aianteia

AIANTEIA(Αἰάντεια), a festival celebrated in honour of Ajax at Salamis, where he was worshipped as the tutelary divinity, and where he had a temple containing his statue of ebony (Paus. 1.35.2; Hesych. s. v.). A festival of the same name appears to have been celebrated in the Locrian Opus (Schol. ad Pind. O. 9.166; Böckh, C. I. i. No. 1431). In Attica the festival was celebrated in commemoration of the victory at Salamis, by a boat-race of Athenian youths to Salamis and back, and sacrifices were offered to Ajax and Asclepios. (Comp. Hdt. 8.64, 83; Plut. Themist. 15; and A. Mommsen, Heortologie, p. 411.)