Attic calendar

The Attic calendar is the calendar that was in use in ancient Attica, the ancestral territory of the Athenian polis. This article focuses on the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the classical period that produced some of the most significant works of ancient Greek literature. Because of the relative wealth of evidence from Athens, it is the best understood of all the Hellenic calendars. Viewed from the standpoint of the modern Gregorian calendar, the ancient system has many peculiar features, which is a part of its appeal: as a cultural artifact, it opens a window to the mentality of its users.

Although relatively abundant, the evidence for the Attic calendar is still patchy and often contested. As it was obvious to ancient Athenians, no contemporary source set out to describe the system as a whole. Further, during the period in question the calendar underwent changes, not all perfectly understood. As such, any account given of it must be a tentative reconstruction. In this context, the terms Athenian and Attic are largely interchangeable.

The Attic calendar was an exclusively local phenomenon, used to regulate the internal affairs of the Athenians, with little relevance to the outside world. For example, just across the border in Boeotia, the months had different names, and the year even began in mid-winter. In Athens, the year began six months later, just after mid-summer. Furthermore, while Greek months were supposed to begin with the first sighting of the new moon, it was determined locally and with a degree of variability. In many years, the months in the two communities would have more or less coincided, but there is no sign that they tried to keep the days of the month exactly aligned, as they would have seen no reason to do so.

The divide between these neighbouring calendars perhaps reflected the traditional hostility between the two communities. Had the Boeotians been speakers of an Ionic dialect, like the one spoken in Athens, there would have been overlap in the names of months. An example is the island of Delos, where the calendar shared four out of twelve month-names with Athens, but not in the same places in the year. There, even though the island was under some degree of Athenian control from around 479 to 314 BC, the year started, as with the Boeotians, at midwinter.

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