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THARGELIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 727 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THARGELIA , one of the See also:

chief Athenian festivals in See also:honour of the Delian See also:Apollo and See also:Artemis, held on their birthdays, the 6th and 7th of the See also:month Thargelion (about the 24th and 25th of May). The name, which was derived by the ancients from %pecv rip 'jnv (" to reap the See also:land "), is more probably connected with -repo-i va1 (cf. See also:Lat. torreo, tostus), signifying the produce of the See also:earth " baked " by the See also:sun. Essentially an agricultural festival, the Thargelia included a purifying and expiatory ceremony. While the See also:people offered the first-fruits of the earth to the See also:god in token of thankfulness, it was at the same See also:time necessary to propitiate him, lest he might ruin the See also:harvest by excessive See also:heat, possibly accompanied by pestilence. The purificatory preceded the thanksgiving service. On the 6th a See also:sheep was sacrificed to See also:Demeter Chloe on the See also:Acropolis, and perhaps a See also:swine to the Fates, but the most important See also:ritual was the following. Two men, who were called c&apµaeoi or vv8aKXot, the ugliest that could be found, were chosen to See also:die, one for the men, the other (according to some, a woman) for the See also:women. On the See also:day of the See also:sacrifice they were led See also:round with strings of See also:figs on their necks, and whipped on the genitals with rods of figwood and squills. When they reached the See also:place of sacrifice on the See also:shore, they were stoned to See also:death, their bodies burnt, and the ashes thrown into the See also:sea (or over the land, to See also:act as a fertilizing See also:influence). The See also:whipping with squills and figwood was intended to stimulate the reproductive energies of the 4appasbs, who represented the god of vegetation, annually slain to be See also:born again. It is agreed that an actual human sacrifice took place on this occasion, replaced in later times by a milder See also:form of expiation.

Thus at Leucas a criminal was annually thrown from a See also:

rock into the sea as a scapegoat: but his fall was checked by live birds and feathers attached to his See also:person, and men watched below in small boats, who caught him and escorted him beyond the boundary of the See also:city. Similarly, at Massilia, on the occasion of some heavy calamity (See also:plague or See also:famine), one of the poorest inhabitants volunteered as a scapegoat. For a See also:year he was fed up at the public expense, then clothed in sacred garments, led through the city amidst execrations, and See also:cast out beyond the boundaries. The ceremony on the 7th was of a cheerful See also:character. All kinds of first-fruits were carried in procession and offered to the god, and, as at the See also:Pyanepsia (or Pyanopsia), eipeo-uavai (branches of See also:olive See also:bound with See also:wool), See also:borne by See also:children, were affixed by them to the doors of the houses. These branches, originally intended as a See also:charm to avert failure of the crops, were afterwards regarded as forming See also:part of a supplicatory service. On the second day choruses of men and boys took part in musical contests, the See also:prize for which was a See also:tripod. Further, on this day adopted persons were solemnly received into the genos and phrairia of their adoptive parents (see See also:APATURIA). See See also:Preller-See also:Robert, Griechische Mythologie, i. (1894); G. F. Schemann, Griechische Alterthumer (4th ed. by J.

H. See also:

Lipsius, 1897-1902); P. Stengel, Die griechischen Kullusalterthumer (1890); See also:article in See also:Smith's See also:Dictionary of See also:Greek and See also:Roman Antiquities, revised by L. C. See also:Purser (3rd ed., 1891) ; A. See also:Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen (1898); L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, iv. (1906), pp. 268-283; J. G. Frazer, See also:Golden Bough (2nd ed., 1900), ii. appendix C, " Offerings of First-Fruits," and iii. p.

93, § 15, " On Scapegoats "; W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- and Feldkulte (2nd ed. by W. Heuschkel, 1904-5).

End of Article: THARGELIA

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