“King Harvest Has Surely Come”: On the Seasonal Festival of the Kalamaia
p. 127-140
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1When did the ancient Greeks complete the cultivation of their barley or the harvest of their wheat? A possible starting point in attempting to answer this difficult question— in any case too multifarious to warrant only one specific answer—is an ancient and fairly obscure festival attested in only a few Ionian cities: the Kalamaia, the eponymous celebration of the sporadic month Kalamaion. Since the evidence is poor, this will at first glance seem an unpromising beginning. But if we dig a bit, a fruitful and wider field of research may eventually come into view, as well as several important issues concerning the seasonal cycle of agricultural rites in honour of Demeter, Kore and other gods. The devil is in the details, as they say; or in this case: the details reveal kernels of truth.
2Scholars agree principally on the fact that we know very little about the Kalamaia or what it may have entailed. Prima facie, it may appear that the name of this rite ought to refer to straw or thatch (cf. LSJ s.v. καλάμη). “When the bronze implement has strewn the greatest number of “straw” on the ground (πλείστην… καλάμην), but the harvest is poorest” is a Homeric metaphor for fruitless slaughter, for how quickly men tire of battle.1 Indeed, we commonly read of the Kalamaia as a sort “straw-festival”.2 The remains of the cereal crops, dried stalks used perhaps primarily as fodder or building materials, would apparently be at the core of the ritual. Noting immediately the oddity of a festival centered on straw, this is thus an emphasis and an interpretation of καλάμη that calls for further commentary.
3On the date of the celebration there is also some degree of common agreement in recent scholarship. Trümpy’s comprehensive work on Greek calendars contains an attempt to reconstruct an “original” or “ideal” sequence for the major Ionian months and festivals.3 This results in situating the Kalamaia after the Kronia in the late summer or autumn and before the Pyanopsia in the autumn.4 Aside from any reservations one may have about this kind of dubious, reconstructive Quellengeschichte, the existence of a single model for calendars in Ionian cities is far from demonstrated. Moreover, there are several problems with Trümpy’s sequence and dating of the Kalamaia, which is based—with “great probability” as she writes—on the order of the months preserved in the calendar of Perinthos, a Samian colony.
4In this regard, we are immediately confronted with a difficult problem: the only evidence for the calendar of Perinthos is indirect and comes from the beginning of the second millennium AD, in the form of a compilation in the Liber glossarum, along with a similar, probably derivative document in the Elementarium of Papias.5 The calendar of the mother-city of Perinthos, Samos, does not contain the month Kalamaion, though this of course need not mean that Kalamaia were not celebrated in that city; we simply do not know.6 As preserved in the medieval sources, the calendar of Perinthos appears largely out of its expected order—for instance, Anthesterion and the Anthesteria are equated with Roman September, rather than taking place in the spring, as expected.7 The calendars of Samos and Perinthos nevertheless seem to overlap substantially, though with some key differences. As far as our particular case is concerned, January, i.e. the first month of the year at Perinthos, is said to be called Calameos or Calameus, and thus might be reconstructed as Greek Καλαμαῖος (though the Ionic form Καλαμαιών would instead have been expected). As interesting as this piece of information may be, it only indicates the possible existence of this month and its related festival at Perinthos.8 In any case, Kalamaios is here followed several months later both by Kronion and Pyaneption (Iunius and Iulius respectively, according to the equivalences in the Liber glossarum), rather than being preceded by the Kronia, as Trümpy would have it. To be brief, Trümpy’s placing of the Kalamaia in the autumn within the “early Ionian” calendar should be viewed as entirely speculative and highly questionable.9
5Potential evidence for the month Kalamaion from other cities is to be treated with similar caution, if not set aside altogether. Contrary to what was earlier believed, the month is not present at Olynthos nor in any of the calendars of Euboian origin.10 Its presence has been plausibly but not definitively reconstructed in a list of monthly loans found on Keos, perhaps belonging to the city of Koresia.11 All that is known is that this calendar has a month ending in -aion which (directly or indirectly) followed Thargelion, perhaps the first month of the calendar; the fragmentary month in -aion was in turn followed (directly or indirectly) by the rare Kykleion.12 In other words, beyond this uncertain evidence from Perinthos and elsewhere, we are forced to conclude that, though it may well have been more widespread, the celebration of the Kalamaia is only well attested in two spheres: Miletos and its myriad colonies, and Athens and Attica.13
6Parker in his comprehensive study of Athenian festivals has recently placed the month Kalamaion and the celebration of the Kalamaia in the summer, more specifically in Hekatombaion (roughly mid-July to mid-August).14 Though he gives a short and cautious account of the festival, we may readily note that his conclusion concerning the timing of the festival in Attica depends on a presumed synchronism between Athenian Hekatombaion and the month Kalamaion at Miletos and in its colonies.15 As in Athens, and by contrast with some of the aforementioned cities, the calendar of Miletos and its colonies is securely established.16 In this calendar, the months always begin in the following order: 1. Taureon — 2. Thargelion — 3. Kalamaion — 4. Panemos, etc. Kalamaion thus directly follows Thargelion (the 2nd month), and precedes Panemos, the month that properly corresponds to the first month of the calendar in Athens, Hekatombaion.
The Timing of the Kalamaia
7Though the evidence is indeed quite scanty, we can perhaps say a little bit more and elucidate the chronology of this celebration in the calendars of Miletos and its colonies, as well as at Athens. We have seen that the Kalamaia cannot usually have taken place in the summer or the autumn as Trümpy argued on the basis of the supposed calendar of Perinthos; the occasion also cannot have taken place in high summer, as Parker has claimed for Athens. Since the month always follows Thargelion in the Milesian calendars, it must have more or less coincided—in an admittedly infrequent year in which the apparent synchronisms between these different ancient calendars worked perfectly—with the month Skirophorion in Athens, a month earlier than the presumed Hekatombaion.17 A better way of stating this would be to say that the festival of the Kalamaia at Miletos clearly fell in the month Kalamaion, thus after Thargelion and its festival of the Thargelia, and that it also anticipated the next month, Panemos (perhaps featuring Panamia of some sort).
8A similar sequence is to be presumed at Athens also. To test this inference, let us now review the available facts about the placement of the Kalamaia within the calendar of Athens. Two pieces of evidence turn out to be highly informative about the terminus ante quem of the festival. The first important document is an honorific decree of Athens for a demarchos of Eleusis, the chief official of the deme.18 Passed near the end of the business and sacral year, when the city and its demes honoured its annual officials and selected new ones, the civic decree praises this individual, Pamphylos the son of Archon, for the financial contributions he made to important rites of Demeter and for the sacrifices he fulfilled during his past year of service (note, crucially, the aorists ἔθυσεν, συνετέλεσεν).19 These include the Haloa in the winter, the Chloia in the spring, and finally the Kalamaia; the rites are no doubt presented in a natural, chronological order.20 From the date of the enactment of the decree, we can thus deduce that the last of the rites, the Kalamaia, must antedate 16 Skirophorion at Athens and Eleusis. The decree, though laconic, has the added benefits of informing us that there was a sacrifice and a procession during the Kalamaia involving Eleusinian officials such as the demarch himself, the hierophant, and the local priestesses. Furthermore, it confirms that this was a key rite in the cycle of festivals for Demeter at Athens, alongside the other state festivals of the Haloa and the Chloia, all of which took place annually at Eleusis, though other celebrations occurred in other demes too.
9Another inscription can both corroborate this information as well as make it more precise. A well-known regulation for the Thesmophorion of the Piraeus is preserved alongside a decree of the deme.21 The regulation forbids any form of independent assembly or ritual participation except during major festivals or other occasions on which women traditionally gather together ( [ἀ] λ|λ’ ἢ ὅταν ἡ ἑορτὴ… καὶ εἴ τινα ἄλλην ἡμέ|ραν συνέρχονται αἱ γυναῖκες κα|τὰ τὰ πάτρια, lines 8-13). Four of these core festivals are listed in these lines: the Thesmophoria, the Plerosia (also called the Prerosia), the Kalamaia, the Skira, and it again seems clear that these are presented in chronological order.22 This places the Kalamaia after the Thesmophoria and the Plerosia (Prerosia) and before the Skira. The Prerosia was held at varying junctures in different demes, and thus cannot provide a suitable terminus post quem for the Kalamaia; the Skira, however, is known to have taken place on the 12th of Skirophorion.23
10To summarise, when we combine the Milesian evidence with the Athenian evidence, we find that the Kalamaia in Athens must have taken place:
- After the Thargelia, on 7 Thargelion (more or less in the second half of May)
- Before the Skira, on 12 Skirophorion (more or less in the second half of June)
11The expected Attic date is therefore sometime between 8 Thargelion to 11 Skirophorion. Though the dating may have varied in the different demes of Attica,24 it is more probable that it was fixed, since we know that the major iteration of the festival at Eleusis concerned the whole city of Athens, and thus the whole occasion can be reckoned to have been a state festival. If we were to take a possible synchronism between the Athenian and Milesian calendars even further, we could also suppose that the Kalamaia should probably be situated in the month after Thargelion—as at Miletos—, and thus in the early days of Skirophorion, perhaps in the range of 4-11 Skirophorion (~ early second half of June).25
12At any rate, we can be confident that the Attic Kalamaia, involving celebrations at Eleusis and in the Piraeus as well as perhaps other demes, usually took place some weeks prior to the end of the Athenian year, before or around the summer solstice; in much the same way, the Milesian Kalamaia will typically have been celebrated around this time. The little festival thus fell neither in autumn nor in the hot summer period near the Panathenaia in Athens, but more than a month earlier. That the Kalamaia took place in late Thargelion or, more probably, early Skirophorion is an interpretation that had already been reached in the pioneering yet sometimes overlooked work of Brumfield.26
The Meaning of the Kalamaia
13We can thus be more precise about the dating of the festival of the Kalamaia in the Attic demes, as well as at Miletos and its colonies. As with other festivals, chronological exactitude is not merely a technical issue, far from it: the result is not just a pedantic quibble about dating, but more about the difference that this kind of precision can make. It can notably help us to rehabilitate a few of the views expressed in earlier scholarship, which are sometimes neglected today. For instance, Brumfield had already suggested, albeit more vaguely, that the fact that the Kalamaia fell in late Thargelion / early Skirophorion was probably to be connected with the time of harvest.27 Even earlier, Deubner’s seminal work on Attic festivals did not do any calendrical calculations, but made an interesting suggestion about why the Kalamaia could be thought to fall in the spring or the early summer of our calendar: this was the eponymous time when the stalks of wheat (die Halme) were in their final, definite stage of development.28
14Following Deubner, we must therefore return to a brief exploration of the sense of καλάμη, the word from which the name of the festival of the Kalamaia is constructed. As we have seen, the idea that καλάμη means “straw” or the residue of cereal crops has been widespread; the related word κάλαμος meaning a “reed” (only occasionally a synonym for καλάμη) has also, it would seem, been influential in this regard.29 In short, it is clear that καλάμη must refer to the stem and stalk of wheat or barley, but at what stage in the lifecycle or cultivation of the plants? As has been well recognised, a crucial source is Theophrastus’ History of the Plants, which informs us that wheat and barley mature about eight months or more after sowing, and that flowering comes about forty days before full maturity.30 These figures correspond well with those still observable today: cereal crops begin to flower after 50 days, and mature in just over 90 days, three months after their first germination and emergence from the soil.31
15Brumfield, Parker, and still others have perceptively remarked that the lifecycle of barley and wheat corresponds particularly well with known sequences and cycles of rites in honour of Demeter. The Kalamaia must therefore be properly situated within these cycles. A key piece of evidence is the sacrificial calendar of Thorikos (dating to late fifth or early fourth century BC), which preserves an intriguing sequence of such rites: Prerosia, a pre-ploughing festival in month 3, Boedromion (line 13; probably also a similar rite in an earlier month); then, a Chloia-offering to Demeter in Elaphebolion, month 9 (line 38); finally, an Antheia-offering for Demeter in Mounychion, month 10 (lines 43-44).32 Regrettably, the Kalamaia is not explicitly mentioned in this calendar, though, as we have seen, it would be expected to have occurred in late Thargelion or more probably early Skirophorion. Yet it is also possible that the Kalamaia was not celebrated separately in each of the Attic demes: some of the denizens of Thorikos may instead have participated in the state festival at Eleusis (see above). In any case, it is striking that the Kalamaia will have been celebrated in Athens around or shortly after the time of maturity of the cereal crops according to the expected figures. Late Thargelion / early Skirophorion is roughly 8-9 months after the sowing of crops connected to the Prerosia in Boedromion at Thorikos, a bit less than 3 months after the first emergence of the shoots of the plants apparently symbolised by the Chloia at Thorikos, and 40 days after the flowering of the cereal crops represented by the Antheia in Mounychion at Thorikos.33
16In sum, as Deubner had already intuited, the Kalamaia must somehow be connected to the final stage of the cultivation of the cereal crops, since it properly denotes the full growth of the stem (καλάμη) and the ripening and maturity of the plant as a whole: the occasion may thus more appropriately be called a “festival of the grain stalks”.34 In fact, looking more closely at the available lexical and literary sources, it becomes quite clear that καλάμη is not just the dried straw, but more properly a stalk bearing grain (σῖτος or στάχυς), ready for harvest or already harvested. Indeed, contrary to many modern practices, the plants of cereal crops were traditionally harvested with the head of grain still attached to the stem; this was cut with a sickle or similar implement near the base of the stalk and then left to dry for some time, as bundles or sheaves in the fields (δράγματα, ἄμαλλα), and often also in storehouses while still of a piece.35 This practice remains well in evidence across some rural parts of Greece and the Balkans today, and it served several related purposes: to ensure that the heads of grain would not become overripe on the stalk and scatter while still on the plant, that the grain would nonetheless dry fully under the sun, and that threshing could be postponed until the work of the harvest was complete or until an even later date.36
17Was the Kalamaia a harvest festival then? This is a very strong proposition, though it depends to a degree on what one means by “harvest festival”, as well on the remaining chronological imprecisions. A dating of the Kalamaia in midsummer would have suggested that the festival had something to do with straw, perhaps with the threshing and the winnowing of the grain—at any rate, with a much more advanced period in the agricultural cycle, since the midsummer is too late for the actual work of harvesting in Attica.37 From the earliest sources, such as Hesiod, we would expect the harvest to have typically begun around in early or mid-May, and to have lasted over the course of a month, until the approximate “deadline” of the summer solstice.38 Though this is the end of spring for us, for the Greeks, this period in fact marked the beginning of summer (θέρος), when the work of the harvest (θερίζω, ἀμάω/ἄμητος) properly commenced.
18Harvesting was (and, even with mechanisation, still is) hard work, and as noted it would last over the course of several weeks, if not a month. A normal harvest in Attica might commence in mid-May, a beginning that seems to correspond to the Thargelia (a point developed below). A date for the Kalamaia after the Thargelia but still in the month Thargelion could also have been associated with this: celebrating the mature cereal plants, the festival might have also contributed to inaugurating or favouring their harvest. But if, as has been argued, the Kalamaia properly belongs to early Skirophorion, this suggests that it represented a time when the harvest was drawing to a close. Though the exact circumstances must remain somewhat imprecise for the time being—pending further evidence—, an additional philological comment can be illuminating. It is worth noting that the derivatives of the word καλάμη usually center not around the action of cutting or mowing down of the cereal plants—this is more properly the scope of ἀμάω and θερίζω (cf. LSJ s.v.)—but rather on the reaping and garnering of the stalks into bundles.39 In any case, the emphasis of the Kalamaia is likelier to have been on the harvested grain-bearing stalks, their collection, and their storage; it denoted the successful completion of the harvest.
19In the context of rites for Demeter, a focus on agricultural products, the collection of sheaves of barley and wheat is not only pertinent: it is completely essential.40 As evidenced on countless pieces of Attic vase-painting, stalks bearing grains could be carried as a potent symbol of the beneficence of the Eleusinian mysteries. The centrality of the καλάμη and its head of grain is perfectly encapsulated in a passage from the beginning of Callimachus’ Hymn to Demeter: the goddess is better thought of not as one who mourns (for Kore/Persephone), but rather as a lawgiver and one who “cut off the stalk (καλάμαν) together with (τε καὶ) the first sacred bundles of grains (ἱερὰ δράγματα πράτα ἀσταχύων)… and from this time Triptolemos began to be taught the good art (of the harvest)”.41
Once Again, The Kalamaia in Attica
20A fuller grasp of the specific connotations of the Kalamaia as a festival held during harvest time can lead to better understanding of what it may have entailed as a celebration, though there is still much that we wish to know about the details of the rituals involved. In Piraeus, the Kalamaia was evidently a normal time for women to gather together in the Thesmophorion of the deme and to celebrate Demeter.42 At Eleusis, as we have also seen, there was a major sacrifice and procession involving the Eleusinian hierophant and the local priestesses: the occasion was a concern for the whole city of Athens and represented a state festival, no doubt in honour of the Two Goddesses of Eleusis and probably other deities.43 It is possible that the procession, rather than being confined to the area of Eleusis, may have begun outside the deme, for instance at another sanctuary somewhere in Athens or in the Attic countryside. Intriguingly, there is in fact evidence for just such a venue. A hero called Kalamites is mentioned in the famous speech On the Crown, delivered by Demosthenes in 330 BC, in which he accuses Aeschines’ mother of having frequented a brothel in a shed or an outhouse next to the shrine of this figure.44 A scholiast to Demosthenes (along with the lexicographer Hesychius) comments that the hero was so named because “of reeds (or stalks of grain, καλάμων) which grew nearby” and that his shrine was “next to the Lenaion”.45 The passages in question have usually perplexed scholars, not only as to what the name of this hero signified, but also in terms of where this obscure sanctuary and the adjacent Lenaion might be located.46
21A remarkable new piece of the puzzle came to light as the result of a purchase made on the European antiquities market by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1989.47 This is a lovely red-figure, footed dinos, attributed to the Syleus painter (ca. 470 BC). As a centrepiece, one witnesses the famous Triptolemos on his winged chariot, holding the sheaves of grain which he will universally distribute to humankind. Behind him, Demeter holding the same; in front, Persephone (Kore), with an oinochoe. Other figures performing libations include a personification of the community of Eleusis and the famous Theos often included in Eleusinian religion. Two heroes stand behind Demeter and Kore, both reclining on staffs: the first is the eponym of the tribe Hippothontis, a mythical king of Eleusis; the other, the one behind Persephone, has been brilliantly interpreted by Kevin Clinton—correcting the reading of the inscription—as the hero Kalamites.48
22Here, then, one can begin to perceive the place of the hero Kalamites and the festival of the Kalamaia within the wider Eleusinian pantheon and within the larger cycle of rituals in honour of Demeter in Attica and elsewhere. In Attica, the Kalamaia will have involved rituals for this hero, perhaps a procession beginning from his shrine in Athens and then concluding at Eleusis. Though the hero appears in rather conventional garb on the Getty dinos, he forms an essential part of the circle of Eleusinian figures represented, many of which carry handfuls of stalks bearing grains (δράγματα, ἄμαλλα), though strangely not Kalamites himself—his evocative name may have sufficed as a metaphor. Indeed, these sheaves were clearly potent symbols of the benefactions of the Eleusinian goddesses and gods, and surely also important for the rituals themselves. It could also be hypothesised that as part of this procession, beyond the expected animal sacrifices, the carrying of sheaves of the recently harvested cereal plants may have formed a central element of the rites; some or all of these sheaves could then be consecrated to Demeter, Kore, and other figures at Eleusis. This would therefore represent one of the many consecrations of cereal plants and their grains in honour of the goddesses and the heroes responsible for the crops.49
Further Directions
23The Kalamaia was only one stage in the larger process of the cultivation of cereal crops and the celebration of Demeter or the Eleusinian deities. As we have already seen, the festival must not be studied in isolation but should rather be set within a larger sequence, an annual cycle of agrarian rites, such as the Prerosia, the Chloia, and the Antheia. In fact, perhaps the best candidate for a celebration marking the beginning of the harvest season, as already hinted, is the Thargelia on 7 Thargelion, which would thus have preceded the Kalamaia by several days to a month. As is well known, though the festival centered on Apollo and was shortly preceded by rites of purification on 6 Thargelion, it appears to have also had an agricultural dimension.50 Specifically, the offerings on the occasion involved a pot filled with boiled (new?) seeds and a bread called thargelos made already from the newly harvested grain (θάργηλον καλεῖσθαι τὸν ἐκ τῆς συγκομιδῆς πρῶτον γινόμενον ἄρτον).51 Even more specifically, a sacrifice for Demeter Chloe has been tentatively connected to the date of 6 Thargelion and thus with the following Thargelia; at the very least, we know that it took place near the Acropolis during the month of Thargelion, and that it appears again to have a connection with the grain harvest.52
24The context of celebrations surrounding the harvest of the cereal crops in Thargelion and Skirophorion, between the Thargelia and the Kalamaia, opens the door to revisiting interpretation of several other sacrifices attested within this period. For instance, Brumfield had already persuasively suggested that sacrifices for Demeter Achaia which take place during Thargelion in the calendar of the Marathonian Tetrapolis could be connected with seasonal rites for the harvest, perhaps those on 6 Thargelion or at the Thargelia.53 Still further rites in the calendar of the Tetrapolis taking place in Skirophorion, “before the Skira”, could potentially parallel those of the Kalamaia, which had a similar deadline:
Σκιροφοριῶνος· πρὸ Σκίρων· Ὑττηνίωι τὰ ὡρα [ῖ]-
αv οἶςv ΔͰͰ.v v Κοροτρόφωι χοῖρος ͰͰͰ, ἱερώσυνα ͰͰΙ.
κτλ.54
25The annual sacrifices of ὡραῖα along with a sheep made to the ancestral hero of the Tetrapolis, Hyttenios, are highly suggestive.55 Given the timing of the ritual, one could readily infer that these seasonal products offered to the local hero probably consisted of—or at least included—bundles of newly harvest wheat and/or barley.
26Another, more enigmatic but innovative avenue for further study is the attempt to detect seasonal rites which are similar to—though even more poorly attested than— the Thargelia and the Kalamaia, beyond Athens, Miletos, and the like—i.e. outside the Ionian sphere. In the Dorian realm, for instance, we find the intriguing Thalusia that seem to mirror the Thargelia and also the Megalartia.56 But it is also possible to revisit month and festival names that have hitherto resisted interpretation. To take only one concluding example as a hint of such promise: at Amphissa in West Lokris, a month Ἀμών is attested in several inscriptions.57 Though the month is said to be “etymologisch undurchsichtig” by Trümpy, it could be related to one of the verbs denoting harvest, namely ἀμάω. Since an inscription from Delphi attests to a correspondence between Amphissan Amon and Delphic Ilaios, we have some support for this hypothesis: Ilaios ideally corresponds to Skirophorion in Athens (it is also ca. one month or a bit more after the Delphic Megalartia, which perhaps marked the beginning of the harvest like the Thargelia).58 With Amon, we are probably confronted with another month and its festival which, like Kalamaion and the Kalamaia, marked the principal harvest time and the successful gathering of the cereal crops.
Notes de bas de page
1 The core of this paper was written in the autumn of 2015 and a final version was submitted for publication in July 2016. Some further revisions were made possible in October 2018. Hom. Il. 19.222-223: … ἧς τε πλείστην μὲν καλάμην χθονὶ χαλκὸς ἔχευεν, | ἄμητος δ’ ὀλίγιστος. For the translation “straw”, see LSJ s.v. καλάμη or e.g. the transl. of R. Lattimore (Chicago). As will become clear, καλάμη here, as elsewhere, must refer to grain-bearing stalks, not the leftover straw. The Homeric image presents a case where, though the majority of the stalks has been cut down, the resulting harvest that will be gathered is nonetheless disappointingly meagre and unsatisfying; for a detailed exploration of the metaphor, with further references, see Edwards (1991), p. 260-262; the motif appears analogous to the one in A. Suppl. 636-638: Ἄρη, τὸν ἀρότοις θερίζοντα βροτοὺς ἐν ἄλλοις…
2 “Straw-festival”: Brumfield (1981), p. 151. Cf. also Casevitz (1991), p. 111, who speaks of “chaume, paille”, and “fêtes de la paille”, followed nearly verbatim now by Feraru (2015), p. 18, n. 27. Schipporeit (2014), p. 309, hesitates between a derivation from καλάμη, “der Hülse, dem Häcksel, Streu und Stroh”, and καλάμια, “den Stoppeln” (the “stubble”; see further below n. 29).
3 Trümpy (1997), p. 18-38, §15-33, “Rekonstruktion des urionischen Kalenders” and “Spekulationen zum urionischen Festkalenders”.
4 Trümpy (1997), p. 34-36 §29, with n. 143.
5 For a discussion of the sources, see Mountford (1923), p. 111-112; Trümpy (1997), p. 78-89 §69-76.
6 For the calendar of Samos, see Hallof (1999); the key piece of evidence is IG XII.6 182 (Pythagoreion, ca. 200-150 BC).
7 On the Anthesteria, see also M. Vamvouri Ruffy’s paper in this volume.
8 Relatively recently, Schipporeit (2014), p. 309, accepts Trümpy’s suggestion that the month Pelysion from the mother-city of Samos will—for a completely unknown reason—have been replaced by Kalamaios and concludes “Dieselbe Festfolge wäre auch für Perinth und Samos zu vermuten”.
9 A perhaps more plausible reconstruction of the calendar of Perinthos from these sources, more closely matching the calendar of Samos—though still highly hypothetical (the equivalent Roman months would then be highly out of order)—might be the following: 1—Unknown [Metageitnion?]; 2—Boedromion [*Maius, = Samian Pelysion]; 3—Pyaneption/Kyanopsion [*Iulius]; 4—Unknown [Apatourion?]; 5—Posideon [*Augustus, also called Sebastos in the sources]; 6—Lenaion [*Martius]; 7—Anthesterion [*September]; 8—Artemisios [*October]; 9—Daisios [*November, i.e. Samian Taureon or Thargelion?]; 10—Kalamaios [*Ianuarius]; 11—Panemos [*December]; 12—Kronion [*Iunius]. In any case, Lenaion, Kalamaios, and Kronion all seem to appear well out of expected order in the compilation of the Liber glossarum; Macedonian Daisios has for some reason replaced Thargelion. See further below for the placement of Kalamaios/Kalamaion between Thargelion and Panemos in the Milesian calendars.
10 See Knoepfler (1989), p. 29-30, with the correction of Hatzopoulos to an inscription from Olynthos, as reported in SEG 38.638.
11 IG XII, Suppl. 236 + p. 116 (4th c. BC).
12 Knoepfler (1989), p. 29 n. 31, is right to question the rather rash restoration of Kalamaion in IG XII, Suppl. 236 + p. 116, but his alternative proposal, [μηνὸς Ἑκατομβ] αιῶνος, is not more likely to be correct. Though attested in some calendars of the Aegean islands, Hekatombaion never directly follows Thargelion and, moreover, is not attested on Keos. Cf. Trümpy (1997), p. 55-60 §46-52, esp. §51, for cautious acceptance of Knoepfler’s suggestion on the basis of the dubious Imperial evidence for the calendar of Smyrna. The space available in the lacuna, probably ca. 10 letters or less, also makes Hekatombaion far from assured. Some alternatives—all more suitable in terms of length—include: Apellaion and Eilethyaion, both of which are thought to directly follow Thargelion on Tenos, though in an uncertain order (cf. Trümpy [1997], p. 60-63 §53-55 on this calendar), or even Heraion, usually occurring 2-3 months after Thargelion (the month is in fact attested at Iulis on Keos, cf. IG XII, Suppl. 235, line 7). Trümpy’s suggestion (p. 60 §52) that Posideon is the first month on Keos appears to be refuted by the presentation of this month in the series under the same annual eponym in IG XII, Suppl. 236 + p. 116, lines 18ff.; Thargelion or an earlier month (e.g. Taureon?) was no doubt the first of the year.
13 Cf. Feraru (2015), p. 18 n. 27: “paraît à peu près limité au calendrier de Milet et de ses colonies pontiques.”
14 Parker (2005), p. 474 and 486 (unknown date in Hekatombaion); cf. p. 195: “the month Kalamaion apparently falls in high summer.”
15 Parker (2005), p. 474: “perhaps in Hekatombaion (to which the month Kalamaion corresponds in the calendars of Miletus and perhaps Perinthos).”
16 Cf. Ehrhardt (1988), p. 113-126; Trümpy (1997), p. 89-93 §77-81. For a survey of the calendars of the Milesian colonies in the Black Sea, see now Feraru (2015); cf. esp. p. 18-20, for instances of the month Kalamaion at Tomis (unpublished), Olbia (in secure sequence, cf. IGDOP 99, ca. 475- 450 BC), Tyras, and the Nymphaion.
17 See also Trümpy (1997), p. 93 §79, for the relative correspondence between Athenian Skirophorion and Milesian Kalamaion. For the same direct sequence Kalamaion—Panemos in the calendar of the colony of Kyzikos (ca. 117-138 AD), cf. Perrot, Guillaume (1872), p. 84, no. 49, lines 1-9, and CIG 3663A, lines 1-4.
18 IG II2 949 / I.Eleusis 229, dating to 165/4 BC.
19 Cf. esp. lines 6-11: ὑπὲρ ὧν ἀπαγγέλλει ὁ δήμαρχος ὁ Ἐλευσινίων ὑπὲρ τῶν θυσι|ῶν ὧν ἔθυσεν τοῖς τε Ἁλώιοις καὶ τοῖς Χλοίοις τεῖ τε Δήμητρι καὶ τεῖ | Κόρει καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις θεοῖς οἷς πάτριον ἦν, συνετέλεσεν δὲ καὶ τὴν τῶν | Καλαμαίων θυσίαν καὶ τὴν πομπὴν ἔστειλεν κατὰ τὰ πάτρια μετὰ | τοῦ ἱεροφάντου καὶ τῶν ἱερειῶν προσδαπανήσας εἰς ταῦτα πάντα οὐ|κ ὀλίγα ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων, καὶ ἀπαγγέλλει γεγονέναι τὰ ἱερὰ καλὰ καὶ σωτήρια.
20 Cf. Clinton ap. I.Eleusis 229 (vol. II, p. 274), noting that the Kalamaia “probably took place later on [i.e. after the Chloia] in the spring”; see also Parker (2005), p. 196 n. 13. For the Haloa, see Koch Piettre’s paper in this volume.
21 IG II2 1177 (ca. 350 BC?), cf. LSCG 36 / CGRN 78.
22 Contra, Georgoudi (2011), p. 104, speaking of this and similar texts: “sans que l’on puisse dire, avec assurance, si ces fêtes sont mentionnées par ordre chronologique.” The “lack of assurance” seems particularly hypersceptical in this case, since the list from the Piraean Thesmophorion aptly begins with the Thesmophoria in Pyanepsion (month 4) and concludes with the Skira (in month 12).
23 On the Prerosia, see Parker (2005), p. 479. On the Skira, cf. Mikalson (1975), p. 170, with refs. The source for the exact date is schol. ad Ar. Eccl. 18: Σκίρα ἑορτή ἐστι τῆς Σκιράδος Ἀθηνᾶς, Σκιροφοριῶνος ιβ′. On the importance of the day, note that Plut. Mor. 350 indicates that the battle of Mantineia made it “more sacred” or more holy: τὴν δὲ δωδεκάτην τοῦ Σκιρροφοριῶνος ἱερωτέραν ἐποίησεν…
24 A possibility for which Schipporeit (2014), p. 309, also accounts: “So könnten eventuell die Kalamaia in manchen Demen Athens auch nach den Skira gefeiert worden”.
25 For these dates, see again Mikalson (1975), p. 165-170; political meetings are attested on some of the days from 4-11 Skirophorion, but not at all on 5 or 7 Skirophorion for instance, which would thus constitute particularly suitable candidates for the Athenian and Eleusinian Kalamaia. For Miletos and its colonies, if we reasonably assume that the festival fell during the first half of the month Kalamaion—much like first half of Skirophorion—then we should perhaps exclude the following dates when political meetings are attested: the 1st and 2nd days of the month (cf. IvO 52, ca. 138 BC, 3rd decree of Miletus, col. II, lines 41ff.) as well as perhaps the 11th (decree of Tyras, SEG 49.1051B, ca. 300-275 BC). On the analogy of Athens, a date in the period ca. 3-10 Kalamaion seems plausible for the Kalamaia at Miletos, though it must remain equally hypothetical. Note incidentally the opening of the shrine of Aphrodite at Nymphaion on the 7th of Kalamaion (as well as on 20 Thargelion), cf. SEG 45.997, no. 13 (ca. 275-250 BC).
26 Brumfield (1981), p. 151: “… probable date in late Thargelion / early Skirophorion”; p. 149: “probably celebrated in the month Skirophorion”; cf. p. 132. Recently, Schipporeit (2014), p. 309 has also followed Brumfield’s reasoning: “in Attika im Monat Skirophorion… gefeiert wurden”.
27 Brumfield (1981), p. 132, n. 7; 150-152.
28 Deubner (1932), p. 67-68: “Es fand in der Zeit statt, wo die Halme in ein bestimmtes Stadium der Entwicklung getreten waren, im Frühling oder Frühsommer. Eine genauere chronologisch Fixierung ist nicht möglich…”
29 LSJ s.v. κάλαμος I and see IV for the (rare) synonymity. καλάμη is also prevalent in the sense of “stubble” or residue in many ancient sources: cf. LSJ s.v. καλάμη 2 (and see above n. 2). In modern Greek, τὸ καλάμι or κάλαμος means a reed, straw or similar objects; στάχυς, which in ancient Greek properly designates the head of the cereal plant bearing grains (see below), now refers to the whole stalk of grain.
30 Cf. Theophr. HP 8.2.4–7, esp. here 6: μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἀπάνθησιν ἁδρύνονται καὶ τελειοῦνται πυρὸς μὲν καὶ κριθὴ τετταρακοσταῖα μάλιστα. As Theophrastus notes, several crops followed a similar pattern. Indeed, other relevant crops may readily be envisaged, such as sesame—of particular importance in rites of Demeter—, whose flowering occurs a similar 35-38 days after germination.
31 Most helpful is the modern agronomic Zadoks scale, which uses a decimal code corresponding to the number of days following germination (00) in order to represent the stages of cereal growth: see Zadoks et al. (1974). For instance, the emergence of inflorescence in wheat and barley starts from ca. 50 days, followed by a full anthesis between 60-70 days; complete maturity is reached between 90-100 days. Modern plants are of course planted at different times than in Antiquity, but mature at relatively similar rates.
32 NGSL 1 / CGRN 32. On this calendar and on the Prerosia, see esp. Parker (2005), p. 195-198. For a different and wider view, expressing more skepticism about the precise connections between these festivals and cereal cultivation, see Georgoudi (1994), p. 179-183, and now (2011).
33 Unfortunately, the precise date of the Antheia within the month of Mounychion at Thorikos remains unknown. Given the correspondence with the Kalamaia, a date in the latter half of the month is possible; but it could have taken place earlier in the month of Mounychion, especially when one gives the Thargelia its due place as a festival in this sequence, namely one inaugurating the harvest of the cereal crops (see below). Incidentally, this sequence corrects the commentary of Lupu, ap. NGSL 1 (p. 128), that the Kalamaia is an “intermediate celebration, occurring between the Chloia and the Antheia”, following the earlier view of Parker (1987), p. 141: “the intermediate stage between shoots and flower, the formation of the καλάμη, stem or blade.” It is clear that Parker (2005) no longer agrees with this view; see n. below.
34 The phrase is Clinton’s, ap. I.Eleusis 229 (vol. II, p. 274). Cf. also Parker (2005), p. 195 (with n. 13): “The καλάμη is the stem of the corn both before and after it has been cut… probably then the festival refers to gleaning rather than to the intermediate stages between shoot and flowering, the formation of the stem”; see again Brumfield (1981), p. 151-152.
35 Cf. e.g. Xen. Anab. 5.4.27-28 (on the conquered strongholds of the Mossynoecians): οἱ δὲ Ἕλληνες διαρπάζοντες τὰ χωρία ηὕρισκον θησαυροὺς ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις ἄρτων νενημένων περυσινῶν… τὸν δὲ νέον σῖτον ξὺν τῇ καλάμῃ ἀποκείμενον; D.H. 5.13: σῖτον τὸν μὲν ἐπὶ ταῖς καλάμαις…
36 Cf. the wonderful study of Halstead (2014), esp. chp. 3 “Harvest Time”, with illustrations.
37 Cf. also Brumfield (1981), p. 151: “… [this] incline [s] one to speculate that the Kalamaia was related to threshing and winnowing, lengthy processes which would have extended over at least a month”, with a further hypothesis that the rituals may have involved a sacred threshing floor of Triptolemos in the Rharian plain (and at Eleusis more widely). The relevant account concerning the repair of the sacred threshing floor (ἡ ἅλως ἡ ἱερά) at Eleusis in the tenth prytany of 329/8 BC (last days of Thargelion to the end of Skirophorion) is I.Eleusis 177, lines 345 and 361-362. Clinton’s comm. ad loc. follows Vanderpool in distinguishing this sacred threshing floor, located in the sanctuary at Eleusis, from the one in the Rharian plain. For further discussion, cf. also Foxhall (1995), p. 104-105, favouring a connection with the Skira. Brumfield’s view is now generally adopted by Schipporeit (2014), who as noted focusses on the meaning of “straw” and this idea of threshing, viewing the Kalamaia as coming too late to be connected with any form of harvesting in the fields (p. 309: “Zu dieser Zeit ist die Gerste schon weitgehend eingebracht und auch die Weizenernte in vollem Gange, stehen auf den gemähten Felden noch die letzen Reste der Halme”), though he remains cautious ( “unsicherer ist die Deutung der Kalamaia”). According to Brumfield and Schipporeit, the Skira may then have been connected with the storage of the already threshed grain. Clinton’s commentary seems silent on the matter, and in my view, the repair of the sacred threshing floor at Eleusis comes uncomfortably close to the Kalamaia and the Skira; it should rather be thought to represent end-of-year business in Skirophorion (cf. the remainder of the extensive account of the tenth prytany, running to line 425) and to probably anticipate threshing later in the new year.
38 The “canonical” passage is Hes. Op. 382-383: Πληιάδων Ἀτλαγενέων ἐπιτελλομενάων | ἄρχεσθ’ ἀμήτου, ἀρότοιο δὲ δυσομενάων (i.e. the time of harvest begins with the heliacal rising of the Pleiades). Cf. esp. Hannah (2005), p. 20-27, for a thorough discussion; see also Amouretti (1991). But on the variability of sowing and harvest times in different local communities, see Brumfield (1981), e.g. p. 152-153.
39 For instance, note the καλαμητρίδες, women who gather the sheaves, while men (θερισταί) cut the stalks down, in Plu. 2.784a (cf. also Hsch. s.v.: αἱ τὰ δράγματα συλλέγοντες; but the masculine καλαμευτής is found at Theoc. 5.111; see further below on the hero Kalamites). The verb καλαμάομαι is also significant in this context; the sense of the metaphor reported at Plu. 2.182a is surely that Alexander cut down Asia (i.e. did the violent and dirty work), while Antigonus will fully reap it, with all of its benefits (ἐθέριζε τὴν Ἀσίαν, ἐγὼ δὲ καλαμῶμαι). See, however, LSJ s.v. καλαμητομία and καλαμητόμος. Note that “gleaning” (see above n. 34), i.e. the gathering of any leftover stalks during a subsidiary harvest or by the poor, was strictly speaking a secondary affair, if it occurred at all. Both καλαμάομαι and καλάμημα appear in this sense, but almost exclusively in Christian sources; compounds verbs are more appropriately used to denote gleaning: cf. LSJ s.v. ἀναθερίζω (citing Hsch. s.v. ἀνεκαλαμήσατο) or ἐπικαλαμάομαι.
40 See further Clinton (1992), passim, and esp. p. 44 and 76.
41 Call. h. Cer. 18-21: μὴ μὴ ταῦτα λέγωμες ἃ δάκρυον ἄγαγε Δηοῖ, | κάλλιον, ὡς πολίεσσιν ἑαδότα τέθμια δῶκε, | κάλλιον, ὡς καλάμαν τε καὶ ἱερὰ δράγματα πράτα | ἀσταχύων ἀπέκοψε… | ἁνίκα Τριπτόλεμος ἀγαθὰν ἐδιδάσκετο τέχναν.
42 See above n. 21.
43 See above, with n. 18. The importance of the procession is rightly underscored by Parker (2005), p. 197 with n. 17.
44 Dem. 18.129: ὡς ἡ μήτηρ τοῖς μεθημερινοῖς γάμοις ἐν τῷ κλεισίῳ τῷ πρὸς τῷ Καλαμίτῃ ἥρῳ…
45 Cf. schol. ad loc. (Patmos; and Hsch. s.v.): ἥρως οὗτος Ἀθήνησι τιμώμενος ἤτοι ἐξ ἐπωνυμίας ἢ ἀπὸ καλάμων παραπεφυκότων <τῷ> ἱερῷ· τὸ δὲ ἱερὸν αὐτοῦ ἐστι πρὸς τῷ Ληναίῳ.
46 On the debated location of the Lenaion, see already Wycherley (1965) for a summary, also discussing the hero Kalamites. A common view has sought to place the Lenaion near the sanctuary of Dionysos ἐν Λίμναις because of this possible mention of “reeds”. More recently, however, it has been suggested that the Lenaion and the sanctuary of Dionysos Eleuthereus, on the south slope of the Acropolis, were contiguous: Greco (2010), p. 31-32. Yet the urban context remains somewhat unclear from the sources; for instance, Hsch. s.v. claims that the Lenaion was in the city, but the schol. on Ar. Acharn. 202 and 504 report that it was “in the fields”.
47 Getty: 89. AE.73. For the inscriptions, cf. SEG 40.43: Τριπτόλεμος. Δέμετερ. [Φε] ρ [ε] φάτα. ἱππ [ο] φο͂ν. [Ἀ] κλαμίτε [ς]. καλός καλός. θεός. Ἐλευσί[ς].
48 Clinton (1992), p. 106-107, figs. 43-47, reading Κ<α>λα̣μίτε [ς]; id., “Kalamites”, LIMC VIII (1997), p. 663. no. 7, pl. 413; cf. also Parker (2005), p. 330 n. 12.
49 For a poetic offering of δράγματα, cf. e.g. AP 6.36 (Philip of Thessalonica, 1st c. AD); more widely, see the very good discussion of Jim (2014), p. 107-111, on the offering of agricultural first-fruits (esp. p. 108 for the citation of a Hellenistic epigram by Nikainetos [AP 6.225], where, in a post-threshing and -winnowing context—ἀπὸ λικμητοῦ—, the δράγματα are offered separately from the καλάμη, which is made into garlands “of straw”).
50 On the days of 6-7 Thargelion, see Mikalson (1975), p. 153.
51 The passage quoted is from Crates, FGrH 362 F 6 ap. Ath. 3.114a. For a survey of the sources for the festival, see Parker (2005), p. 481-483; for a very useful summary and a discussion of the Thargelia in the context of first-offerings from the harvest, see Jim (2014), p. 102-103.
52 The main sources are: schol. ad Soph. OC 1600 citing Eupolis fr. 196 (K-A), sacrifice of a ram to Demeter Chloe (and Kore?) on the Acropolis; Philochoros, FGrH 368 F61 (schol. ad Ar. Lys. 835), sacrifice to Demeter Chloe in Thargelion on the Acropolis. 6 Thargelion is the inference of Jacoby, accepted by Brumfield (1981), p. 133-134 (with further refs.) and forms the core of intriguing hypotheses by Georgoudi (2011), p. 105-106. For skepticism about the date, see Parker (2005), p. 196, “as the book of Philochorus in question is ‘the sixth’, confusion is not impossible.” Though late, a crucial testimonium in my opinion is IG II2 5006 (a Hadrianic-era oracle); this demonstrates the link between the rites for Demeter Chloe and this sanctuary close to the Acropolis, site of the first prayer for (line 5: οὗ πρῶτον στάχυς εὔξη [ται — —]; not “appearance of”—so Parker [2005], p. 196 n. 15) grain. In principle, it would make sense that prayers and vows to Chloe, worshipped earlier in the spring during the Chloia, could be completed with thank-offerings at harvest time, close to the Thargelia.
53 Demeter Achaia: cf. Brumfield (1981), p. 140, who bases her suggestion on the fact that the Delian Melagartia focussed on Demeter Achaia; note that the Megalartia at Delphi could more or less correspond with the Athenian Thargelia / early May, see Trümpy (1997), p. 134-135; but a fuller study would be necessary. We could properly add that though the Attic sanctuary of Achaia clearly had a legend of foundation which might suggest some connection with the region of “Achaia” (Hdt. 5.61), it might also be interesting to derive other meanings from the epithet, cf. LSJ s.v. II, for the connotation both of the “grief” of the goddess and the parallel with ἔριθος ( “mower, reaper”). Marathonian Tetrapolis: Lambert (2000), Face A, col. II, line 27, apparently receiving annually both a ram and a ewe (or does this imply a ram for Kore, as often, and an ewe for Demeter?).
54 Lambert (2000), Face A, col. II, lines 27-28.
55 The area was called Hyttenia prior to becoming the Tetrapolis, cf. Lambert ad loc. On ὡραῖα as a word for seasonal agricultural produce, cf. LSJ s.v. ὡραῖος.
56 On the Thalusia, see Jim (2014), p. 105-106.
57 SGDI II 1684 (Delphi, ca. 150-140 BC); IG IX.12 3: 750 (200-150 BC), lines 9-10; IG IX.12 3: 755b (1-50 AD); and see n. below.
58 Trümpy (1997), p. 206; cf. §161 for the calendar of Amphissa. The inscription showing the correspondence with Ilaios is SGDI II 1922 (Delphi, 156-151 BC), lines 1-2. For the calendar of Delphi, see again Trümpy (1997), p. 214-215 §168.
Auteur
jmcarbon@uliege.be
Maître de conférences associé au Collège de France et collaborateur scientifique à l’Université de Liège, où il co-dirige le projet Collection of Greek Ritual Norms (CGRN) – http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be. Il a récemment co-édité un collectif intitulé Purity and Purification in the Ancient Greek World (2018).
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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