LAMPĂDĒPHŎRĬA

( λαμπαδηφορία ), torch-bearing , Lampadedromia ( λαμπαδηδρομία ), torch-race , and often simply Lampas ( λαμπάς ), was a game common throughout Greece. At Athens we know of five celebrations of this game: one to Pro me the us at the Pro me the i a, a second to Athena at the Panathenaca, a third to Hephaestos at the Hephaesteia, a fourth to Pan, and a fifth to the Thracian Artemis or Bendis. The first three are of unknown antiquity; the fourth was introduced soon after the battle of Marathon; the last in the time of So crates. The race was usually run on foot, horses being first used in the time of So crates; sometimes also at night. The preparation for it was a principal branch of the Gymnasiarch i a , so much so indeed in later times, that the Lampad arch i a ( λαμπαδαρχία ) seems to have been pretty much equivalent to the Gymnasiarch i a . The gymnasiarch had to provide the lampas, which was a candlestick with a kind of shield set at the bottom of the socket, so as to shelter the flame of the candle; as is seen in the following woodcut, taken from a coin. He had also to provide for the training of the runners, which was of no slight consequence, for the race was evidently a severe one, with other expenses, which on the whole were very heavy, so that Isaeus cla es this office with the choregi a and trierarch i a , and reckons that it had cost him 12 minae. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill220.jpg: Lampae. (From a Coin.)