BOEDROM´IA
BOEDROM´IA (
βοηδρόμια),
a festival celebrated at Athens on the seventh day of the month of
Boëdromion, in honour of Apollo Boëdromios.
(Müller,
Dor. 2.8.5.) The name
Boëdromios, by which Apollo was called in Boeotia and other parts
of Greece (
Paus. 9.17.1; Callimach.
Hymn. Apoll. 69), seems to indicate that by this festival
he was honoured as a martial god, who either by his actual presence or by
his oracles afforded assistance in the dangers of war. The origin of the
festival is, however, traced by different authors to different events in
Grecian story. Plutarch (
Plut. Thes. 27)
says that Theseus, in his war against the Amazons, did not give battle till
after he had offered a sacrifice to Phobos; and that, in commemoration of
the successful battle which took place in the month of Boëdromion,
the Athenians, down to his own time, continued to celebrate the festival of
the Boëdromia. According to Suidas, the
Etymol.
Magn. and Euripides (
lon. 59), the festival
derived its name and origin from the circumstance that when, in the reign of
Erechtheus, the Athenians were attacked by Eumolpos, Xuthos or (according to
Philochorus in Harpocration, s. v.) his son Ion came to their assistance,
and procured them the victory. Respecting the particulars of this festival,
nothing is known except that sacrifices were offered to Artemis. (Comp.
Spanheim,
ad Callim.
Hymn. in
Apoll. 69.)
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L.S]