Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Holidays & Festivals

City Dionysia

Ancient Greek Festivals

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The City Dionysia (also called the Great Dionysia) was an Athenian spring festival honouring Dionysus, held annually and expanded under the tyrant Peisistratus into the state occasion at which tragedy and comedy were performed competitively before the whole citizen body. Nearly the whole surviving corpus of classical Athenian tragedy, including the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, was written for first performance at this festival.

Facts
Reckoning
Calendar System
Ancient Greek civic calendar (Attic) 1
Its own record is the Athenian civic festival honouring Dionysus, the Attic civic calendar this enum value names.
Fixed or Movable
Fixed date in its own calendar 1
Observance
Observance Type
Feast / celebration 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Dionysus, Deities
Source Greek ReligionWalter Burkert

Belongs to Tradition

Source Greek ReligionWalter Burkert
Sources
1. Greek Religion
Walter Burkert, Harvard University Press, 1985on Dionysiac festival religion and Athenian dramaView the Source
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