The Pyanepsia, an ancient festival whose origins probably date back to Mycenaean times, was associated with Apollo and Theseus, the founding hero of Athens, and to some extent with Helios and the goddesses of the seasons collectively known as Horai.
Pyanepsia, a Mycenaean festival
In Archaic and Classical times, the festival centered around panspermia, a mixture of beans, wheat, and other seeds and grains. Both Isidore and Porphory considered beans to be one of humanity's first and most primitive foods. The appropriate activity for the party was the story of legends, probably from Theseus and related myths.
The explanation for this panspermia is found in the myths and legends associated with Theseus. The story told was that it was on this day that Theseus, who had just returned from killing the Minotaur, wished to pay his vows to Apollo. The youths who had returned with him pooled and boiled what remained of their provisions to provide a feast and an offering to Apollo for bringing them safely from Delos to Attica (Plutarch, Theseus, 22.4).
Another practice of this festival is the carrying of eiresiones throughout the city by boys, who sang the above eiresione song as they traveled from house to house. Plutarch described the eiresione as "an olive branch crowned with wool, such as Theseus used at the time of his supplication, and laden with all kinds of fruit offerings, to signify that the shortage was over" (Theseus, 22.5 ).
Parke says that he also carried pastry forms of harps, cups, vine branches, and other things. The revelers apparently expected a gift from every house they visited. In classical times an eiresione hung over almost every door in Athens, and enjoyed its special position all year round, being replaced at the Pyanepsia and Thargelia.
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