The festival of Skira or Skirophoria in the ancient Athenian calendar, closely associated with Thesmophoria, marked the dissolution of the old year in May/June. In Athens, the last month of the year was Skirophorion, after the festival.
Skira, the end of the Athenian year
Its most important feature was the procession that led from Athens to a place called Skiron near Eleusis, in which the priestess of Athena, the priest of Poseidon, and later, the priest of Helios, took part, under a ceremonial canopy called the skiron, held by the Eteoboutadai. Their common temple on the Acropolis was the Erechtheum, where Poseidon incarnated as Erechtheus remained a numinous presence.
In Skiron there was a shrine dedicated to Demeter/Kore and one to Athena.
As a festival of dissolution, the Skira was a proverbial festival of licentiousness, in which men played dice, but also a time of daytime fasting, and of reversal of the social order, for the bonds of marriage were suspended, while the women ringed each other. together and left the quarters where they were usually confined, to eat garlic together "according to ancestral custom", and to sacrifice and feast together, at the expense of men.
The Skira serves as the setting for Aristophanes' comedy Ecclesiazusae (393 BC), in which women seize the opportunity offered by the festival, to hatch their plot to overthrow male domination.
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On this day, the Athenians celebrated Skira. The priestess of Athena, the priest of Poseidon and the priest of Helios were performing a ceremony marking the end of the year. The male/female roles were suspended that day. #mythology #myth #legend #calendar #Athens #Skira
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