Panathenaea: Or, A Singular Book on the Twin Festival of Minerva

CHAPTER III.

They were, in truth, most ancient; so much so that they vied with the Eleusinia. Aristides in his Panathenaic Oration: "The contests in Greece are the most glorious of all. Of these, the oldest is that of the Panathenaea, or if you prefer, that of the Eleusinia." Their origin was before the times of Theseus; and although they were previously called the Athenaea, they were named the Panathenaea by him, as we have seen in the words of Pausanias already cited. Regarding Theseus as the founder, there is also a passage in Plutarch, in his Life: "He named the town and the city Athens; and he made the Panathenaea a common sacrifice." There are those who attribute them to Erichthonius. Harpocration: "Erichthonius, son of Hephaestus, held the festival (and the Panathenaea), as both Hellanicus and Androtion say, each in the first book of his Atthis." Others make Orpheus the founder. Theodoretus, Therapeutice I: "And the rites of the Dionysia, and of the Panathenaea, and indeed of the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinia, were brought into Athens by Orpheus, an Odrysian man." But a distinction must be made, and it must be known that there is a twofold institution of the festival: the author of the first was Erichthonius or Orpheus, from whom it was called the Athenaea; the author of the second was Theseus, who called them the Panathenaea. I see this distinction in Suidas: "Panathenaea, a festival for the unification that took place under Theseus. First [it was held] under Erichthonius, son of Hephaestus and Athena, but later under Theseus, who gathered the townships into the city." This is what Apostolius says in Proverbia, Cent. XV, 80, in the same words. Apollodorus, Book III, also mentions the former institution, which was made by Erichthonius: "Erichthonius, having been raised in the precinct by Athena herself, drove out Amphictyon and became king of Athens. He also established the wooden image of Athena on the Acropolis, and organized the festival of the Panathenaea." Soon after, he reports that Aegeus, the father of Theseus, celebrated them: "He [Aegeus] himself came to Athens, and performed the contest of the Panathenaea." He calls them the Panathenaea in both places, in accordance with the nomenclature of his own age, whereas at that time they were called the Athenaea. Diodorus Siculus does the same in Bibliotheca, Book IV: "Of the sons of Minos, Androgeos arrived in Athens while the Panathenaea were being performed, with Aegeus reigning."