![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbA few words on the stoas that cluster here, at the NW end of the agora. There were four here in close proximity, the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, the Royal Stoa, and outside the extent of the present archaeological park, to the north across the railway, the Stoa of the Hermes and the Stoa Poikile, or Painted Stoa. These date from the 5th century BC, with the exception of the Royal Stoa, which was already here in the 6th century BC. I'm going to say a few words about the Stoa Poikile, the Stoa of Z.E. and the Royal Stoa. I want a volunteer to look up the Stoa of the Hermes and report back to me tomorrow, when we visit the Kerameikos. I will buy said volunteer an icecream.
Okay, let's start with the Stoa Poikile. You can read all about the paintings in Pausanias: the building presently believed to be the Painted Stoa was uncovered in the excavations of 1981 and much of it still remains under modern buildings. It measures 12.5m in width, and must be at least 36m long, possibly more. Doric in order outside, it had a row of interior Ionic columns. Most of the building was limestone, but the Ionic capitals were marble. It dates to 475-450 BC, and has a really choice location, looking right up the Panathenaic Way to the Acropolis. This stoa, in addition to housing paintings, also housed physical reminders of military triumphs, bronze shields taken from the enemy. The SP had no fixed function, being sometimes used for official functions and legal proceedings, but the written sources make reference to sword-swallowers, beggars, jugglers, fishmongers, and it seems to have usually attracted a crowd. It is associated with the teaching of philosophy, including Cynicism, but most famously - can any tell me? Stoicism.
A volunteer to tell me who began the Stoic school in philosophy, and when? (Zeno from Kition in Cyprus, who came to Athens around 300BC. You can look him up in the writings of Diogenes Laertius.)
The Stoa of Z.E. was not a secular building, being dedicated to the cult of Zeus Eleutherios (Freedom), a cult said to have been founded after the defeat of the Persians at Plataia. A building of the Doric order with two projecting wings, its construction is dated to 430-420BC, during the Peleponnesian war. The facade was, unusually, of Pentelic marble. The building was adorned with the shields of men who'd died while fighting for Athens. Socrates is said to have his friends and pupils there. It may have had a further administrative use as the official gathering-place of the judicial archons, the Thesmothetai.
The Royal Stoa was first built in the Archaic period, towards the end of the 6th century BC. Badly damaged in the Persian sack of 480, it was extensively rebuilt later in the century. Here the king archon, the archon basileus, held office, assisted by two paredroi (assessors). He was responsible for religious matters. In front of the Royal Stoa is a large unworked block of hard limestone, and it is thought that this is the Oath Stone, upon which various magistrates had to take an oath to guard the laws, uphold the constitution of Solon, and things like that. Read your Aristotle and your Plutarch and your Plato, ladies and gentlemen, they will tell you more. Plato, in particular, will tell you that this is where Socrates was indicted for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens.
Now let us stagger by degrees up the slope to the Hephaisteion. At the top, gather in the shade.
The Hephaisteion is contemporaneous with the buildings of the Periklean building programme, but is not, strictly speaking, part of the rebuilding after the destruction of the Persian invasion. There's no evidence of a prior structure on this site. And the Hephaisteion is one of the most complete surviving temples from the ancient world. It was long identified as the Theseion, and it has been also suggested that it was sacred to Artemis, but by far the most widely accepted identification is that of a temple sacred to Hephaistos and to Athena. The god of the forge and the goddess of crafts together overlook the commercial heart of the ancient city. Bronze- and iron-working pits and slag have been found on the slopes.
Except for the Parthenon, the Hephaisteion carries more sculptural decoration than any other temple. It owes its present state of preservation to its early (7th century CE, at best guess, dedicated to Saint Giorgos) conversion into a church. It's built largely of Pentelic marble, with the except of the limestone lower step, and sculptural decoration, which was carved of marble from the islands. The metopes of the front frieze carry the labours of Herakles, the easternmost metopes on both sides labours of Theseus. Other sculptural decoration includes the Centauromachy. Inside the temple were statues of Hephaistos and Athena in bronze by the sculptor Alkamenes.
The area around the temple was landscaped into a garden in antiquity. This has been reconstructed, insofar as possible, and the plants you see around you are as close as can be got to the contents of an ancient Greek temple garden.
A few more words before we release you to poke around on your own, visit the museum in the Stoa of Attalos - visit it! no skiving off for beer and crisps first - and have lunch. I want you to look down into the centre of the agora. No, not right now, but on your way back down. From the first century CE, it became a very busy place. The 5th century temple of Ares was taken up and moved stone by stone into the centre of the Agora in the 1st century CE. An odeion was built in front of the Middle Stoa. More temples and altars and statues were set up. A library - the library of Pantainos - was built south of the Stoa of Attalos. It became so busy, in fact, that much of the city's commercial enterprises moved off east to the Roman Forum.
In the Late Roman period, the Odeion, Middle and South Stoas were demolished and replaced by a large gynasium. It was no longer the city's beating heart, and Athens was no longer the proudest city of Greece. That honour moved north, to Constantinople, and during the Byzantine and then Ottoman period, the agora became a residential area. The 19th century, after the Greek state achieved its independence, saw renewed interest in the Greek past, and towards the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, the inhabitants were relocated and excavations began.
Now go away and for Zeus's sake remember to drink lots of water.
We will continue this endeavour in "Notes for a tour of the South Slope of the Acropolis." Later. Tomorrow later.
Okay, let's start with the Stoa Poikile. You can read all about the paintings in Pausanias: the building presently believed to be the Painted Stoa was uncovered in the excavations of 1981 and much of it still remains under modern buildings. It measures 12.5m in width, and must be at least 36m long, possibly more. Doric in order outside, it had a row of interior Ionic columns. Most of the building was limestone, but the Ionic capitals were marble. It dates to 475-450 BC, and has a really choice location, looking right up the Panathenaic Way to the Acropolis. This stoa, in addition to housing paintings, also housed physical reminders of military triumphs, bronze shields taken from the enemy. The SP had no fixed function, being sometimes used for official functions and legal proceedings, but the written sources make reference to sword-swallowers, beggars, jugglers, fishmongers, and it seems to have usually attracted a crowd. It is associated with the teaching of philosophy, including Cynicism, but most famously - can any tell me? Stoicism.
A volunteer to tell me who began the Stoic school in philosophy, and when? (Zeno from Kition in Cyprus, who came to Athens around 300BC. You can look him up in the writings of Diogenes Laertius.)
The Stoa of Z.E. was not a secular building, being dedicated to the cult of Zeus Eleutherios (Freedom), a cult said to have been founded after the defeat of the Persians at Plataia. A building of the Doric order with two projecting wings, its construction is dated to 430-420BC, during the Peleponnesian war. The facade was, unusually, of Pentelic marble. The building was adorned with the shields of men who'd died while fighting for Athens. Socrates is said to have his friends and pupils there. It may have had a further administrative use as the official gathering-place of the judicial archons, the Thesmothetai.
The Royal Stoa was first built in the Archaic period, towards the end of the 6th century BC. Badly damaged in the Persian sack of 480, it was extensively rebuilt later in the century. Here the king archon, the archon basileus, held office, assisted by two paredroi (assessors). He was responsible for religious matters. In front of the Royal Stoa is a large unworked block of hard limestone, and it is thought that this is the Oath Stone, upon which various magistrates had to take an oath to guard the laws, uphold the constitution of Solon, and things like that. Read your Aristotle and your Plutarch and your Plato, ladies and gentlemen, they will tell you more. Plato, in particular, will tell you that this is where Socrates was indicted for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens.
Now let us stagger by degrees up the slope to the Hephaisteion. At the top, gather in the shade.
The Hephaisteion is contemporaneous with the buildings of the Periklean building programme, but is not, strictly speaking, part of the rebuilding after the destruction of the Persian invasion. There's no evidence of a prior structure on this site. And the Hephaisteion is one of the most complete surviving temples from the ancient world. It was long identified as the Theseion, and it has been also suggested that it was sacred to Artemis, but by far the most widely accepted identification is that of a temple sacred to Hephaistos and to Athena. The god of the forge and the goddess of crafts together overlook the commercial heart of the ancient city. Bronze- and iron-working pits and slag have been found on the slopes.
Except for the Parthenon, the Hephaisteion carries more sculptural decoration than any other temple. It owes its present state of preservation to its early (7th century CE, at best guess, dedicated to Saint Giorgos) conversion into a church. It's built largely of Pentelic marble, with the except of the limestone lower step, and sculptural decoration, which was carved of marble from the islands. The metopes of the front frieze carry the labours of Herakles, the easternmost metopes on both sides labours of Theseus. Other sculptural decoration includes the Centauromachy. Inside the temple were statues of Hephaistos and Athena in bronze by the sculptor Alkamenes.
The area around the temple was landscaped into a garden in antiquity. This has been reconstructed, insofar as possible, and the plants you see around you are as close as can be got to the contents of an ancient Greek temple garden.
A few more words before we release you to poke around on your own, visit the museum in the Stoa of Attalos - visit it! no skiving off for beer and crisps first - and have lunch. I want you to look down into the centre of the agora. No, not right now, but on your way back down. From the first century CE, it became a very busy place. The 5th century temple of Ares was taken up and moved stone by stone into the centre of the Agora in the 1st century CE. An odeion was built in front of the Middle Stoa. More temples and altars and statues were set up. A library - the library of Pantainos - was built south of the Stoa of Attalos. It became so busy, in fact, that much of the city's commercial enterprises moved off east to the Roman Forum.
In the Late Roman period, the Odeion, Middle and South Stoas were demolished and replaced by a large gynasium. It was no longer the city's beating heart, and Athens was no longer the proudest city of Greece. That honour moved north, to Constantinople, and during the Byzantine and then Ottoman period, the agora became a residential area. The 19th century, after the Greek state achieved its independence, saw renewed interest in the Greek past, and towards the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, the inhabitants were relocated and excavations began.
Now go away and for Zeus's sake remember to drink lots of water.
We will continue this endeavour in "Notes for a tour of the South Slope of the Acropolis." Later. Tomorrow later.
