What Was the Ancient Greek Thargelia Festival?

Definition: Thargelia was a festival for Apollo held in ancient Athens, on the sixth and seventh days of the month of Thargelion, which was some time between May and June. Thargelia was an agricultural festival where the first fruits were offered to Apollo. It also had an expiatory component, which according to the information from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, sometimes included the sacrifice of two human scapegoats.

Jane Ellen Harrison [Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion] says the meaning of the word Thargelion is the name given to the first loaf made after carrying home the grain harvest in the spring. The origin of the festival, however, is not so clear. Harrison believes this harvest festival needs to be studied in connection with the two other held during the same month, Kallynteria (in which the statue of Athena was made beautiful by cleaning) and Plynteria, (for which the Praxiergidai family bathed and dressed the statue of Athena on the 25th of Thargelion; Plutarch's Alcibiades: 85 "On that day, when the statue of Minerva was ' washed' (whence the name of the festival) the temples were encompassed with a cord, to denote that they were shut up, as was customary upon all inauspicious days : and dried figs were carried in procession, because that was the first fruit which was eaten after acorns. The Praxiergidai were the ministering priests."). Harrison adds that the Suda says there was a musical competition and actors dedicated their prizes (tripods) in a sanctuary of Apollo, and the festival was at one time associated not only with Apollo, but also Artemis, although Aristophanes associates the holiday with "helios and the Horae" at which an olive branch wrapped with wool and known as an Eiresione was carried from house to house so it could be fastened above the home of every Athenian as well as the sanctuary of Apollo.

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