Identifier: ancientcivilizat00wolf (find matches)
Title: Ancient civilization; an introduction to modern history
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Wolfson, Arthur Mayer, 1873-
Subjects: Civilization, Ancient History, Ancient
Publisher: New York, Cincinnati (etc.) American book company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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n took part in private and public worship becausethat was the custom. Honesty, truth, righteousness, and love ofones neighbor had nothing to do with religion. Public andprivate worship were celebrations very much like our modernbirthday parties and like our celebrations of Memorial Day andFourth of July. At every family meal, and on numerous other family occasions,the father offered sacrifices and prayers to the gods of the house-hold. Ten or fifteen times a year the entire population of thecity took part in a festival in honor of one or another of the gods.At such times there were feasts, sports, processions, and pageantsfixed by custom similar to our celebrations of Christmas andNew Year and Thanksgiving, in which men and women and boysand girls mingled, largely for the purpose of having a good time.Two festivals in Athens are especially worth remembering.Once every four years, in midsummer, all the people engaged in around of rejoicing in honor of the goddess Athena. For seven days
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Greek Festival—a Procession in the Parthenon53 54 GREEK CIVILIZATION there was a succession of contests in music and poetic recitationsand athletics, at which prizes were given. On the eighth day,thousands of people joined in an elaborate procession. A newrobe was carried to the shrine of the goddess on the Acropolis,where prayers were offered and sacrifices made. This festivalis known as the Panathenjea. Once a year, in March, the Athe-nians took part in another festival in honor of the god Dionysus,the patron god of their vines. This was really a festival of thespring planting. For three days there was feasting and drinkingand all sorts of mummery very much like that which takes placein modern times during a carnival. Then, on the fourth day,very early in the morning, thousands of people hurried to thetheater to watch the production of the dramas which were writtenin celebration of the day. The theater of Dionysus in Athens was a great open-air theaterwhich seated 25,000 or 30,000

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