On the Festival of Promethia (Prometheia)
Promethia (Prometheia): Date Unknown, Possibly Summer Solstice
A festival to Prometheus. The festival featured a torch ‘relay race’ that began at the altar of Prometheus at the grove of the Academy- the race, which, as the name suggests, was run with lit torches, from the Academy to the Acropolis, passing through the ‘potters quarter’ of the city. If a runner’s torch went out, they would be considered forfeit from the contest. This cult was closely associated with the cult of Hephaestus, and as such, both the Hephestia and the Promethia had choral competitions, as well as gymnastics contests, and further similarities can be expected between the festivals. Due to the relation of Prometheus and Hephaestus to Athena, Athens was one of the only places that held any major festival or celebration for the two.
Works Cited: Polytheism and Society at Athens, Parker
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, William Smith (566)
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.30.2
