Ancient Greek calendars go back to early Antiquity, but evidence of how they were structured and reckoned begins only in the sixth century BC. Most ancient Greek states had their own individual calendars, often more than one for different purposes such as civil and religious.
Greek calendars variously made use of the cycles of the sun, the moon and the stars. The moon formed the basis of all city-state festivals calendars, while the star-almanacs – which traced the rising and setting of stars – helped time agricultural activities and perhaps regulated some civil calendars and the sun, after initially loosely helping mark out seasonal periods in the agricultural cycle, eventually formed the basis of some civil calendars.
All ancient Greek calendars were originally, and most remained largely, lunar. Months were name after festivals or deities and one was intercalated periodically to achieve approximate correspondence with the solar year.
The main Athenian calendar is often called ‘archontic’ or ‘festival calendar’ – although its use went far beyond the determination of festival dates – to distinguish it from the so-called ‘prytanic calendar peculiar to Athens that was used at Athens alongside it.
Calendars in ancient Greece
