anakeia

ANAKEIA(ἀνάκεια) or ANAKEION (ἀνάκειον), a festival of the Dioscuri, or Ἄνακτες, as they were called, at Athens. (Hesych. s. v.; Pollux, 1.37.) Athenaeus (6. p. 235) mentions a temple of the Dioscuri called Ἀνάκειον, at Athens, on the northern slope of the Acropolis; he also informs us (4. p. 137) that the Athenians, probably on the occasion of this festival, used to prepare for these heroes in the Prytaneium a meal consisting of cheese, a barley-cake, ripe figs, olives, and garlic, in remembrance of the ancient mode of living. These heroes, however, received the most distinguished honours in the Dorian and Achaean states, where it may be supposed that every town celebrated a festival in their honour, though it may not have been under the name of ἀνάκεια. Pausanias (Paus. 10.38, 3) mentions a festival held at Amphissa, called that of the ἀνάκτων παίδων: but adds that it was disputed whether they were the Dioscuri, the Curetes, or the Cabeiri. That the Dioscuri worshipped in the Doric and Achaean cities were not the same as the Athenian ἄνακτες, seems clear from Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 3.21. (K. F. Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § 62, n. 27.)