Kallynteria

Overview

Not many sources mention Kallynteria and Plynteria, two festivals that Parke believed took place between Thargelion 20 and 25. Both festivals were concerned with cleaning the statue of Athena and her temple. Kallynteria means “to beautify by sweeping up and polishing” and Plynteria was called the “festival of washing” (Parke, 152-153). According to Parke, Deubner believes that the lamp of Athena Polias was also refilled with olive oil during this time. The lamp was called asbestos lychnis, created by Callimachus, was believed to hold enough oil to burn all day and night for a year.

From Pausanias, Description of Greece:

1.26.6 Both the city and the whole of the land are alike sacred to Athena; for even those who in their demes have an established worship of other gods nevertheless hold Athena in honor. But the most holy symbol, that was so considered by all many years before the unification of the demes, is the agalma of Athena which is on what is now called the Acropolis, but in early days the polis (City). A legend concerning it says that it fell from heaven; whether this is true or not I shall not discuss. A golden lamp for the goddess was made by Callimachus.

1.26.7 Having filled the lamp with oil, they wait until the same day next year, and the oil is sufficient for the lamp during the interval, although it is alight both day and night. The wick in it is of Carpasian flax, the only kind of flax which is fire-proof, and a bronze palm above the lamp reaches to the roof and draws off the smoke. The Callimachus who made the lamp, although not of the first rank of artists, was yet of unparalleled cleverness, so that he was the first to drill holes through gems, and gave himself the title of Refiner of Art, or perhaps others gave the title and he adopted it as his.

ώς λύχνον εὶμί, καὶ ϕαίνω θεοῖσιν κἀνθρώποισιν As a lamp, I shine on gods and men.

Inscription on a clay lamp found in a tomb on the Island of Berezan in the Black Sea, dated around the 6th century BC, currently located in the Hermitage Museum

“..and before them Pallas Athena, bearing a golden lamp, made a most beauteous light.” - Homer Odyssey Book 19, 34

*A Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotations, edited by Marinos Yeroulanos, I.B. Tauris, 2016, p. 55.

Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by A. T. Murray, vol. 2, Harvard University Press, 1919.

Parke, H. W. Festivals of the Athenians. Thames and Hudson, 1986.

Pausanias. Description of Greece. Translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod, vol. 1, Harvard University Press, 1918.