Apellai


Apellai, was a three-day family-festival of the Northwest Greeks similar with the Ionic Apaturia, which was dedicated to Apollo.
The fest was spread in Greece by the Dorians as it is proved by the use of the month Apellaios.

Etymology and related words

The word is derived from the Ancient Greek word pélla, "stone", and it appears in some toponyms in Greece like Pella.. The Doric word apella originally meant wall, enclosure of stones, and later assembly of people within the limits of the square. The word usually appears in plural. Apella was the popular assembly of Sparta, which corresponds to the ecclesia, in other Greek city-states.
When a pubescent was received into the body of grown men, as a grown Kouros he became ἀπελλάξ and he could enter the apellai. The apellaia were the offerings made at the initiation of the young men at a meeting of a family group.
Apellaion is the offering of a part of the hair to the god, and corresponds to the Koureion of the Apaturia. Apellaios is the month of these rites, and Apellon is the "megistos kouros".

Ancient practice

There is evidence for this festival in Epidavros, Olous, Kalchedon, "Heracleia" at Siris, Tauromenion, Chaleion, Lamia, Oite, Tolophon, Delphi and also in Ancient Macedonia. The phratry controlled the access to civic rights. The three-day family-festival included initiation ceremonies, not concerning the state:
The corresponding names for the offerings made were paideia, apellaia and gamela.
It is almost sure that the fest belonged originally to Apollo, because his name is used in the oaths only near Poseidon Phratrios and Zeus Patroοs. In Athens a common epithet of Apollo as family-god is "Apollo Patroos".

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