LAMPADEDRO´MIA
LAMPADEDRO´MIA (
λαμπαδηδρομία), often also simply
λαμπα;ς,
λαμπαδοῦχος ἀγών or
δρόμος, ἑορτὴ
λαμπάδος, and less frequently, as in
Hdt.
8.98,
λαμπαδηφορία, a
torch-race, celebrated not only at Athens, but also at many places in Greece
and Greek colonies: at Corinth, in honour of Athena Hellotia (Schol.
Pind. O. 13.56;
Ath.
15.678); at Byzantium (
λαμπὰς ἀνήβων,
C. I. G. 2034); at Ceos (
id.
2360); at Syros, in honour of Demeter; to Artemis, at Amphipolis (
Diod. 18.4;
Liv.
44.44); and other places (see Boeckh,
Staatshaush.,
ed. Fränkel, 1.550). Alexander celebrated a torch-race at Susa
(Arrian. 3.16). The torchrace was held also at Epitaphia; at the Theseia
(
C. I. A. 2.444), and in later times at the Germaniceia
(
C. I. A. 3.1096; Fränkel on Boeckh, 2.113*; A.
Mommsen,
Heortologie, 170); and possibly at any great funeral
games, where sufficient funds were provided.
At Athens we know of five celebrations of this game: one to Prometheus at the
Promethea (Schol.
ad Arist.
Ran.
131; Harpoc. s.v.
Paus. 1.30); a second to
Athena (Phot. s. v.
λαμπάδος) at the
Panathenaea (whether the greater only is uncertain, but see Boeckh,
l.c.); a third to Hephaestus on the evening of the
day after the Apaturia (cf.
Hdt. 8.9); a fourth to
Pan (
Hdt. 6.105; Phot. s. v.
λαμπα;ς: cf.
Paus.
8.54.6); a fifth to the Thracian Artemis or Bendis (Plat.
Rep. i. p. 328 A). The three former are of unknown antiquity;
the fourth was introduced soon after the battle of Marathon; the last in the
time of Socrates.
The race was run, usually on foot, by ephebi, horses being first used in the
time of Socrates (Plato,
l.c.); and at night. The
administration of it was undoubtedly under the gymnasiarch in the time of
Xenophon (
de rep. Ath. 13), and it was a liturgy involving
emulation and cost; the tribe being honoured as in the choregia, by a
victory of its contingent. Thus an inscription runs,
Ἀκαμαντὶς ἐνίκα λαμπάδι Παναθήναια τὰ μεγάλα ἐπ᾽ Ἀρχίου
ἄρχοντος: Ξενοκλῆς ἑγυμνασιάρχει (
C. I.
A. 2.1229): but we hear later of a
λαμπαδαρχία, as in Aristotle (
Aristot. Pol. 5.8), who speaks of the
λαμπαδαρχία as a costly and rather
useless liturgy, which he would like to prohibit; and the words
λαμπαδάρχης, λαμπαδαρχεῖν occur in inscriptions
(see Krause, ap. Pauly,
Real. Encycl. s. v.); but Isaeus,
like earlier writers, uses the expression
γυμνασιαρχεῖν λαμπάδι, and so in inscriptions (one as late
as 166 A.D.: Boeckh, 1.554, and Fränkel's
note). It is no doubt possible that in Aristotle's time a custom had arisen
of making a special liturgy called
λαμπαδαρχία for the festival itself, akin to but separate from
the gymnasiarchy; more probably, however, there was not
|
Torch used in the race. (From a coin.)
|
a distinct office, and it was merely usual to speak of the
gymnasiarch under this title at the time of the torch-race, which was
regarded as the most important branch of his office and its most public
manifestation. The gymnasiarch had to provide the
λαμπάς, which was a candlestick with a kind of shield set at
the bottom of the socket, as is seen
[p. 2.5]in the preceding
woodcut, taken from a coin in Mionnet (pl. 49, 6). In the two cuts given
below the torches are somewhat different: in one they are formed of thin
strips of wood, no
|
Torch used in the race. (Krause.)
|
doubt smeared with resin or pitch, and held together by the disc
through which they are passed, and which served as a guard to the hand from
the dripping of the pitch (some representations show also a crossed string
binding the strips of wood): in the other cut the runners carry shields (as
in the
ὁπλιτοδρομία, but without helmets);
while the torches have a flame, apparently from a wick steeped in oil or
liquid pitch, in the hollow at the top, somewhat like the modern torch. The
gymnasiarch had also to
|
Torch used in the race. (Krause.)
|
provide for the training of the runners, which was of no slight
consequence, for the race was evidently a severe one (compare
Aristoph. Wasps 1203;
Ran. 1087), with other expenses, which on the whole were very
heavy, so that Isaeus (
Or. 6 [
Philoct.],
§ 60) classes this office with the
χορητία and
τριηραρχία, and
reckons that it had cost him 12 minae. The discharge of this office was
called
γυμνασιαρχεῖν λαμπάδι (Isaeus,
l.c.), or
ἐν ταῖς λαμπάσι
γυμνασιαρχεῖσθαι (
Xen. de
Vectig. 4.5. 2). The victorious gymnasiarch presented
his
λαμπὰς as a votive offering (
ἀνάθημα, Boeckh,
Inscr. Nos.
243, 250); and we find the victorious runner, when there were
single competitors, receiving a
ὑδρία (see A. Mommsen,
Heortologie, p. 169).
As to the arrangement of the lampadedromia, it seems necessary to understand
two different methods, whether we regard them as co-existent or as belonging
to different periods. (1) Herodotus (
8.98) speaks
of this game to illustrate the Persian system
ἀγγαρηΐον; Plato (
Legg. 6.776 B) of
“handing on the torch of life from one generation to
another;” and the same metaphor is used by Lucretius,
2.77; Varro,
de Re
Rust. 3.16, 9; Pers. 6.61: so also
Aristot. Phys. 5.4, 10,
οἷον ἡ λαμπὰς ἐκ διαδοχῆς φορὰ
ἐχομένη, with which compare
διαδοχαῖς
πληρούμενοι,
Aesch. Ag. 313; and Auct.
ad
Herenn. 4.46, “qui taedas ardentes accipit celerior est quam
ille qui tradit quod defatigatus cursu integro facem tradit.”
Here we are clearly to understand lines of runners (
λαμπαδισταὶ or
λαμπαδηφόροι), posted at intervals, the first in each line who
receives the torch, or takes it from the altar, running at his best speed
and handing it to the second in his own line, and the second to the third
until the last in the line is reached, who runs with it up to the appointed
spot. Of course, if any torch went out, the line to which it belonged was
out of the race. The victory (
νικᾶν
λαμπάδι) fell to that line of runners whose torch first reached
the goal alight. Assuming that all the gymnasiarchs contended on each
occasion, there would be ten such lines (or, after B.C. 307, twelve), one
for each tribe; but it is possible that each gymnasiarch performed his
service only once a year, and that only a certain number were told off for
each festival. All the runners in the winning line or chain contributed to
the victory, and this may possibly be the explanation of the well-known line
of Aeschylus (
Aesch. Ag. 314),
νικᾷ δ᾽ὁ πρῶτος καὶ τελευταῖος
δραμών,--“the last and the first (i. e. all alike in
the chain) are successful.” The beacons are all victorious
because all belong to the successful chain of light, as in the torch-race
each person in the line shares the victory.
But, if this is the right rendering, there is certainly an obscurity of
diction in putting
καὶ τελευταῖος for
χὠ τελευταῖος, which the strict idiom
would require, and that, too, without any metrical reason, such as exists in
the passage (line 324) cited by Mr. Sidgwick. It may therefore be better to
explain it with reference to the fact that the
first
or winning torch was handed in (to the archon basileus) by the
last recipient of it, and therefore, “he who
is both first to arrive and last in the chain wins in the race.”
That Pausanias, however, saw a different kind of torch-race, there can be no
doubt. He says (1.30.2):
ἐν Ἀκαδημίᾳ δέ ἐστι
Προμηθέως βωμός, καὶ θέουσιν ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν
ἔχοντες καιομένας λαμπάδας. τὸ δὲ ἀγώνισμα ὁμοῦ τῷ δρόμῳ
φυλάξαι τὴν δᾷδα ἔτι καιομένην ἐστίν: ἀποσβεσθείδης δὲ
οὐδὲν ἔτι τῆς νίκης τῷ πρώτῳ, δευτέρῳ δὲ ἀντ᾽ αὐτοῦ
μέτεστιν. εἰ δὲ μηδὲ τούτῳ καίοιτο, ὁ τρίτος ἐστὶν ὁ
κρατῶν, εἰ δὲ πᾶσιν ἀποσβεσθείη, οὐδεὶς ἐστὶν ὅτῳ
καταλείπεται ἡ νίκη. Here there is evidently no handing of
the torch from one to another--several torch-bearers are started, possibly
one for each tribe; the first who reaches the goal with his torch alight
wins: the competition is individual, not one chain of runners against
another. And it is no doubt to such a race that inscriptions which speak of
a single victor with a single prize, refer. Whether this was a new method,
or one which had existed alongside of the other, it is impossible to say
with certainty; but it is probable that the
[p. 2.6]different
kinds of torch-race were in vogue at different times; for it is fair to
assume from the language of Pausanias, that he had not witnessed the kind of
race described by the earlier writers who have been quoted above.
The starting-point at Athens was the altar of Prometheus in the Academy, and
the course passed through the Ceramicus to the city (
πρὸς τὴν πόλιν), perhaps, as Mommsen
(
Heortologie, p. 312) thinks, to the Prytaneum under the
north side of the Acropolis, a distance of a little over a mile. The archon
basileus presided (
προέστηκε τῶν ἀγώνων τῶν ἐπὶ
λαμπάδι, Poll. 8.90), and gave the prize to the victor. Both
starting-point and goal may have varied somewhat at different times, or in
different festivals. Plutarch (
Plut. Sol. 1)
says that the torches were lighted at the altar of Eros, which was not far
from the altar of Prometheus (
πρὸ τὴς ἐσόδου τῆς
ἐς Ἀκαδημίαν,
Paus. 1.30.74); the mounted race in honour of
Bendis was run in the Peiraeus (Plato,
l.c.).
As regards the origin of these games, it may safely be said generally that it
is to be sought in the worship of Hephaestus, Prometheus, and Athena, who
are all connected with fire and light, and with those arts and manufactures
in which fire is an agent. But it may further be conjectured that this form
was first used in honour of Prometheus, to represent the myth of his giving
fire to men. The torch is kindled at his altar and carried, if the theory
above mentioned is correct, to the Prytaneum, where the national fire was
preserved, as carefully as though it were still, what it had been in
primitive times, hard to rekindle if once it died out: then this gift of the
πυρφόρος θεός, representing the
κοῖλος νάρθηξ (Hesiod.
Theog. 566), is handed to the king archon, who represents in
religious matters the original guardian of the national hearth. The same
idea can be traced in a custom which Maury cites (from Philostratus), as
existing in the games at Olympia: the runners are placed a stade from the
altar where wood is to be lighted; near the altar stands the priest, who
awards a crown to the first who touches the altar with his torch. (Maury,
Religion de la Grèce antique, 3.491.)
But with the giver of fire Were soon associated in this worship the Olympian
deities who presided over its use: Hephaestus, who taught men to apply it to
melting and moulding of metal; and Athena, who carried it through the whole
circle of useful and ornamental arts. On the close connexion of Hephaestus
with Prometheus, and of both with Athena, see Preller,
Griech.
Mythol. p. 80 (ed. 1872). Both indeed are connected by myths
with the birth of Athena as well as with her presidency over arts and
manufactures, under her name
Ἐργάνη
(
Paus. 1.24.36). It is suggested by
Welcker (
Aeschyl. Tril. p. 21) that the community of potters
instituted the torch-race. It is true that the course was mainly in the
outer and inner Ceramicus, and that Athena was the patroness of the
(
δεῦρ᾽ ἄγ᾽ Ἀθηναίη καὶ ὑπείρεχε χεῖρα
καμίνου is the address in the
Κεραμίς); but the original connexion of the torch-race with
Prometheus is more natural, and moreover the starting-point is in fact not
actually in the outer Ceramicus, but beyond it. In later times the same
honour was paid to all gods who were in any way connected with fire, as to
Pan, to whom a perpetual fire was kept up in his grotto under the Acropolis
(cf. also
Paus. 8.37.677); so also to
Artemis, as a moon-goddess, whom Sophocles (
Track. 214) calls
ἀμφίπυρος (cf.
πυρφόροι Ἀρτεμίδος αῖγλαι,
Oed. Tyr. 207, and
ὁ πυρφόρος Θεὸς
Τιτὰν Προμηθεύς,
Oed. Col. 56). The mounted race in honour of Bendis, the
Thracian Artemis, was no doubt introduced by the numerous Thracian metoeci
who lived for trading purposes at the Peiraeus. In the still later
extensions of the rites mentioned at the beginning of this article all
symbolism was probably lost, and for these it was merely adopted from the
older festivals as a striking spectacle. [
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