The Anthesteria Festival Of Dionysos

The Anthesteria Festival Of Dionysos​

Teos was founded by Minyans from Orchomenus along with Ionians and Boiotians perhaps as early as the ninth century BC. On account of its outstanding position between two perfect harbours Teos was a flourishing seaport with strong trade relations throughout the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean until the middle of the sixth century BC when Cyrus the Great invaded Lydia and Ionia. Fearing conquest and enslavement, the inhabitants of Teos fled overseas to the newly founded colonies of Abdera in Thrace and Phanagoria on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus.

Of all the gods worshipped at Teos, Dionysos was held above all - he was the legendary founder and protector of Teos, and such was the relationship between the city and its god that at the end of the third century BC the city and its territory were declared sacred and inviolate to Dionysos by the Seleukid king Antiochos III [ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΣ Γ Ο ΜΕΓΑΣ], who also released the city from tribute.

The Anthesteria, a festival of Dionysos celebrating new wine, was in the early 5th century BC already one of the chief religious occasions at Teos, and from the 4th century onwards, the god appeared on civic coinage; in the second century BC the city was able to attract wider regional attention by enlarging the festival of Dionysos, and inviting to Teos the famous Association of Dionysiac Technitai.

A professional guild of actors since around 279/8 BC, the Dionysiac Technitai were musicians, actors and other artists devoted to Dionysos and who participated in the festivals and contests across the Greek world in the classical and Hellenistic periods, enjoying pan-Hellenic freedom of travel and immunity from hostile action. Organised into three corporate bodies or chapters at Athens, in the Peloponnesos, and in Asia Minor, the latter was based in Teos from circa 207/6 until sometime during the second century.