Chalcioecus

"Lady of the bronze house." A surname of Athena at Sparta. Her temple at Sparta was decorated with brazen plates and contained a brass statue of the goddess. This temple, which continued to exist in the time of Pausanias, was believed to have been commenced by Tyndareus, but was not completed till many years later by the Spartan artist Gitiadas.

Her festival was the Chalcioecia (Χαλκιοίκια), an annual festival with sacrifices in which young men marched in full armor to the temple of the goddess. The ephors, who did not enter the temple but remained within its sacred precinct, were obliged to partake in the sacrifice.

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References

Sources

  • Cornelius Nepos. Pausanias, 5.
  • Pausanias. Description of Greece iii, 17.2 ff.; x, 5.11.
  • Polybus, iv, 22.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.