Greek 《calendars》 and symbolic representation of the cosmic order. Seasonal rites for Demeter

Abstract

Ancient Greeks made no use of a liturgical text in order to prescribe their annual religious time, since it was marked by diversity in month names between different cities and communities, as well as by a great number of individual festivals imposed in different periodical cycles, that in addition were subject of continuous changes according to the city and historical period. Those parameters produce extra difficulties in any attempt to reconstruct the date of specific festivals. We will deal with this question through epigraphic evidence implying existence of festivals with movable dates, including seasonal rites celebrated in honor of Demeter and related deities. If some of these rites were actually mobiles, and the moment of their celebration was changing from year to year, there must be surely an impact of this eventual fact in the study of the orientation of temples and sanctuaries associated to those cults and their receivers.