The Synoikia ( el, συνοικία) was an ancient Greek festival held in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

commemorating the

political unification Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions in contrast to personal unions; however, they are not as unified as states in a political union. It is a development from personal union and has historically bee ...

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

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

Theseus Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes describe ...

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 ( ; grc, συνοικισμóς, ''sunoikismos'', ), also spelled synoikism ( ), was originally the amalgamation of villages in Ancient Greece into ''poleis'', or city-states. Etymologically the word means "dwelling toge ...

(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 In Greek mythology, Cecrops ( /ˈsiːkrɒps/; Ancient Greek: Κέκροψ, ''Kékrops''; ''gen''.: Κέκροπος) may refer to two legendary kings of Athens: * Cecrops I, the first king of Athens. * Cecrops II, son of Pandion I, king of ...

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 ( ; grc-gre, Κλεισθένης), or Clisthenes (c. 570c. 508 BC), 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 accomplishm ...

in 508 BC. After the Athenian victory over the

Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

in the first

Greco-Persian War The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of th ...

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 goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

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… ereinfused 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 Boeotian War broke out in 378 BC as the result of a revolt in Thebes against Sparta. The war saw Thebes become dominant in the Greek World at the expense of Sparta. However, by the end of the war Thebes’ greatest leaders, Pelopidas and Ep ...

, 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 , 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 are also wheelchair div ...

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

Erchia Erchia or Erkhia ( grc, Ἐρχία; also spelled Ἔρχεια and Ἑρχιά) was a deme of ancient Attica, of the ''phyle'' of Aegeis, sending six or seven delegates to the Boule (ancient Greece), Athenian Boule, but eleven delegates after 307/ ...

References

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

See also

References