CARNEIA

important religious festival among ancient Dorian-speaking Greeks, held in Karneios (roughly August). The name is connected with Karnos, or Karneios (probably meaning ram), said to have been a favourite of the god Apollo, unjustly killed by the descendants of Heracles and therefore commemorated to appease the god's anger; perhaps he was an old god of fertility displaced by Apollo. Five young men called Karneatai were chosen out of each tribe; one man, decked with garlands, ran away, and the rest followed him. The person whom they chased was probably the temporary incarnation of some spirit of vegetation; to catch him perhaps signified that fertility was not allowed to go away but was secured, to be used for the next year's crops.