Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/295

 CHAP. XVI. THE ATHENIAN. Si89 sort of pantomime, representing the return of Theseus to Attica. They crown the wand of a herald because Theseus's herald crowned his staff. They utter a cer- tain cry which they suppose the herald uttered, and a procession is formed, and each wears the costume that was in fashion in Theseus's time. On another day the Athenians did not fail to boil vegetables in a pot of a certain kind. This was a rite the origin of which was lost in dim antiquity, and of which no one knew the significance, but which was piously renewed each year.' The Athenian, like the Roman, had unlucky days : on these days no marriage took place, no enterprise was begun, no assembly was held, and justice was not admin- istered. The eighteenth and nineteenth day of every month was employed in purifications. The day of the Plynteria — a day unlucky above all — they veiled the statue of the great Athene Polias. On the contrary, on the day of the Panathenaea, the veil of the goddess was carried in grand procession, and all the citizens, with- out distinction of age or rank, made uj:) the corter/e. The Athenian ofiered sacrifices for the harvests, for the return of rain, and for the return of fair weather; he offered them to cure sickness, and to drive away famine or pestilence.^ Athens has its collection of ancient oracles, as Rome has her Sibylline books, and supports in the Pryta- neum men who foretell the future. In her streets we meet at every step soothsayers, priests, and interpreters of dreams. The Athenian believes in portents ; sneez- > Plutarch, Theseus, 20, 22, 23. -SwjPijZ., 80. 19
 * Plato, Laws, p. 800. Philochorus, I'ragm. Euripides,