The name of an Athenian festival for Athena, annual, with a Great Panathenaia every fourth year. There were Games, both athletic and musical, and a procession to the Acropolis bearing a newly woven peplos robe for the goddess' statue. The road across the Agora was known as the Panathenaic Way. Victors in the Games won oil, presented in 'Panathenaic amphorae' which are decorated in black figure (6th - 2nd centuries BC) with the figure of Athena on one side, a contest on the other.
Above: Panathenaic amphora, c. 550-500 BC showing athletes running. Ashmolean Museum 1965.117. Photo. Ian Hiley, Beazley Archive © AshmoleanMuseum
