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

Harpocration: "The Athenians hold three torch festivals: at the Panathenaea, the Hephaestia, and the Prometheia." And it is to be observed in Aristophanes' Frogs, where Bacchus speaks thus:

By Zeus, not at all as they were being rubbed,
Laughing at the Panathenaea, when indeed
A slow man was running, stooping,
Pale, fat, lagging behind,
And doing terrible things. And then the men of Ceramicus
In the gates strike his
Belly, ribs, flanks, buttocks.
But he, being beaten with flat hands,
Farting while being struck,
Blowing out the torch, was fleeing.

At first it was a foot race; soon it began to be equestrian, in the age of Plato. He himself indicates this, in the passage cited once or twice, Republic, Book 1: "Do you not know," he said, "that there will be a torch race in the evening on horseback for the goddess?" "On horseback?" I said. "This is indeed something new. Will they hand torches to one another, competing on horseback? Or how do you mean?" "In this way," said Polemarchus. "And what is more, they will hold a night-long festival." Where you should also observe that; it was held in the evening, and the following night also began to be spent in a vigil. The place of this contest was the Ceramicus the potter's quarter in Athens. Suidas: "Ceramicus, a high place in Attica, where the Athenians performed the torch contest every year." The author of the Etymologicum: "Ceramicus, a place in Athens, where the Athenians performed the torch-bearing contest every year." More about this in our