The article presents contemporary Greek water-rituals and their relation to ancient pre-Christian traditions and sites, manifested by springs in caves. Formerly springs represented Water-Nymphs, and today springs are dedicated to the Panagia (i.e. the Virgin Mary), under her attribute of Zōodochos Pēgē (i.e. the Life-giving Spring). People have traditionally expressed their beliefs through rituals connected to purity and water by fetching Holy water from the caves dedicated to these divinities. The water is thought to be particularly healing and purifying during their festivals, such as the modern festival dedicated to the ''Life-giving Spring'', which is celebrated on the first Friday after Easter Sunday. During this celebration Athenians come to Panagia's chapel inside a circular Spring House hewn in the rock on the Southern slope of the Acropolis to fetch Life-giving water. The Sacred Spring is situated inside a cave over which is constructed a church. It is also important to be baptised in water from one of Panagia's sacred springs. The cult dedicated to the personified sacred and healing spring-water, has traditionally been important for political purposes as well. Based on fieldwork on contemporary religious rituals, the author compares the modern evidence with ancient material, arguing for a continuous association of water sources with the sacred in Greece, as observed in the Athenian Acropolis Cave, a cult which is not very well-documented and therefore deserves to be better known. The comparison will also exploit the cult of springs in other Greek caves and similar cult found in parallel non-Greek contexts.

Through the ritual year of ancient Athens, many festivals were dedicated to Athena. The Panathenaia was the most important festival. It has been regarded as a political festival, but the importance of agriculture is also illustrated through the offerings and rituals carried out during this main festival dedicated to the Goddess of the olive crop. All Athena's festivals were related to the olive, the third main crop of the Athenians, and protected by her, as her festivals were celebrated in the crucial period for the olive crop, from the flowering of the olive tree, growing period of the fruit, until the gathering in winter. The summer festivals, particularly, may be related to the importance of securing the dew for the growing fruit. Many rituals during the festivals reflect the daily activities of women, several rituals are also important to the rite of passage undergone by girls at puberty to prepare them for marriage.

Abstract:After several mystical visions of the nun, Pelagia, the holy icon of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin (Panagia) was found in 1823. According to tradition, Pelagia repeatedly witnessed the Panagia in her visions where she received orders from her to find the Virgin's icon and also to build her church. The icon was unearthed in the field where it had remained since the church, built on the ruins of a pagan temple, was destroyed in the 10th century. Two years before the icon was found, the Greek War of Independence broke out. The finding of the icon, the construction of the Church of the Panagia, Euangelistria, the enormous crowds of pilgrims and all the miracles worked by the icon, contributed to the outcome that the island was declared a sacred island, and Pelagia became sanctified.The ritual year of the miraculous icon on Tinos starts on 30 January with the festival dedicated to the Finding of the Icon. The next festival is dedicated to the Day of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. This day has both a religious and a national ideological significance, since 25 March is celebrated as Independence Day. July 23 is dedicated to the "Vision" of Saint Pelagia. The most important festival, the Dormition of the Panagia, is celebrated on 15 August.During the festivals official processions, carrying the icon in its midst, are important, but also popular customs related to the importance of fetching holy water and earth as well as the other symbols which have a long tradition within Greek religions. Accordingly, the article aims to present the ritual year of the miraculous icon on Tinos, thus exploring the relation between official and popular religion. Since several of the rituals and symbols recur across many religious groupings in the Middle East and Mediterranean, they might be studied from a comparative perspective, thus transcending European heritages: liberating the ethnological imagination.

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By taking the statements in ancient Greek sources produced by men literally, it has been claimed that ancient women’s religious activities were performed under male dominance, or ‘appropriated’. So was the female body. The article argues that these statements need to be reconsidered. Based on studies in the same ancient sources, combined with results from fieldworks carried out on contemporary Greek religious festivals, a comparison is made with similar ancient festivals through an analysis of the fertility-cult, which is important in the festivals. This is a useful way to try to consider the female part of society, since women are the central performers of the actual cult that plays an important role within the official male value-system. This is the value-system that the festivals and the society, which they refl ect, traditionally have been considered from. The absence of the female value-system leaves previous analyses one-sided and incomplete. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis requires the female point of view to be included. Hence, the article argues for the importance of changing our approach when working with ancient culture. Taking account of the female sphere, which still exists in Greece, provides us with a basis for considering the female part of society. But, by so doing, the offi cial male perspective, which is similar to the Western male perspective generally applied within Greek studies, has to be deconstructed.