Personal Experience in Civic Festivals: The Arrhephoroi at the Panathenaia

​Classical Greek festivals were overwhelming. They were loud, cacophonous events, that smelled of fresh blood and boiling meat; they were usually joyous celebrations. These were an opportunity to strengthen civic bonds with the gods. But such festivals – particular large civic festivals, like the Panathenaia – are often discussed at the macro-level. As such, we lose the potential to find personal religious experiences because we cannot see what it feels like to be caught up in that cacophony.
           
​In this paper, I will present a viable narrative for the lived experience of the arrhephoroi. These were seven- to eleven-year-old elite Athenian girls who lived on the Acropolis and assisted in the production of Athena’s Panathenaic peplos, which was the primary offering of the Panathenaia. I will examine whether direct involvement in producing a sacred garment aids in the personalisation of public religious experience, and what the overall experience of the festival on a young girl might be. Finally, I will look at whether the exceptional position of the arrhephoroi influences their religious practice in later life, and particularly during subsequent Panathenaic festivals.

Marble votive relief with an arrhephoros at the loom, from the Athenian Akropolis, fourth century BCE.  Akropolis Museum 2554