The High Priestess of Athena Polias held the highest religious office in Ancient Athens. She enjoyed great prestige and played an official role which was otherwise uncommon in Ancient Athens. Several occasions are mentioned when she made her influence known in historical events of importance, and she is known to have influenced offices by recommendation.
She supervised the city cult of Athena based in the
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...
, and was the chief of the lesser officials, such as the
plyntrides,
arrephoroi An ''Arrephoros'' ( grc, Ἀρρήφορος) was a girl acolyte in the cult of Athena Polias on the Athenian Acropolis. They were seven to eleven years old. According to Pausanias,Pausanias1.27.3./ref> two ''Arrephoroi'' lived for a year on the Acr ...
and
kanephoroi. She was the high priest of one of the three cults of the Acropolis of Athens: the other two were the High Priest of Poseidon-Erechtheus and the
Priestess of Athena Nike.
The most known individual official of this position was Lysimache I.
The office could not have survived the ban of all non-Christian priesthoods during the
persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire
Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire began during the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), when he destroyed a pagan temple for the purpose of constructing a Christian church ...
.
See also
*
High Priestess of Demeter
The Priestess of Demeter and Kore, sometimes referred to as the High Priestess of Demeter, was the High Priestess of the Goddesses Demeter and Persephone (Kore) in the Telesterion in Eleusis in Ancient Athens. It was one of the highest religious ...
*
Priestess of Hera at Argos
The Priestess of Hera at Argos was the High Priestess of the Goddess Hera, the protective city deity of Ancient Argos, on the Heraion of Argos in Argos.
It was the highest religious office in Ancient Argos, and its official enjoyed great presti ...
References
* Jeffrey M. Hurwit,
The Athenian Acropolis: History, Mythology, and Archaeology'
* Joan Breton Connelly,
Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece'
* Garland, Robert, Religion and the Greeks, Bristol Classical Press, London, 1994
{{DEFAULTSORT:High Priestess of Athena Polias
Ancient Athenian religious titles
Athena
Ancient Greek priestesses