HIEROME´NIA
HIEROME´NIA (
ἱερομηνία,
τὰ ἱερομήνια,
Thuc. 5.54) means the “holy season,”
during which, “as in the
treuga Dei of the mediaeval
Church,” all hostilities between different states were suspended
(
Thuc. 5.54,
2
and schol.,
τοῦγὰρ Καρνείου πολλὰς ἔχοντος
ἱερὰς ἡμέρας ἢ καὶ πάσας ἱερὰς μᾶλλον οὺκ
ἐστρατεύοντο, and 3.56, 1; 65, 1). Then, as Demosthenes says
(
c. Timocr. p. 709.29), the law forbade
μήτ᾽ ἰδίᾳ (see the case of Evander, who,
having obtained a verdict against Menippus in a mercantile suit, seized his
person while staying at Athens during the Mysteries, Dem.
c.
Mid. p. 571.176 ff.)
μήτε κοινῇ
(Socrates remained in prison until the return of the sacred vessel from
Delos)
μηδὲν ἀλλήλους ἀδικεῖν μηδὲ χρηματίζειν
ὅ τι ἂν μὴ περὶ τῆς ἑορτῆς ᾖ (the Panathenaic
festival; the scholiast confines the
ἱερομηνία to the day when the Cronia were actually celebrated,
whilst in Aug. Mommsen's opinion,
Heortologie, p. 108, it
extended from the Cronia to the Panathenaic festival). See also Dem.
c. Timocr. p. 708.26, p. 716.47: the senate discharged
from attendance on account of the Cronia, Aeschin.
c.
Ctesiph. § 67: on the popular assembly to be held on the
festival of Asclepius (
ἐν τῇ ἱερᾷ
ἡμέρᾳ), and
Xen. de Rep.
Ath. 3, 8:
οὐ δικάζειν
during festivals (
Aristoph. Cl. 620, and
Harpocr.
αἱ ἑορτώδεις ἡμέραι ἱερομηνίαι
καλοῦνται); Dem.
c Mid. p. 571.176, p. 525.34:
the same law about the Dionysia as about the Mysteries. The
ἱερομηνία in connexion with the great festivals
included the time before and after them, and special heralds visited the
different states of Greece and proclaimed these
σπονδαί (e. g.
Ὀλυμπιακαὶ
σπονδαὶ in Aeschin.
de F. L. § 12 and
schol.); hence they were called
σπονδοφόροι
(
σπ. Ἀλεῖοι,
Pind. I. 2,
35;
τῶν Κορείων, Strab. 2.3, 4, p. 155;
cf. Aeschin.
de F. L. § 133,
οἱ τὰς μυστηριώτιδας σπονδὰς ἐπαγγέλλοντες, and
Thuc. 5.49,
2;
8.10,
1). The
σπονδαὶ of the Greater Mysteries lasted from the
day of the full moon of Metageitnion (
ἀπὸ
ἀρχομηνίας,
C. I. G. No. 71;
ἀπὸ
διχομηνίας, Sauppe,
Inscr. Elecus. p. 6, and
C. I. A. i. No. 1) to the tenth day of Pyanepsion, and
those of the Lesser from the day of the full moon of Gamelion to the tenth
day of Elaphebolion (i. e. 55 days, thus enabling even those at a distance
to travel to Athens and back in safety); cf.
C. I. G. No.
2954,
ἐν ᾧ μηνὶ (the Ephesian
Artemision)
πανηγύρεις τε καὶ ἱερομηνίαι
ἐπιτελοῦνται . . . . καὶ ἀτελειῶν καὶ ἐκεχειπίας εἰς ὅλον
τὸν ἐπώνυμον τῆς θεοῦ μῆνα τυχόντα. Instances are not
wanting of the non-observance of this international law: one is related of
Agesipolis by
Xen. Hell. 4.7 (see also 4.5,
1, 2); another of the soldiers of Philip of Macedon (Dem.
de F. L.
argum. p. 335, cf. Aeschin.
de F. L. §
12); a third of the Achaeans by
Plut. Arat.
28. When, in B.C. 420, the Spartans attacked the Elean fort of
Phyrcon and occupied Lepreon
ἐν ταῖς Ὀλυμπιακαῖς
σπονδαῖς, the Eleans condemned them, for this breach of the
ἐκεχειπία, to a fine of 2000 minas,
according to the
Ὀλυμπιακὸς νόμος: and
when the Lacedaemonians replied that the
ἐκεχειρία had not been proclaimed in Sparta at the time the
expedition started, the Eleans pointed out that the
ἐκεχειπία had been proclaimed in theirs. From the passage
πρώτοις γὰρ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς
ἐπαγγέλλουσιν (
Thuc. 5.49), E.
Curtius (
Sparta v. Olympia, p. 131 f.) infers that Sparta was
the first state in which the
σπονδοφόροι
made their proclamation; but its meaning clearly is (Busolt,
Forsch.
z. griech. Gesch. i. p. 17 f.), that the
ἐκεχειρία was first proclaimed in Elis, and that then
messengers were sent to the other states. (Hermann,
Ueber griech.
Monatskunde, Abh. d. hist.-phil. Classe, 2.1845,
Göttingen; and Pauly,
Real-Encycl. iii. p. 1331 ff.)
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