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Chalceia
The Chalkeia festival (also spelled Chalceia), the festival of Bronze-workers, was a religious festival devoted to the goddess Athena and the god Hephaestus. It was celebrated on the last day of Pyanepsion (October or November in the Attic calendar). The festival celebrated Athena and Hephaestus, in honor of both gods as patron deities of Athens, and as deities of handicrafts.Erika Simon, Festivals of Attica, pg. 38-39, University of Wisconsin Press. 1983 Each year, preparations were begun for a specialized peplos (a robed garment worn by Greek women), which was made to be offered to the goddess at another festival, the Panathenaea. Traditions Though Hephaestus was involved, the festival's main focus was Athena, specifically under the epithet Athena Hephaistia and Athena Ergane. The offerings recorded for each day were always for Athena, not her male counterpart. Also, the main focus of the festival (the sacred peplos) was for Athena, while Hephaestus wasn't given any gifts. 'A ...
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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 regarded as the patron and protectress of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from which she most likely received her name. The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is dedicated to her. Her major symbols include Owl of Athena, owls, olive trees, snakes, and the Gorgoneion. In art, she is generally depicted wearing a helmet and holding a spear. From her origin as an Aegean tutelary deity, palace goddess, Athena was closely associated with the city. She was known as ''Polias'' and ''Poliouchos'' (both derived from ''polis'', meaning "city-state"), and her temples were usually located atop the fortified acropolis in the central part of the city. The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is dedicated to her, along with numero ...
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Peplos
A peplos () is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by , during the late Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, Classical period. It was a long, rectangular cloth with the top edge folded down about halfway, so that what was the top of the rectangle was now draped below the waist, and the bottom of the rectangle was at the ankle. One side of the peplos could be left open, or pinned or sewn together,"Ancient Greek Dress"
''Heilbronn Timeline of Art History'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–2013. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
with a type of brooch later called "fibula". In Latin and in a Roman context, it could be called a ''Palla (garment), palla''. It should not be confused with the Ionians, Ionic Chiton (garment), chiton, which was a piece of fabric folded over and sewn toget ...
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Kanephoros
The Kanephoros (, , pl. Kanephoroi (Greek: ); latinate plural form Canephorae; lit. "Basket Bearers") was an honorific office given to unmarried young women in ancient Greece, which involved the privilege of leading the procession to sacrifice at festivals; the highest honour was to lead the () at the Panathenaic Festival. The role was given to a virgin selected from amongst the aristocratic or Eupatrid families of Athens whose purity and youth was thought essential to ensure a successful sacrifice. Her task was to carry a basket or ''kanoun'' (), which contained the offering of barley or first fruits, the sacrificial knife and fillets to decorate the bull, in procession through the city up to the altar on the acropolis. From Aristophanes’s ''Lysistrata'' we have evidence that the office of kanephoros was the last in a sequence of religious duties that an unmarried Athenian girl might undertake; first as an ''arrephoros, arrhephoros'', later an ''aletris'', then as an ''arktos' ...
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Hephaestus
Hephaestus ( , ; wikt:Hephaestus#Alternative forms, eight spellings; ) is the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes.Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 1985: III.2.ii; see coverage of Lemnos-based traditions and legends at Lemnos, Mythic Lemnos In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Hera, either on her own or by her husband Zeus. He was cast off Mount Olympus by his mother Hera because of his lameness, the result of a congenital impairment; or in another account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his advances (in which case his lameness would have been the result of his fall rather than the reason for it). As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centres of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus's symbols are a smith's ham ...
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Attic Calendar
The Attic calendar or Athenian calendar is the lunisolar calendar beginning in midsummer with the lunar month of Hekatombaion, in use in ancient Attica, the ancestral territory of the Athenian polis. It is sometimes called the Greek calendar because of Athens's cultural importance, but it is only one of many ancient Greek calendars. Although relatively abundant, the evidence for the Attic calendar is still patchy and often contested. As it was well known in Athens and of little use outside Attica, no contemporary source set out to describe the system as a whole. Further, even during the well-sourced 5th and 4th centuries BC, the calendar underwent changes, not all perfectly understood. As such, any account given of it must be a tentative reconstruction. Local focus The Attic calendar was an exclusively local phenomenon, used to regulate the internal affairs of the Athenians, with little relevance to the outside world. For example, just across the border in Boeotia, the months h ...
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Panathenaic Games
The Panathenaic Games () were held every four years in Athens in Ancient Greece from 566 BC to the 3rd century AD. These Games incorporated religious festival, ceremony (including prize-giving), athletic competitions, and cultural events hosted within a stadium. History The Panathenaic festival was formed in order to honor the goddess Athena who had become the patron of Athens after having a competition with the god Poseidon where they were to win the favor of the Athenian people by offering the people gifts. The festival would also bring unity among the people of Athens. The attempted assassination of the tyrants Hippias and Hipparchus during the Panathenaea in 514 BC by Harmodius and Aristogeiton was often regarded as the birth of Athenian democracy. As the birthplace of Athena is Lake Tritonis in North Africa, Athenians did not contest North Africans to also participate in the Panathenaic games since they considered them to have a similar culture of that of Hellenists ...
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Temple Of Hephaestus
The Temple of Hephaestus or Hephaisteion (also "Hephesteum" or "Hephaesteum"; , , and formerly called in error the Theseion or "Theseum"; , ), is a well-preserved Greek temple dedicated to Hephaestus; it remains standing largely intact today. It is a Doric peripteral temple, and is located at the north-west side of the Agora of Athens, on top of the Agoraios Kolonos hill. From the 7th century until 1834, it served as the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George Akamates. The building's condition has been maintained due to its history of varied use. Name Hephaestus is the patron god of metal working, craftsmanship, and fire. There were numerous potters' workshops and metal-working shops in the vicinity of the temple, as befits the temple's honoree. Archaeological evidence suggests that there was no earlier building on the site except for a small sanctuary that was burned during the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. The name ''Theseion'' or Temple of Theseus was attri ...
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Arrephoros
An ''Arrephoros'' () was a girl acolyte in the cult of Athena Polias on the Athenian Acropolis. They were seven to eleven years old. According to Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias,Pausanias1.27.3./ref> two ''Arrephoroi'' lived for a year on the Acropolis and concluded their term with a mystery rite called the Arrhephoria: they carried unknown objects into a cavern, and there exchanged them for other unknown objects. The lexicon of Harpocration states (s.v. Arrêphorein) that there were four ''Arrephoroi'' and that two supervised the weaving of the Panathenaic Festival, Panathenaic peplos. Notes Sources

* Joan Breton Connelly, ''Portrait of a priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece'', p. 27 {{authority control Ancient Athenian religious titles Athena Ancient Greek priestesses Obsolete occupations ...
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Archon Basileus
''Archon basileus'' (, ') was a Greek title, meaning "king magistrate"; the term is derived from the words ''archon'' "magistrate" and ''basileus'' "king" or "sovereign". Background. Most modern scholars claim that in Classical Athens, the ''archon basileus'' was the last remnant of monarchy. Although much of his powers, they say, had been filtered away to other institutions such as the Areopagus and later the Boule and Ecclesia, he still nominally held a high position in Athenian society, alongside the ''archon eponymos'' and the '' polemarchos''. The ''archon basileus'' was charged with overseeing the organisation of religious rites and with presiding over trials for homicide. The archon basileus was the high priest of the city-state. There is a tradition that originally the ''archon basileus'' was elected from the Athenian aristocracy every ten years. After 683 BC, the office was only held for a year, and after Solon's reforms, he was elected from the wealthiest Athenia ...
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Charites
In Greek mythology, the Charites (; ), singular Charis (), also called the Graces, are goddesses who personify beauty and grace. According to Hesiod, the Charites were Aglaia (Grace), Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia (Grace), Thalia, who were the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome (Oceanid), Eurynome, the daughter of Oceanus. However in other accounts, their names, number and parentage varied. In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae. Hesiod has Aglaea as the wife of Hephaestus, and in the ''Iliad'' Hera promises to give a Charis named Pasithea to Hypnos as bride. Otherwise they have little independent mythology, usually described as attending various gods and goddesses, especially Aphrodite. In Roman and later art, the three Charites are generally depicted nude in an interlaced group, but during the Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, Classical periods of Greece, they were typically depicted as fully clothed, and in a line, with dance poses. Parentage, number, and ...
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Giants (Greek Mythology)
In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, the Giants, also called Gigantes (Ancient Greek, Greek: Γίγαντες, ''wiktionary:gigantes, Gígantes'', Γίγας, ''wiktionary:gigas, Gígas''), were a race of great strength and aggression, though not necessarily of great size. They were known for the Gigantomachy (also spelled Gigantomachia), their battle with the Olympian gods. According to Hesiod, the Giants were the offspring of Gaia (Earth), born from the blood that fell when Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Sky) was castrated by his Titan (mythology), Titan son Cronus. Archaic and Classical representations show Gigantes as man-sized hoplites (heavily armed ancient Greek foot soldiers) fully human in form. Later representations (after c. 380 BC) show Gigantes with Anguiped, snakes for legs. In later traditions, the Giants were often confused with other opponents of the Olympians, particularly the Titan (mythology), Titans, an earlier generation of large and powerful children ...
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