ABSTRACT
Children had numerous opportunities to actively participate in Hellenistic religious rituals (as priests, cult agents, and ritual performers), and passively (as spectators and simple participants). In some cases, their participation was dictated by tradition: priesthoods and cult roles established before the Archaic period continued to offer children a role in ritual. In addition to traditional roles, children in the Hellenistic period were allowed to hold more priesthoods than before, and their participation in festivals, previously undocumented, became institutionalised and was legislated in official decrees. Furthermore, their official religious roles were also commemorated with monuments and in decrees for the first time.
