![Dancer at festival of Apollo Karneios, wearing kalatiskos hat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Dancer_at_festival_of_Apollo_Karneios%2C_wearing_kalatiskos_hat.jpg)
Carneia ( grc, Κάρνεια or ) or Carnea () was one of the tribal traditional festivals of
Sparta
Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...
, the
Peloponnese and Doric cities in
Magna Grecia, held in honor of Apollo Karneios. Whether Carneus (or
Carnus) was originally an old Peloponnesian divinity subsequently identified with
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
, or merely an "emanation" from him, is uncertain; but there seems no reason to doubt that Carneus means "the god of flocks and herds" (
Hesychius, s.v. ), in a wider sense, of the harvest and the vintage. The chief centre of his worship was Sparta, where the Carneia took place every year from the 7th to the 15th of the month Carneus (i.e.
Metageitnion
The Attic calendar or Athenian calendar is the lunisolar calendar beginning in midsummer with the lunar month of Hekatombaion, in use in ancient Attica, the ancestral territory of the Athenian polis. It is sometimes called the Greek calendar beca ...
, August). During this period all military operations were suspended.
Background
The Carneia appears to have been at once agrarian, military and
piacular in character. In the last aspect it is supposed to commemorate the death of Carnus, an
Acarnanian seer and favourite of Apollo, who, being suspected of espionage, was slain by one of the
Heraclidae
The Heracleidae (; grc, Ἡρακλεῖδαι) or Heraclids were the numerous descendants of Heracles (Hercules), especially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by Deianira (Hyllus was also ...
during the passage of the
Dorians
The Dorians (; el, Δωριεῖς, ''Dōrieîs'', singular , ''Dōrieús'') were one of the four major ethnic groups into which the Hellenes (or Greeks) of Classical Greece divided themselves (along with the Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionian ...
from
Naupactus
Nafpaktos ( el, Ναύπακτος) is a town and a former municipality in Aetolia-Acarnania, West Greece, situated on a bay on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, west of the mouth of the river Mornos.
It is named for Naupaktos (, Latini ...
to
Peloponnesus
The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge whi ...
. By way of punishment, Apollo visited the army with a pestilence, which only ceased after the institution of the Carneia. The tradition is probably intended to explain the sacrifice of an animal (perhaps a later substitute for a human being) as the representative of the god. The agrarian and military sides of the festival are clearly distinguished.
The importance attached to the festival and its month is shown in several instances. It was responsible for the delay which prevented the Spartans from assisting the
Athenians at the
Battle of Marathon
The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination o ...
. Again, when
Epidaurus was attacked in 419 by
Argos
Argos most often refers to:
* Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece
** Ancient Argos, the ancient city
* Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Argos or ARGOS may also refer to:
Businesses
...
, the movements of the Spartans under
Agis Agis or AGIS may refer to:
People
* Agis I (died 900 BC), Spartan king
* Agis II (died 401 BC), Spartan king
* Agis III (died 331 BC), Spartan king
* Agis IV (265–241 BC), Spartan king
* Agis (Paeonian) (died 358 BC), King of the Paeonians
* Ag ...
against the latter were interrupted until the end of the month, while the Argives (on whom, as Dorians, the custom was equally binding), by manipulating the calendar, avoided the necessity of suspending operations.
This festival is also the reason behind the dispatch of a small advance guard under
Leonidas
Leonidas I (; grc-gre, Λεωνίδας; died 19 September 480 BC) was a List of kings of Sparta#Heraclids, king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, and the 17th of the List of kings of Sparta#Agiad dynasty, Agiad line, a dynasty which claimed d ...
instead of the main Spartan force during the
Battle of Thermopylae.
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...
br>VII, 206
/ref>
The Carneia was also celebrated at the Sharmen city of Cyrene in North Africa, as attested in Pindar
Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar ...
's fifth Pythian ode and Callimachus
Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide varie ...
's hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hy ...
to Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
.
Details of the Carneia
Five unmarried youths ( grc, Καρνεᾶται) were chosen by lot from each ribe
Ribe () is a town in south-west Jutland, Denmark, with a population of 8,257 (2022). It is the seat of the Diocese of Ribe covering southwestern Jutland. Until 1 January 2007, Ribe was the seat of both a surrounding municipality and county. It ...
for four years, to superintend the proceedings, the officiating priest being called grc, ἀγητής ("leader"). A man decked with garlands (possibly the priest himself) started running, pursued by a band of young men called grc, σταφυλοδρόμοι ("running with bunches of grapes in their hands"); if he was caught, it was a guarantee of good fortune to the city; if not, the reverse.
In the second part of the festival nine tents were set up in the country, in each of which nine citizens, representing the phratries (or ''obae''), feasted together in honour of the god (for huts or booths extemporized as shelters; see W. Warde Fowler in ''Classical Review'', March 1908, on the country festival in Tibullus
Albius Tibullus ( BC19 BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins.
Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a f ...
ii. I). According to Demetrius of Scepsis Demetrius of Scepsis ( grc, Δημήτριος ὁ Σκήψιος) was a Greek Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian of the time of Aristarchus of Samothrace, Aristarchus and Crates of Mallus, Crates (Strabo, Strab. xiii. p. 609), the first half ...
(in Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...
iv. 141), the Carneia was an imitation of life in camp, and everything was done in accordance with the command of a herald. In regard to the sacrifice, which doubtless formed part of the ceremonial, all that is known is that a ram was sacrificed at Thurii
Thurii (; grc-gre, Θούριοι, Thoúrioi), called also by some Latin writers Thurium (compare grc-gre, Θούριον in Ptolemy), for a time also Copia and Copiae, was a city of Magna Graecia, situated on the Tarentine gulf, within a sho ...
. Other indications point to the festival having assumed a military character at an early date, as might have been expected among the warlike Dorians, although some scholars deny this. The general meaning of the agrarian ceremony is clear, and has numerous parallels in north European harvest-customs, in which an animal (or man disguised as an animal) was pursued by the reapers, the animal if caught being usually killed; in any case, both the man and the animal represent the vegetation spirit. E. H. Binney in ''Classical Review'' (March 1905) suggests that the story of Alcestis
Alcestis (; Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, ') or Alceste, was a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her husband. Her life story was told by pseudo-Apollodorus in his '' Bibliotheca'', and a version of her death and return from t ...
was performed at the Carneia (to which it may have become attached with the name of Apollo) as a vegetation drama, and "embodied a Death and Resurrection ceremony."
Notes
References
*{{EB1911, wstitle=Carnea, volume=5, page=363 This work in turn cites:
**S. Wide, ''Lakonische Kulte'' (1893), and article "Karneios" in Roscher's ''Lexikon''.
**L. Couve in Daremberg and Saglio's ''Dictionnaire des antiquités''.
**Wilhelm Mannhardt
Wilhelm Mannhardt (March 26, 1831, Friedrichstadt – December 25, 1880, Danzig) was a German mythologist and folklorist. He is known for his work on Germanic mythology, on Baltic mythology, and other pre-Christian European pantheons; and for his ...
, ''Mythologische Forschungen'' (1883), p. 170.
**Wilhelm Mannhardt ''Wald- and Feldkulte'' (2nd ed., 1905), ii. 254.
**L. Farnell, ''Cults of the Greek States'', iv. (1907).
**G. Schömann, ''Griechische Altertümer'' (ed. J. H. Lipsius, 1902).
**J. G. Frazer
Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.
Personal life
He was born on 1 Janua ...
on Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...
, iii. 13. 3.
**Hermann Usener
Hermann Karl Usener (23 October 1834 – 21 October 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion.
Life
Hermann Usener was born at Weilburg and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at Heidelberg, ...
in ''Rheinisches Museum'', liii. (1898), p. 377.
**J. Vürtheim in ''Mnemosyne'', xxxi. (1903), p. 234.
Festivals in ancient Sparta
August observances
September observances