The Theoxenia festival was a feast to welcome the gods into the home. It was often associated with the cult of the dead and may have served a purification purpose. The festival involved inviting various gods, such as Apollon, Leto and the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri), and offering them food at a banquet. The Delphians, in particular, made offerings for the benefit of all of Hellas (Greece) during their Theoxenia.
In the month of Theoxenios, likely coinciding with the day the oracle functioned (7th of Theoxenios).
this was named for another festival of Apollo that involved sacrifice and the distribution of meat, and to which Greek cities sent theōroi (Pfister 1934b; Jameson 1994). An inscription (Fouilles de Delphes 3 3.224.3) indicates that this was another occasion on which Kroisos’ silver bowl would have been used. There is good reason to believe that the festival coincided with the functioning of the oracle.
– https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40647-020-00293-4 [13]
It goes on to mention what the Delphians will provide for the Skiathians including that the Delphians will give shares of the meat to the Skiathians at the Theoxenia (CID 1.13.27-29). This suggests that consulting the oracle and celebrating the Theoxenia might have taken place as part of a single theōria (Rutherford 2013: 196–198). Rutherford (2013: 244–245) identifies a theōria to the festival from Aigina, and there must have been others from across the Greek world. It is reasonable to suppose that if those communities wished to consult the oracle, they would send men to do that alongside those sent for the Theoxenia, if they were not in fact the same people.
– https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40647-020-00293-4 [13]
The Theoxenia festival was a celebratory feast that marked the return of the gods. During this event, not only was Apollon honored, but other deities like Leto and the Dioskouroi are invited. The festival had connections to the cult of the dead and likely held a purifying significance. It is noteworthy that the Delphians, in particular, made offerings during their Theoxenia that were intended to benefit all of Hellas (Greece), as mentioned in Pindar's Paean VI.
The festival was likely held on the day for oracle consultations, as this are beleived to have been paired with major festivals. Greek cities would send representatives called theōroi for both purposes. The Theoxenia was celebrated in different places and had both funerary and purificatory/expiatory aspects. The worshippers felt an intimate connection with the gods during these banquets, which were quite different from traditional Greek sacrificial rituals. The festival had a panhellenic nature, and various cities, kings, and democratic governments celebrated it in different ways, depending on their resources and traditions.
It is ordained among the Delphians that whosoever shall bring for the festival of the Theoxenia the largest horn onion to Leto, shall receive a portion from the table. And I have myself seen a horn onion as large as a turnip or the round radish. They relate that Leto, before the birth of Apollo, had a craving for the horn onion; hence it has received this special honour."
– Atheneus IX, 372a
Might be coupled with an Hermaia?
the Pellenian Theoxenia probably were instituted in imitation of the more famous Delphic Theoxenia, the only other festival called Theoxenia that was in honor of Apollo as opposed to the Dioscuroi. Adding Theoxenia to Hermaia would particularly make sense if […]
– Myth, Festival, and Poet: The "Homeric Hymn to Hermes" and Its Performative Context $^{46}$
Related primarily to the Theoxenia, but also perhaps to the worship of the Dioskouroi more generally:
The two deities were summoned to a table laid with food, whether at individuals' own homes or in the public hearths or equivalent places controlled by states. They are sometimes shown arriving at a gallop over a food-laden table. Although such "table offerings" were a fairly common feature of Greek cult rituals, they were normally made in the shrines of the gods or heroes concerned. The domestic setting of the theoxenia was a characteristic distinction accorded to the Dioskouroi
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Line D9: The festival of the Theoxenia took place in Theoxenios (month 9). This was a major celebration, probably in honour of several gods, in the sanctuary of Delphi: see Amandry 1939 and 1944-1945 for the sources, across a broad chronological spectrum. For the ritual of theoxenia, the hosting of the gods, cf. also here CGRN 13 (Selinous), lines A9-10. The Telchinia, together with the Dioskoureia and the Megalartia (see immediately below), fell between the Theoxenia in Theoxenios and the eponymous Herakleia in Herakleios (month 11). Thus, they occurred over the course of 2-3 months (Endyspoitropios, month 10, fell in between). For the Telchinia, Rougemont (p. 59-60) rightly notes that Telchinios could be an epithet for a wide range of deities, thus making the attribution here quite uncertain; for Hera Thelchinia in the present Collection, see CGRN 52 (Erchia), col. Α, lines 7-11 (20 Metageitnion, a timing which could be compared with Delphic Boukatios/Boathoos instead).
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