Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

268 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
the Anthesteria, a flower festival held in early spring, when wine
jars containing newly fermented wine were opened and blessed by
Dionysos; the Thargelia, held in honor of Apollo, during which a pot
of boiled vegetables called thargela was offered to the god, while a
human scapegoat, who perhaps personified hunger, was beaten and
driven out of the city; and finally, the Pyanopsia, in which branches
laden with wool, fruits, cakes, wine, and oil flasks were borne by
children in procession and later hung on the front door of every
Athenian home.
Rites of Passage
Because the passage from one stage of life to another was
thought to be fraught with danger, the Greeks paid very close
attention to the junctures that marked these divisions. As we have
seen, an Athenian infant went through his first rite of passage in
his first year to gain entry into his father’s phratry. His second
rite of passage took place on the second day of the flower festival
(Anthesteria ), when boys aged between three and four were given
their first taste of wine. It seems probable that this ritual signaled
formal admission into the Athenian religious community, and
hence into the polis itself, since wine, the gift of Dionysos, was a
feature of almost every religious rite. Rites of passage were also
conducted at later moments in his life—notably at adolescence
and adulthood and, of course, at marriage and death. Overall,
the various rites of passage signaled membership of the various
affiliations to which each individual belonged—oikos, genos,
phratry, tribe, deme, and polis, and, though our evidence is less
than complete, we can be certain that entry to all these groupings
was predicated upon elaborate ceremonial. Rites of passage have
the effect of strengthening group solidarity, and virtually every
freeborn Greek would have experienced a sense of multilayered
communal belonging that is virtually unknown in the modern
world. Women, by contrast, underwent far fewer rites of passage
in the course of their life times—a reflection of their much more
restricted social identity.
Festivals in Honor of the Dead
Festivals in honor of the dead formed a major feature of the calendar.
The most spectacular was the annual ceremony held in honor
of the war dead. Known as the taphai, or burials, it took place at