Panathenaic Games

Athens, Greece. The city festival of Athena with athletics, music and chariot races

Overview

Founded in 566 BC and later enlarged for the Great Panathenaea, this quadrennial festival of Athena joined footraces, chariot racing, combat sports, recitation and music. Winners received painted amphoras filled with sacred olive oil, hundreds of which survive in museums. A grand procession carried a new robe to the statue of Athena on the Acropolis. The festival remained a centerpiece of Athenian civic life into the Roman era.