Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

OTHER FESTIVALS

young men come on, singing some of the native songs : and dancers mingle with them and perform an old-fashioned kind of dance to the accompaniment of flute and song. Some of the maidens are borne along in basket carriages, or wooden carved chariots expensively made; others, as if they were engaged in circus contests, lead the procession with chariots close together, and the whole city is in a state of agitation and delight at the spectacle. Very many sacrifices are made on this day, and the citizens give entertainment to all their acquaintances and also to their own slaves. No one is absent from the sacred festival and the whole city seems to be empty, since every one has gone to see the spectacle.”

Gymnopedia (literally “ the naked boys’ dance ”’) was a gymnastic festival which, after 670 B.c. was held at Sparta every year, later arranged in honour of the Spartans who had fallen at Thyrea (544 B.c.), and was celebrated with dances and bodily exercises of naked boys. It is characteristic that this festival, which served for the glorification of the beauty of boys and lasted from six to ten days, was so highly thought of among the Spartans, that not even the most disturbing events were allowed to keep them away from it.

There is considerable uncertainty about the gymnopedia, but the following notices cannot be disputed. Bekker (Anecdota, i, 234) tells us that at the gymnopeedia in Sparta naked boys sang pzeans and danced in honour of the Carnean Apollo; and in Hesychius (s.v. yepvoraisia) we read : “‘ According to some this is a Spartan festival, at which boys run round the altar in Amyklaion, at the same time striking one another on the back. But this is false, for they celebrate their festival in the market-place ; also, no blows are given, but there are processions and choral songs of naked boys.’ Cf. also Pausanias, ll, 17, 9, Suidas, s.v., Athenzeus, xv, 678b. This

* For a description of the dance of boys, see Athenaus, xiv, 631b.

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