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

OTHER FESTIVALS

Pyanepsia were celebrated in Athens, Sparta, Cyzicus, and elsewhere. It took its name from pyanos, a dish of pulse or hulled barley, a harvesthome in honour of Apollo and Artemis. At this it was the custom for boys to carry the ezreszone,1 an olive-branch wound round with wool and made into a crown, from house to house, at the same time singing popular songs and begging kindly gifts.

In the same month the Oschophoria? was celebrated at Athens. It was named from the oschot, the vine-branches with grapes on them, which were partly carried before a procession by two beautiful boys dressed as women both of whose parents were alive, chosen from every tribe ; and were partly brought by exquisitely beautiful and active ephebi, who raced from the temple of Dionysus to that of Athene Skiras in the harbour of Phalerum. ‘The victor received as a prize a bowl containing a drink (called zevramdca: ‘‘ with five ingredients’; Ath., xi, 495) composed of the five products of the year—wine, honey, cheese, meal, and oil—and gave a joyful popular dance with a chorus of other boys.

Of the disguise of the two boys, which appears strange to us, Plutarch (Theseus, 23) who refers the establishment of the festival to Theseus, gives the following account: “For he is said not to have selected all the maidens chosen by lot at the time to accompany him, but two youths, intimate friends of his, who combined a bold and undaunted courage with a womanish and delicate appearance. By the use of warm baths, keeping them from the sun and fresh air, oiling their hair and skin, and by feminine adornment, he gave them quite a different

+ This was also the name of the begging-song: cf. the swallows’ song of the Rhodian boys in Ath. viii, 360.

* The name of the festival gave rise to all kinds of jokes, for daxopopiKxot (carriers of vine-branches) sounded to the Greek ear like Oaxeos (scrotum).

* ‘That is, they wore the old Ionic dress which gave the impression

that they were girls (see Béttiger, Baunkult, p. 339, fig. 42 ; many details of the festival are obscure ; cf. also Proclus, Chrestom., 28).

Tale