pandia

PA´NDIAa festival celebrated at Athens after the Dionysia, in the middle of the month Elaphebolion (Dem. Meid. p. 517.9). Its origin has been a matter of dispute even among the ancients, as may be seen by reference to Etym. M. and Photius s. v., where three origins are assigned,--Pandia, the moon-goddess, the Attic king Pandion, and Zeus. Hermann takes it to be a general feast of the old tribe Dias, and Welcker as an all-Zeus festival; but probably the right view is that of A. Mommsen and Preller, that it was a full-moon feast in honour of Pandia, an equivalent name for Selene, or of Artemis when her worship was afterwards identified with that of Selene. It is not impossible that in course of time the tribe Pandionis may have regarded themselves as specially connected with this festival, though we have no clear evidence of it, nor again that Zeus, as Preller thinks, may afterwards have been associated in the worship. The exact date seems to be the 14th of Elaphebolion, if the 13th ended the Dionysia. (See DIONYSIAVol. 1. p. 640; A. Mommsen, Heortol. pp. 61, 389, 396; Preller, Griech. Myth. 1.347.)