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John the Lydian on the Maiuma festival (1)

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12 Assyrian Identity



03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices


Keywords
festivals
Maiuma
Period
6th century CE
Byzantine Empire
Channel
Byzantine philosophers and scholars


Text
The Maiuma spring festival was of the Aramaic origin.

John the Lydian, De Mensibus 4.76-80:
In this way (they explain) according to theology, but according to the method of enquiring into the nature and origin of things (physiology) many wish May to be water. For among the Syrians who speak (their) foreign language, still even now water is so called, so that aqueducts are called meiouri. … They call feasting ‘to do the Maiuma’, from which [we get the term] Maiuma. The festival was held in Rome in the month of May. The leading men of the city went down to the shore, to the city called Ostia, to enjoy themselves by throwing one another into the waters of the sea. And so the time of the festival of this type was called Maiuma.


Source (list of abbreviations)
John the Lydian, De Mensibus 4.76-80

Bibliography

Greatrex and Watt 1999, 11Greatrex, Geoffrey and John W. Watt. “One, Two or Three Feasts? The Brytae, the Maiuma and the May Festival at Edessa.” Oriens Christianus 83 (1999) 1-20.

Links (external links will open in a new browser window)
Cf. Antiochene spring festival during Commodus’ reign 180-192 CE (1)
Cf. Maiuma festival in Antioch (1)
Cf. The Maiuma spring festival (1)
Cf. The Maiuma spring festival (2)
Cf. The Maiuma spring festival at Antioch (1)
Cf. The Maiuma spring festival at Antioch (2)

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000295.php


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