![Pyanepsion – October – 4th month of the ancient Greek Attic calendar – a month of beans and olive branches](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/382526573_336257532213923_3809920894105311855_n-e1696006618558.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Pyanepsion – October – 4th month of the traditional Greek Attic calendar – a month of beans and olive branches
The Attic or Athenian calendar (certainly one of many historical Greek calendars), a pageant calendar (lunisolar), with twelve months, every named after a pageant or a god, was unique to the Athenians.
It was created solely to remind them of the greater than eighty annual celebrations plus the greater than sixty birthdays of God, which had been celebrated month-to-month fairly than yearly.
Now you understand how the saying “Social gathering like a Greek” took place!
The Attic or Athenian calendar
![The Attic or Athenian Calendar](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/382627288_1505696869970922_2863299065114153639_n.jpg?resize=500%2C278&ssl=1)
The Attic or Athenian Calendar
Pyanepsion:
October month
Pyanopsia was a pageant held in honor of the god Apollo on the seventh day (which occurred to be his birthday) in Pyanepsion; the fourth month of the Attic calendar, which corresponds to October/November, give or take a day or two, within the Gregorian calendar.
![Apollo Belvedere, restored Roman copy of the Greek original attributed to Leochares, 4th century BC; in the Vatican Museum, Rome.](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Apollo-Belvedere-restored-Roman-copy-of-the-Greek-original-attributed-to-Leochares-4th-century-BC-in-the-Vatican-Museum-Rome-e1696009419891.png?resize=379%2C600&ssl=1)
Apollo Belvedere, restored Roman copy of the Greek unique attributed to Leochares, 4th century BC; within the Vatican Museum, Rome.
The pageant was additionally related to Theseus, the founding father of Athens, in addition to the Horae, goddesses of the seasons.
![Horae Serenae - Greek Goddesses of the Seasons by Edward John Poynter (1896)](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Horae-Serenae-by-Edward-John-Poynter-1896-e1696007719754.jpg?resize=600%2C240&ssl=1)
Horae Serenae – Greek Goddesses of the Seasons by Edward John Poynter (1896)
It was a pageant by which the folks of Athens gave thanks and supplied sacrifices to the god Apollo, stated to have been initiated by Theseus after he left Athens to carry out certainly one of his six labors, the slaying of the Cretan Minotaur.
![Theseus and the Minotaur Poster by Matthew Kocvara](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Theseus-and-the-Minotaur-Poster-by-Matthew-Kocvara.jpg?resize=600%2C480&ssl=1)
Theseus and the Minotaur Poster by Matthew Kocvara
Legend has it that Theseus and his males, on their approach to Crete, stopped on the island of Delos, the birthplace of the solar god Apollo and his twin sister, Artemis, the place Theseus promised Apollo that if he gained the battle with the Minotaur, which he did, he would then yearly present his thanks.
![Remains of Apollo Delian's Temple of Delos.](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Temple-Apollo-Delians-Delos-e1696009137245.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1)
Stays of Apollo Delian’s Temple of Delos.
Because of this, Theseus established the Pyanopsia, a practice which was later carried on by his followers.
The Pyanopsia Pageant
![The Eiresione: The votive Olive Branch](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/rodia_eiresioni.jpg?resize=492%2C522&ssl=1)
The Eiresione: The Votive Olive Department
As we all know from Greek mythology, Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur within the labyrinth at King Minas’ palace in Knossos with the assistance of Ariadne (the king’s daughter) and her ball of wool.
Theseus returned triumphantly to Athens to assert his birthright on the seventh day of the month Pyanepsion, however not earlier than fulfilling his vow to Apollo, to whom he thanked for his secure return by providing two sacrifices.
One, a stew made from boiled beans, referred to as pyanopsia, from which the pageant takes its identify, actually means boiled beans, from the Greek phrases piano – pianos “bean” and ἕπεν – hepsein “to boil”.
The second providing to Apollo was a wild olive department embellished with purple, crimson or white wool, hung with seasonal fruits, truffles, small jars of honey, oil and wine, symbolizing agricultural abundance.
Pyanopsia:
Bean soup
![Fasolada – Traditional Greek Bean Soup – National dish of Greece](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Fasolada-–-Traditional-Greek-bean-soup-–-The-national-dish-of-Greece.jpg?resize=352%2C540&ssl=1)
Fasolada – Conventional Greek Bean Soup – Nationwide dish of Greece
Pyanopsia, or conventional Greek bean soup, eaten as a part of the custom of public feasting at Athenian festivals, means the bean soup, the one meals Theseus and his males would have eaten after they returned to Athens from Crete.
They made the soup from the little provides that they had left; only a few pulses and grains, having run out of meals on the journey house.
Beans:
A supernatural image of demise
![French manuscript from 1512 – 1514 showing Pythagoras turning his face away from prayers in disgust.](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/French-manuscript-from-1512-–-1514-showing-Pythagoras-turning-his-face-away-from-beans-in-revulsion.jpg?resize=320%2C491&ssl=1)
French manuscript from 1512 – 1514 displaying Pythagoras turning his face away from prayers in disgust.
I’ve to say right here one of the curious and weird beliefs of Pythagoras, one of the influential mathematicians of all time, it has nothing to do with the Pyanopsia pageant, however I discover it fairly fascinating.
Pythagoras thought-about prayers to be a supernatural image of demise.
He believed the souls of males, lived inside beans, and taught his follower that consuming them was virtually cannibalism; you would possibly eat your ancestors and even your dad and mom so he knowledgeable them.
Maybe it’s no coincidence that the traditional Greek phrase anemos means each wind and soul; consider the implications of consuming beans!
There is perhaps some methodology in his insanity regarding Pythagoras’ unusual ideas about prayers; favism, named after the bean, was a genetic dysfunction frequent within the Mediterranean, attributable to consuming fava beans and even inhaling pollen from its flowers, inflicting hemolytic anemia, jaundice, and coronary heart failure.
Even immediately, one in 12 affected folks dies of favism.
The Eiresione:
The votive Olive Department
![The Eiresione: The votive Olive Branch](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/384394623_6584637651584492_7412797579690933011_n-e1696007568148.jpg?resize=600%2C256&ssl=1)
The Eiresione: The Votive Olive Department
The embellished olive department, eiresione, represented how necessary the olive tree was to town and its folks, due to its depiction of life and its affiliation with the goddess Athena, and the way town of Athens obtained its identify.
![Athena's sacred olive tree on the Acropolis. Athens. Greece](https://i0.wp.com/greekerthanthegreeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/382524604_618218970384877_371070071699868930_n-e1696009833922.jpg?resize=600%2C338&ssl=1)
Athena’s sacred olive tree on the Acropolis. Athens. Greece
These votive branches had been referred to as eiresione, derived from 12 months – “wool”, referring to the woolen bands, although others affiliate it with ερ-/ἐρ– “communicate up” ( I see “I communicate”; love “I wish to say”).
An olive department tied with wool and adorned with the primary fruits of autumn, figs, walnuts, almonds, chestnuts and small vials of wine, oil and honey, was supplied as thanks for blessings acquired and as a prayer for defense towards future evil.
On the Pyanopsia pageant, the eiresione was carried by a boy in a procession which toured Athens whereas on the similar time reciting a tune, additionally referred to as eiresione, which went as follows:
Eiresione brings
All good issues,
Figs and fats truffles to eat,
Gentle oil and honey candy,
And stuffed with the wine cup deep
That she will be able to drink and sleep.
The eiresione olive branches had been held on the doorways of homes, the place they remained for a 12 months, as a appeal towards plague and famine, till the following Pyanopsia, when it was exchanged for a brand new one.
Kalo Mina; have an excellent month, as they are saying in Greece, do not forget to make your bean soup and cling a embellished olive department over your door, simply in case!
Associated