Serving Athena
The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities

Examines how the Panathenaia ('all Athenian'), the most important festival in ancient Athens, created identities for participants.

Julia L. Shear (Author)

9781108719384, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 April 2023

554 pages
24.4 x 17 x 2.9 cm, 1.061 kg

'Shear's approach is programmatically holistic; she uses literary, epigraphical, and archaeological sources as well as theories of the social sciences … This book provides impressive evidence for the festival throughout its history and thought-provoking insights into the logics of constructing identities for the various subgroups attested as participants over the course of time. Hopefully, it will motivate further discussion about the importance and relevance of cult practices for social history - and for the cult.' Marion Meyer, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

In ancient Athens, the Panathenaia was the most important festival and was celebrated in honour of Athena from the middle of the sixth century BC until the end of the fourth century AD. This in-depth study examines how this all-Athenian celebration was an occasion for constructing identities and how it affected those identities. Since not everyone took part in the same way, this differential participation articulated individuals' relationships both to the goddess and to the city so that the festival played an important role in negotiating what it meant to be Athenian (and non-Athenian). Julia Shear applies theories of identity formation which were developed in the social sciences to the ancient Greek material and brings together historical, epigraphical, and archaeological evidence to provide a better understanding both of this important occasion and of Athenian identities over the festival's long history.

Preface
1. The Panathenaia: An Introduction
2. Giants and Heroes: The Mythologies of the Panathenaia
3. The Little Panathenaia
4. The Great Panathenaia: Ritual and Reciprocity
5. The Panathenaic Games: Entertaining the Goddess
6. Creating Identities at the Great Panathenaia: Athenian Men
7. Creating Identities at the Great Panathenaia: Other Residents and Non-Residents
8. The City, the Goddess and the Festival
Appendix 1. The Hellenistic Archons of Athens: 323/2 to 48/7 BC
Appendix 2. The Parthenon Frieze and the Panathenaia
Appendix 3. The Races for the Apobates and the Dismounting Charioteer
Appendix 4: The Pyrrhiche and the Tribal Team Events
Appendix 5: The Date of IG II2 3079 = IG II3.4 528
Appendix 6: The Officials of the Great Panathenaia in the Third Century BC
Appendix 7: Tiberius Claudius Novius and the Great Panathenaia Sebasta
Appendix 8: The Text of Agora XVIII C197
Tables
Bibliography
Index Locorum
Index of Collections
General Index.

Subject Areas: History of religion [HRAX], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Pageants, parades, festivals [ASZP]