Τετρὰς Ἱσταμένου, IV day
From today’s sunset: fourth day of Mounychion.
- Festival of Eros in the Gardens – offerings to Aphrodite Ourania and Eros.
- Sacrifice to the Heracleidai (Erchia)
The fourth is always sacred to Aphrodite Pandemos, to Hermes and to Herakles, as the symbolic day of Their birthday.
Honors are paid to Eros and Hermaphroditos.
Banquet of the Tetradistai.
“So it is no wonder that the ancient cooks were au fait in sacrificial rites; they presided, for instance, at weddings and festivals. Hence Menander, in his Flatterer, makes the cook on duty at the fourth-day club-feast (Tetradistai) or the day of Aphrodite Pandemos, speaks as follow: ‘Libation! Round with the tripe! Mind what you do. Come Sosias, boy, libation! Good for you! And now pour out. To all above we will pray both Gods and Goddesses (take the tongue), and may Life, Health, and many a blessing come of this, and those we’ve got Heaven grant we never miss!”
Athenaios 14. 659D, describing a private celebration of the Tetradistai in Aphrodite’s honor.
“But take care to avoid troubles which eat out the heart on the fourth of the beginning and ending of the month; it is a sacred day: especially during these sacred days it is convenient to get rid of all the activities that make you suffer, which, if at other times you need to choose them as necessary, in these days you should not.“
The fourth day is also a suitable day for marriage.
(“Leaning Aphrodite known as ‘Aphrodite of the Gardens’…this statue belongs to a series of Antique copies (Naples inv. 6396, Heraclion inv. 325, Louvre Ma 420…) reproductions of Aphrodite leaning on a pillar, the composition and treatment of the drapery typical of the late 5th century BC. The best-preserved copy (in Naples) shows a veiled head also seen on 5th century reliefs and bronze elements where the figure, associated with Eros, is clearly identifiable as the goddess Aphrodite. The presence of this statue-type on the relief reproducing the base of the cult statues from the Athens Hephaesteion, attributed to Alcamenes, enables us to recognise this as a reproduction of the Aphrodite of the Gardens by this same sculptor as described by Pausanias (1, 19, 2). This statue-type was selected and adapted for the cult statue of Aphrodite in the sanctuary at Daphni (northwest of Athens), of which part of the bust survives (National Museum in Athens inv. 1604).”)