PANE´GYRIS
PANE´GYRIS (
πανήγυρις)
signifies a meeting or assembly of a whole people at fixed periods, varying
in the different cases, for the purpose of worshipping at a common
sanctuary. But the word is used in three ways:--1. For a meeting of the
inhabitants of one particular town and its vicinity [
EPHESIA]; 2. For a meeting of
the inhabitants of a whole district, a province, or of the whole body of
people belonging to a particular tribe [CARNEIA, DELIA,
PAMBOEOTIA, PANIONIA]; and 3. For great national meetings, as at
the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean games. Such in its origin also
was the great Amphictyonic meeting, which assumed more political importance
than other panegyreis. Although, in all panegyreis which we know, the
religious character forms the most prominent feature, the spectacles and
amusements were the attraction to the larger number, nor were political
discussions and resolutions excluded, though they were perhaps more a
consequence of the presence of many persons than objects of the meeting. As
regards their religious character, the panegyreis were real festivals in
which prayers were performed, sacrifices offered, processions held,
&c. The amusements comprehended the whole variety of games,
gymnastic and musical contests, and entertainments. Every panegyris,
moreover, was made by tradespeople a source of gain, and it may be presumed
that such a meeting was never held without a fair, at which all sorts of
things were exhibited for sale. (
Paus.
10.32.9;
Strabo x. p.486; Dio
Chrysost.
Orat. xxvii. p. 528.) In later times,
when the love of gain had become stronger than religious feeling, the fairs
appear to have become a more prominent characteristic of a panegyris than
before; hence the Olympic games are called
mercatus
Olympiacus or
ludi et mercatus
Olympiorum. (
Cic. Tusc.
5.3, 9;
Just. 13.5; Veil. Pat. 1.8.)
Festive orations were also frequently addressed to a panegyris, whence they
are called
λόγοι πανηγυρικοί. The Sophists
made this the occasion for epideictic addresses (Quinctil. 3.4, 14) to the
assembled Greeks; as when Gorgias or Lysias at Olympia preached national
unity. To the Greeks the speech of Peter the Hermit at Clermont would have
been a “panegyric.” The Panegyricus of Isocrates,
[p. 2.334]though it was probably never delivered, is an
imaginary discourse of this kind. (See Jebb,
Attic Orators,
1.203 f; 2.150) In later times any oration in praise of a person was called
panegyricus, as that of Pliny on the
Emperor Trajan.
Each panegyris is treated of in a separate article. For a general account see
Wachsmuth,
Hell. Alt. i. p. 149, &c.; Boeckh,
ad Pind.
Ol. vii. p. 175,
&c.; Hermann,
Staatsalterth. § 10.
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L.S] [
G.E.M]