EPINIKIA.

THE CYCLE OF THE FOUR GREAT FESTIVALS.

The Olympian games were held towards the end of summer, at the time of a full moon (Pind. O. III. 19), and lasted five days (O. v. 6). The incidence of the festival was regulated by a cycle of 99 lunar months, in such a manner that the interval between two celebrations was alternately one of 49 lunar months and one of 50. In the former case the festival seems to have coincided with the second full moon after the summer solstice, and in the latter with the third (Schröder, Prolegomena to Pindar, p. 48). According to scholia on Pind. O. III. 35, the celebration was alternately in the month Apollonius and in the month Parthenius (ib. p. 46); but it is not known to what Attic months these corresponded.

The Nemean games were held in summer, probably in July, at the beginning of the second and fourth years of each Olympiad.

The Isthmian games were held in spring, probably in April (cp. Thuc. VIII. 7—10), in the latter half of the second and fourth years of each Olympiad.

The Pythian games were held in August (the Delphian month Bucatius, the Attic Metageitnion), early in the third year of each Olympiad.

To exemplify this cycle, we will take the 74th and 75th Olympiads.