mail: Bill Thayer

Italiano

Help

Up

Home

 p209  Boreasmi

Article by Leonhard Schmitz, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., Rector of the High School of Edinburgh
on p209 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

BOREASMI or BOREASMUS (βορεασμοί or βορεασμός), a festival celebrated by the Athenians in honour of Boreas (Hesych, s.v.), which, as Herodotus (VII.189) seems to think, was instituted during the Persian war, when the Athenians, being commanded by an oracle to invoke their γαμβρὸς ἐπίκουρος, prayed to Boreas. The fleet of Xerxes was soon afterwards destroyed by a north wind, near Cape Sepias, and the grateful Athenians erected to his honour a temple on the banks of the Ilissus. But considering that Boreas was intimately connected with the early history of Attica, since he is said to have carried off and married Oreithya, daughter of Erechtheus (Herod. l.c.; Paus. I.19 § 6), and that he was family to them under the name of brother-in‑law, we have reason to suppose that even previous to the Persian wars certain honours were paid to him, which were perhaps only revived and increased after the event recorded by Herodotus. The festival, however, does not seem ever to have had any great celebrity; for Plato (Phaedr. p229) represents Phaedrus as unacquainted even with the site of the temple of Boreas. Particulars of this festival are not known, except that it was celebrated with banquets.

Pausanias (VIII.36 § 4) mentions a festival celebrated with annual sacrifices at Megalopolis in honour of Boreas, who was thought to have been their deliverer from the Lacedaemonians (comp. Aelian, V. H. XII.61).

Aelian (l.c.) says that the Thurians also offered an annual sacrifice to Boreas, because he had destroyed the fleet with which Dionysius of Syracuse attacked them; and adds the curious remark, that a decree was made which bestowed upon him the right of citizen­ship, and assigned to him a house and a piece of land. This, however, is perhaps merely another way of expressing the fact, that the Thurians adopted the worship of Boreas, and dedicated to him a temple, with a piece of land.

Images with borders lead to more information. The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)
UP TO:		Smith's Dictionary: Religion	Smith's Dictionary	LacusCurtius	Home
A page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY if its URL has a total of one *asterisk. If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use. If the URL has none the item is © Bill Thayer. See my copyright page for details and contact information.