The Hyacinthia (Ancient Greek Ὑακίνθια / Hyakínthia) were Spartan religious festivities, organized at Amycla every year in early summer. Sparta (Greek: Σπάρτη) was a city in ancient Greece, whose territory included, in Classical times, all Laconia and Messenia, and which was the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. ...

They were held in honor of Hyacinth (mythology), legendary prince of Sparta and beloved of Apollo, killed by him accidentally during a discus competition. The Death of Hyacinthos by Jean Broc. ... Pederastic courtship scene Athenian black-figure amphora, 5th c. ... Statue of Apollo at the British Museum Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian divinities. ... Alternate meaning: Discus fish The discus throw is an athletics (track and field) throwing event. ...

Procedings

The Hyacinthia lasted three days. Their details have been passed down to us through scholiasts of Atheneus and Didymos. The first day was given over to mourning: sacrifices were offered to the dead, banquests were stark and without pomp or decoration, the sacrificial breads were very plain.

The second day was one of celebration. The young people played the cithara and the aulos, and sang of the glory of Apollo. Others participated in horse races. Numerous choirs competed in town, singing country songs and dancing. Amycla was also the location of parades of carts decorated by the girls and women of Sparta. Numerous sacrifices were offered, exclusively goats, with the occasion of the κοπίς, kopis, banquets where the citizens invited their friends and relatives. The kithara, also spelled cithara, was an ancient Greek musical instrument. ... Satyr playing an aulos The ancient Greek aulos, often mistranslated as flute, was a double-piped reed instrument. ...

The helots had the right to participate in the celebrations, as did any foreigners: "they treat not only their countrymen, but any foreigners who happen by." (Atheneus, IV, 138F.) The kopis took place under special tents known as σκηναί (skênaí), a charcateristic trait of ancient country festivals. Helots were Peloponnesian Greeks who were enslaved under Spartan rule. ...

The third day is not described in detail, it is possible that it was more solemn, or that mysteries were held. It is also known that for this holiday, the Spartan women wove a chiton (χιτών / khitôn, or "tunic") which is then offered to the god — a tradition similar to the peplos offered to Athena at Athens upon the occasion of the Panathenian Games. Athena from the east pediment of the Afea temple in Aegina After a sculpture of Athena at the Louvre. ... The Parthenon seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west Athens (Greek: Αθήνα Athína IPA ) is the capital of Greece and of the Attica prefecture of Greece. ...

The Hyacinthia were a major Spartan holiday. Xenophon, in the Hellenics IV, 5, 11), reports that the Spartans interrupted their campaigns in order to be able to return to Laconia so as to participate. Pausanias (geographer) writes that they even negotiated a truce especially for this purpose. According to Thucydides, upon the peace of Nicias, Athens, in order to prove its good will towards Sparta, promised to assist at the celebrations. Xenophon (In Greek , c. ... Laconia (Λακωνία; see also List of traditional Greek place names), also known as Lacedaemonia, was in ancient Greece the portion of the Peloponnesus of which the most important city was Sparta. ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Nicias (d. ...

See also

• Karneia
• Gymnopaedia

Corybantian dance, the type of dance most likely danced on Gymnopedia festivals (image from Smiths Dictionary of Antiquities) Gymnopaedia derives from the ancient Greek γυμνοπαιδία, a festivity in Sparta, where naked youths would perform war dances. ...

Bibliography

• Louis Gernet, « Frairies antiques », Anthropolgie de la Grèce antique, Flammarion, coll. « Camps », 1999 (ISBN 2080811053) ;
• Edmond Lévy, Sparte : histoire politique et sociale jusqu’à la conquête romaine, Seuil, coll. « Points Histoire », Paris, 2003 (ISBN 2020324539) ;
• Michael Pettersson, Cults of Apollo at Sparta: The Hyakinthia, the Gymnopaidiai, and the Karneia, Paul Astroms Forlag, Stockholm, 1992 (ISBN 91-7916-027-1) ;
• William Wayte et G.E. Marindin, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, éditions William Smith, 1890.