The Synoikia () was an ancient Greek festival held in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

commemorating the political unification of

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

. It was also called the Thesean Synoikismos and the Feast of Union, and celebrated

Theseus Theseus (, ; ) was a divine hero in Greek mythology, famous for slaying the Minotaur. The myths surrounding Theseus, his journeys, exploits, and friends, have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes desc ...

as founder of Athens and the goddess Athena as the city's patron goddess. The festival was celebrated in the month of Hekatombeion on the 16th. A two-day festival, on the 15th and the 16th was held every second year. The name of the festival comes from the word

synoecism Synoecism or synecism ( ; , ''sunoikismos'', ), also spelled synoikism ( ), was originally the amalgamation of villages in Ancient Greece into ''poleis'', or city-states. Etymologically, the word means "dwelling together (''syn'') in the same h ...

(or ''synoikismos'', Greek: συνοικισμός), which means the merging of smaller communities into one larger community. Athenian myth recorded two synoecisms: first the establishment by King Cecrops of the original twelve cities of Attica, and then merger of these twelve cities into a single Athenian state by the mythological King

, with its political centre in Athens. The Synoikia festival celebrated this act of Theseus. During the festival, ewes and bullocks were sacrificed to Zeus Phratrios (of Brotherhood). The festival was organised and paid for by the phylobasileis, representatives of the original four Athenian tribes, which had otherwise fallen out of use after the reforms of

Cleisthenes Cleisthenes ( ; ), or Clisthenes (), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as "the fath ...

in 508 BC. After the Athenian victory over the

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

in the first Greco-Persian War and the subsequent rebuilding and resettling of the city-state, the Synoikia festival became even grander than before.

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

and Theseus, known as the "divine and heroic patrons" of the city, were glorified and worshipped more vigorously. These two figures became linked with one another, and rituals and rites that were once attributed to only one of these figures became intertwined between these two characters. Some “Thesean elements

rom Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

festivals…

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infused with ceremonies belonging to thena, and vice versa.. even those not connected with the Synoikia.” In 374 BC, in honour of a short-lived armistice during the Boeotian War, the Athenians added a “bloodless” sacrifice to Eirene, the goddess of peace. While this festival was celebrated by the Athenians, there were not many indications that showed that the other demes in Attica, outside of Athens, held Synoikia. This festival is not present in either the Marathonian and Erchian calendrical inscriptions — where the Marathonian calendar was for the Marathon Tetrapolis (consisting of the demes

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

, Oinoe, Probalinthos, and Trikorynthos), and the Erchian calendar was for the deme of Erchia.

References

{{reflist July observances August observances Festivals in ancient Athens Ancient Greek religion

See also

References