dionysos” may help show how there are many paths to Him, and not all require you to devote your body and soul to Him.

Here are some more resources on Anthesteria:

Anthesteria: The sources by Sannion @ The House of Vines
Thoughts on Orestes and Anthesteria by Sannion @ The House of Vines
Anthesteria for the lonely soul by Sannion @ Wildivine.org

I’d have more variety, but there’s not a lot written on the general aspects of Anthesteria. If anyone has any, PLEASE send them my way and I’ll post them here!