Playing at the Festival: Aiora, a Swing Ritual

This paper examines an Athenian custom which took place sometime in spring and concerned swinging in the framework of the festival named Aiora. The discussion focuses on the visual evidence, which, by contrast to the much later testimonia, is the only one that dates in the 6th and 5th century bce. The questions asked by scholars of religion so far centred on identifying in which festival ritual swinging was performed and at what exact time within the sequence of cultic events it took place. The visual evidence provides interesting details regarding the protagonists of the swinging ritual and sheds light on the construction of gender in the Greek world, as well as on its manifestation on the religious and cultic level. The incorporation of an otherwise secular ludic activity in the context of a religious festivity highlights the potential of games to function also as rituals able to convey cultural ideals and expectations due to their performative character