Panhellenius

I. e. the god common to, or worshiped by all the Hellenes or Greeks, occurs as a surname of the Dodonaean Zeus, whose worship had been transplanted by the Hellenes, in the emigration from Thessaly, to Aegina. Subsequently, when the name Hellenes was applied to all the Greeks, the meaning of the god's surname likewise became more extensive, and it was derived from the propitiatory sacrifice which Aeacus was said to have offered on behalf of all the Greeks, and by the command of the Delphic oracle, for the purpose of averting a famine.1 On that occasion Aeacus designated Zeus as the national god of all the Greeks.2

In Aegina there was a sanctuary of Zeus Panhellenius, which was said to have been founded by Aeacus; and a festival, Panhellenia, was celebrated there.3

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References

Notes

  1. Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 44.13.
  2. Pindar. Nemean Odes v, 19; Herodotus. Histories ix, 7; Aristophanes. Knights, 1253; Plutarch. Lycurgus, 6.
  3. Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 18.9; Müller. Aegineticorum Liber, p. 18 ff., 155 ff.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.