Greek Calendar

Passages in the works of Homer and Hesiod indicated that the Greeks used lunar months. Hesiod, in his Works and Days, also showed that he often used the constellations to plan when to plant and harvest crops.

Both lunar and solar systems were used in the Greek calendar. Like all lunar calendars, the time difference between twelve lunar months and twelve solar months would make the lunar calendar fall out of phase with the solar calendar and the seasons each year, so it was normal to add an extra month to a lunar year to realign it with the solar calendar; the extra month is known as an intercalated month. Sometimes extra days were added, while at other times they were omitted. This could make the Greek calendar difficult to determine each year.

It appears that each month was normally named after its main festivals. You will find more details about the festivals in the next article, titled Greek Festivals. Below are the names of the months that were used in Athens. The first month of the year was called Hecatombaion, beginning in midsummer, which is around roughly mid-July.

There were other calendars that were used in various parts of Greece, such as the Macedonian calendar. Hesiod, who was most likely a Boeotian, only named one month in the Works and Days - Lenacon, which was around January-February. That name differed from the Athenian Gamelion. So it was clear that the Athenian calendar was not uniformly accepted in other parts of Greece. However, I have listed the Athenian months because they're better documented than the calendar months used by other Greek city-states.