Greek religious festivals and politics

This was a time for celebrating your religion by means of sacrifice, Athletic games and generally socializing on what was a holiday for many Greeks. This was a time of the most extreme piety heightened by the large scale involvement of the community mixed with excessive amounts of food and wine. The fact that these festivals were repeated annually caused a sense of tradition as the centuries past and may have been the reason why the religion continued to be so successful on retaining loyalty.

There is a theory held by scholars such as Thomas Figueira which suggests that the great religious festivals were linked to the periods of political disturbances. In the article ‘Tribes, Festivals, and Processions: Civic Ceremonial and Political Manipulation in Archaic Greece’ W.R. Connor talks about the theory behind ceremonial and civic life. An example of this is shown in the event of Pisistratus’ arrival in Athens when he returned to power in the 550’s. He entered Athens in a chariot accompanied by a tall woman dressed as Athena. This is obviously a statement of some sort and there have been many insightful attempts at interpreting this event recorded by Herodotus. John Boardman suggests that Pisistratus was comparing himself to Heracles and was implying that his procession to the Acropolis was an analogue to Heracles’ elevation to Olympus”. Gerald Else continues this theme of the comparison to Greek Heroes when he suggests that Pisistratus was comparing himself to Odysseus who had the strong support of Athena. This is shown when he says “Surely it depends integrally upon the Odyssey being well known to whole population of Athens at the time”. The most accurate comparison in my opinion though was one suggested by Stein in his commentary on Herodotus. He claimed that Pisistratus’ intention was to portray himself as Diomedes who is chosen by Athena in the Iliad as the bravest of the warriors. In the Iliad Athena pushed Sthenelos aside and entered the chariot of Diomedes ‘the dread codes led on the man who was the bravest’.[1] The fact that Pistratus did not dress up like Hercules himself or any of the gods gives the impression that he wanted to be perceived as human. This may have been a clever attempt at showing Athens that even though he is backed by the gods, he is not one of them and is a man of the people. Therefore this attempt at using a religious festival to convey political messages shows how these two aspects of Greek life were closely connected.

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[1] Iliad book 5