The Artists of Dionysos and the Festivals of Boiotia

Abstract

Abstract The artistic guilds of Dionysus were one of the major players in Hellenistic and Roman festival culture, providing competitors and helping organize agonistic festivals across the Greek world. This chapter examines the conspicuous role played by these guilds in the organization of the festivals in Hellenistic and Roman Boiotia and in the development of Boiotia as an artistic agonistic hub as revealed primarily through inscriptions, such as those prominently displayed at Delphi and the Boiotian festival sites including Thebes, Thespiai, and Akraiphia. During the third century bc, various Boiotian poleis were granted honours for their sanctuaries and associated agones, with Boiotia undergoing an agonistic boom quite unlike any other region on the Greek mainland at this time. As this chapter argues, the presence in Thebes and Thespiai of branches of the guilds of Technitai of Dionysos of Isthmos and Nemea was integral both for this agonistic boom as well as the bestowals of honours such as asylia. Additionally, it will examine how under the guilds’ influence Boiotia developed a new artistic agonistic culture which harked back to the days of Hesiod, cementing the reputation of Boiotia as something of an artistic centre into the Roman period, when the games most closely aligned to the Technitai became a locus for establishing relations with Rome.