Ἑλλας (Greece): Athens, Part II

        Another very important site in Athens is the agora. While the Acropolis was the center of Athenian religious life, the agora was the center of... pretty much everything else. This was where the city leaders met, where the markets were located, and where Athenians (well... the men, anyway) came to meet and talk with friends, conduct business, and generally keep up to date on what was going on in the city. Women did go to the agora, but pretty much just to collect water from the fountain house located there. Athenian women- most Greek women, actually (with the Spartans as an unusual exception)- were expected to spend most of their time in the house, doing housework and taking care of the children. As usual.

The agora.  Obviously, it's much more overgrown and run-down now than it used to be.

One problem with the agora is that there are so many stone pedestals and bits of buildings and random pieces of stone and things, and the signage is not particularly good. So it was difficult to identify what things actually were, which was a little annoying. I mean, it's one thing to look at the Parthenon and go "Ah. That's the Parthenon" and another to look at a bit of foundation and go. "Ah. That's the Stoa Poikile".
With that in mind, this tour of the agora isn't going to be as in-depth as it could be, simply because I have a lot of pictures where just don't know what I'm looking at.
I guess that means I'll have to go to back to Athens and look at them again. Darn.

A section of the agora, with the Acropolis in the background.

That little sign on the bottom identifies those rows of columns as the "Middle Stoa". Stoai (that's the plural form) were long market buildings that contained multiple shops each. In front of the shops was a roofed porch area lined with columns, so that the Greeks could shop in the shade. Stoai tended to be colorfully decorated. There were several stoai in the Athenian agora.

And in case my description wasn't enough, here is a picture of a stoa.

This is a modern reconstruction of a stoa, called the Stoa of Attalos. However, instead of shops, it  houses a small but really cool museum of Ancient Greek artifacts.

Having this reconstruction to walk around in was great. I loved it. It helped me to better imagine what the agora might have been like two thousand years ago, and what it might have been like to walk around inside an actual Ancient Greek stoa. It's one thing to look at a bunch of cracked columns and imagine, and another to
have an actual building to work with.

Those doors are where the shops would have been in a typical stoa.














As I said, the museum was quite small, but there were some great things in it.

This is one particularly fun exhibit that was in the museum. These are shards of broken pottery. With names on them. Why are there names on them? I'm glad you asked.

Ancient Athens was a democracy, as everyone knows. They liked voting about all sorts of things. At a certain point, one Athenian statesman introduced a fun little thing called ostracism. We still use the word today, in fact, and this is where it comes from. Ostracism was very simple, and rather reminiscent of the TV show "Survivor". What happened was that Athenian citizens (so... adult landowning men with Athenian parents) could write the name of anyone who they thought was dangerous, had too much power, or who they just found vaguely irritating, onto a piece of pottery, which would then be collected. And the person whose name appeared the most would be kicked out of the city. This ensured that no one person became too powerful or threatened the stability of Athens. Very clever, if you ask me. And sensible, for a city with a notorious history of tyrant problems.

This is a really great vase that was in the museum. I liked it not only because it depicted several of the gods and goddesses, but also because they were clearly labeled. It's often difficult to read the writing on Greek vases for various reasons, but it was really clear on this one. So I took a bunch of pictures.

The name for this style of decoration is "Attic Black Figure" ("Attic" as in Attica, the area of Greece where Athens is located... not the top floor of your house). Attic Black Figure is easy to identify because all of the people are black and the background is usually orange. The details are carved into the clay with a needle, and tend to be very fine and intricate. Look at the details in the clothing and hair. It's impressive.

Here's Poseidon, with his trident and some horses. The horse is one of his symbolic animals.

And here is Artemis, noticeably without her bow. Actually, I probably wouldn't have known this was Artemis if she hadn't been so clearly labeled.

Look at the details on her crown. Just look at them.

Next to her is Apollo, playing a lyre.

And finally here's Hermes, with his caduceus (the wand he's holding) and traveling hat.

Here's someone else who I was very happy to see. This is a bust of Herodotus, the author of "The Histories" and one of my favorite Ancient Greek writers. "The Histories" is considered to be the first book written specifically to create a record of historical events. It provides a detailed account of the Persian Wars, as well as documenting Herodotus's extensive travels all over the Greek world and beyond. The writing is engaging and personable, and the whole thing is basically just one tangent after another. It's a great book. If you haven't read it, you should.

Even though the Acropolis was the religious center of ancient Athens there were temples all over the city, including in the agora.

This is the Temple of Hephaestus, which stands on a hill next to the agora.



Cue dramatic zoom...

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The Temple of Hephaestus is a typical Doric temple (those are Doric columns, hence the name) and follows the same basic blueprint as the Parthenon, with one more than twice as many columns along the sides as on the front and back (this temple is 6x13, the Parthenon is 8x17). In fact, the Temple of Hephaestus is the best-preserved Doric temple in Greece. Its facades feature the labors of Herakles and Theseus.


Hephaestus, as you probably know, is the god of metalworking, blacksmithing and fire. His Roman name, Vulcan, is where we get the word "volcano", since volcanos were believed to be evidence of Hephaestus/Vulcan's forges.

This is what remains of the Monument of the Eponymous Heroes.

One of the most important Athenian reformers, Kleisthenes, set up a system of organization that Athens used for most of its history. He divided the city into ten different "tribes", which served a role similar to states in the U.S. Each tribe had a certain number of representatives in the Athenian assembly, each had a representative general to help with wars, and so on. And each tribe was named after and represented by a different hero from Greek mythology and history.
It was these heroes who were honored by this monument, which was basically a high platform with statues of the heroes on top. Now only the platform remains.

The monument was also used as a kind glorified bulletin board, where people would put up new laws, announcements, and anything else that  the public might want to know about.

This is the gateway to the Bouleuterion, according to that rock at the bottom. There isn't much left of either the gateway or the Bouleuterion, but it's still something worth mentioning.
As I said earlier, one of the uses for the agora was as a meeting place for the Athenian government. The Bouleuterion was where the Council of 500 met. The Council of 500 was a group of 500 people chosen from each of the ten tribes who debated a lot and made decisions about governing Athens. It was one of several  debating-and-decision-making bodies in the Athenian government.

And that concludes this brief tour of the Athenian agora. Come again soon!

The next post will be about Delphi. Get excited.

Xaire!