The Panathenean festivals They were religious festivals that were held annually in honor of the goddess Athena, patron saint of the city. They were the oldest and most important religious festivals in Athens.
They were held between the 23rd and 30th of the hecatomb, which was the first month in the Attic calendar, which corresponds to the second half of our calendar, that is, in July, in the middle of summer.
But every four years the Great Panatheneas were celebrated, which were more important and extended 4 days longer than the annual ones.
In the Panateneas military parades, sports, literary, and musical competitions were held.
In some competitions the Athenians could participate, in others the Athenians and all the Greeks, these last competitions were very similar to the Olympic Games.
The games for the Athenians were about art and some races.
The games for the Athenians and for all Greeks consisted of boxing, wrestling, pankration which was a Greek wrestling, pentathlon, and the races that had the most prestige were chariots.
Whoever managed to win the races had the high honor of receiving as a prize a crown made with olive leaves from the sacred olive trees of Athens.
The competitions for the Athenians consisted of a torch race to the Parthenon. There were also infantry and cavalry battles, javelin spearmen on horseback, and the race called apobotai which were chariot races where the driver had to jump from the chariot and run to the side and then climb back up.
Another test was military exercises with music, called pyrriche. But he could not miss the beauty contest among athletes called euandrión.
The main part of the festival was the last day where the procession carried the Peplo offered to the goddess.