Panathenaia, an ancient seven-day festival celebrating Athena's birth from the head of Zeus, occurs from August 3rd to August 9th this year. The Lesser Panathenaia was celebrated every year, but a larger and longer festival called the Greater Panathenaia was held every four years during the third year in the Olympiad. Greeks from various city-states and colonies would pilgrimage to Athens to watch and take part in some of the events of the greater festival. (Next year's festival will be a greater one, occuring in the third year of the 697th Olympiad.)

The first day of Panathenaia would begin with an initial procession to the acropolis in Athens where sacrifices were made to Athena and Nike (Goddess of Victory), and an opening feast was made from those sacrifices. During the Greater Panathenaia, the sacrifice was of 100 cattle (referred to as a hecatomb) to accomodate the many pilgrims who would also participate in the feast.

There is little written about the events of the second day of either festival.

The third day (greater festival only) was celebrated with musical contests involving the recitations of Homeric hymns and long lyric poems. The winner of these contests was awarded an olive crown set with gold.

The fourth day (greater festival only) was celebrated with foot races that were held for different age categories. The winners of these races were awarded with an amphora of olive oil pressed from Athena's sacred grove.

Equestrian contests were held on the fifth day. At the lesser festival this consisted of a simple race on horseback, but during the greater festival there were also chariot races, javelin-throwing competitions on horseback, and processions of cavalry soldiers to honor Athena.

On the sixth day there were lesser contests. One of them was called euandria and was a contest of masculine excellence (a type of pageant) by which the leaders of the final procession were chosen. There were also Pyrrhic dancing contests, in which dancers would don full armor and shield and re-enact the victory dance Athena performed after the Olympians defeated the Giants.

At sunset of the sixth day, a race called a lampadedromia was held. Runners would race from the outskirts of the city to the acropolis while bearing flaming torches. After this race, there was an all-night community feast. During the feast, elderly priestesses would speak litanies of thanksgiving for the summer's harvest and sing songs relating to Athena's birth. The younger priestesses would also dance throughout the night, and the seventh day's sunrise was heralded by a chorus of priests.

On the seventh day (the actual birthday of the Goddess of Wisdom as it was observed), there was a final procession to the temple of Athena that was led by the winners of the euandria, followed by the winners of the various other competitions during the festival. At the Greater Panathenaia, a colossal peplos tunic was also set upon a wooden mast like a sail during this procession and delivered to the great statue of Athena that her sacred image might be dressed with it. (The weaving of the tunic traditionally began during the festival of Khalkeia the previous year.) Upon the peplos tunic would be images of Athena battling the Giants.