Chapter XXII: Part 22

She already appears as the goddess of counsel ([Greek: poluboulos]) in the _Iliad_ and in Hesiod. The Attic bouleutae took the oath by Athena Boulaia; at Sparta she was [Greek: agoraia], presiding over the popular assemblies in the market-place; in Arcadia [Greek: mechanitis] the discoverer of devices. The epithet [Greek: pronoia] ("forethought") is due, according to Farnell, to a confusion with [Greek: pronaia], referring to a statue of the goddess standing "before a shrine," and arose later (probably spreading from Delphi), some time after the Persian wars, in which she repelled a Persian attack on the temples "by divine forethought"; another legend attributes the name to her skill in assisting Leto at the birth of Apollo and Artemis. With this aspect of her character may be compared the Hesiodic legend, according to which she was the daughter of Metis. Her connexion with the trial of Orestes, the introduction of a milder form of punishment for justifiable homicide, and the institution of the court [Greek: to epi Palladio], show the important part played by her in the development of legal ideas.

The protectress of cities was naturally also a goddess of war. As such she appears in Homer and Hesiod and in post-Homeric legend as the slayer of the Gorgon and taking part in the battle of the giants. On numerous monuments she is represented as [Greek: areia], "the warlike," [Greek: nikephoros], "bringer of victory," holding an image of Nike (q.v.) in her outstretched hand (for other similar epithets see Roscher's _Lexikon_). She was also the goddess of the arts of war in general; [Greek: stoicheia], she who draws up the ranks for battle, [Greek: zosteria], she who girds herself for the fray. Martial music (cp. [Greek: Athene salpinx], "trumpet") and the Pyrrhic dance, in which she herself is said to have taken part to commemorate the victory over the giants, and the building of war-ships were attributed to her. She instructed certain of her favourites in gymnastics and athletics, as a useful training for war. The epithets [Greek: ippia], [Greek: chalinitis], [Greek: damasippos], usually referred to her as goddess of war-horses, may perhaps be reminiscences of an older religion in which the horse was sacred to her. As a war-goddess, she is the embodiment of prudent and intelligent tactics, entirely different from Ares, the personification of brute force and rashness, who is fitly represented as suffering defeat at her hands. She is the patroness and protectress of those heroes who are distinguished for their prudence and caution, and in the Trojan War she sides with the more civilized Greeks.

The goddess of war develops into the goddess of peace and the pursuits connected with it. She is prominent as the promoter of agriculture in Attic legend. The Athenian hero Erechtheus (Erichthonius), originally an earth-god, is her foster-son, with whom she was honoured in the Erechtheum on the Acropolis. Her oldest priestesses, the dew-sisters--Aglauros, Herse, Pandrosos--signify the fertilization of the earth by the dew, and were probably at one time identified with Athena, as surnames of whom both Aglauros and Pandrosos are found. The story of the voluntary sacrifice of the Attic maiden Aglauros on behalf of her country in time of war (commemorated by the ephebi taking the oath of loyalty to their country in her temple), and of the leap of the three sisters over the Acropolis rock (see ERECHTHEUS), probably points to an old human sacrifice. Athena also gave the Athenians the olive-tree, which was supposed to have sprung from the bare soil of the Acropolis, when smitten by her spear, close to the horse (or spring of water) produced by the trident of Poseidon, to which he appealed in support of his claim to the lordship of Athens. She is also connected with Poseidon in the legend of Erechtheus, not as being in any way akin to the former in nature or character, but as indicating the contest between an old and a new religion. This god, whose worship was introduced into Athens at a later date by the Ionian immigrants, was identified with Erechtheus-Erichthonius (for whose birth Athena was in a certain sense responsible), and thus was brought into connexion with the goddess, in order to effect a reconciliation of the two cults. Athena was said to have invented the plough, and to have taught men to tame horses and yoke oxen. Various arts were attributed to her--shipbuilding, the goldsmith's craft, fulling, shoemaking and other branches of industry. As early as Homer she takes especial interest in the occupations of women; she makes Hera's robe and her own peplus, and spinning and weaving are often called "the works of Athena." The custom of offering a beautifully woven peplus at the Panathenaic festival is connected with her character as Ergane the goddess of industry.[2] As patroness of the arts, she is associated with Hephaestus (one of her titles is [Greek: Ephaistia]) and Prometheus, and in Boeotia she was regarded as the inventress of the flute. According to Pindar, she imitated on the flute the dismal wail of the two surviving Gorgons after the death of Medusa. The legend that Athena, observing in the water the distortion of her features caused by playing that instrument, flung it away, probably indicates that the Boeotians whom the Athenians regarded with contempt, used the flute in their worship of the Boeotian Athena. The story of the slaying of Medusa by Athena, in which there is no certain evidence that she played a direct part, explained by Roscher as the scattering of the storm-cloud, probably arose from the fact that she is represented as wearing the Gorgon's head as a badge.

As in the case of Aphrodite and Apollo, Roscher in his _Lexikon_ deduces all the characteristics of Athena from a single conception--that of the goddess of the storm or the thunder-cloud (for a discussion of such attempts see Farnell, _Cults_, i. pp. 3, 263). There seems little reason for regarding her as a nature-goddess at all, but rather as the presiding divinity of states and cities, of the arts and industries--in short, as the goddess of the whole intellectual side of human life.

Except at Athens, little is known of the ceremonies or festivals which attended her worship. There we have the following. (1) The ceremony of the _Three Sacred Ploughs_, by which the signal for seed-time was given, apparently dating from a period when agriculture was one of the chief occupations of her worshippers. (2) The _Procharisteria_ at the end of winter, at which thanks were offered for the germination of the seed. (3) The _Scirophoria_, with a procession from the Acropolis to the village of Skiron, in the height of summer, the priests who were to entreat her to keep off the summer heat walking under the shade of parasols ([Greek: skyron]) held over them; others, however, connect the name with [Greek: skiros] ("gypsum"), perhaps used for smearing the image of the goddess. (4) The _Oschophoria_, at the vintage season, with races among boys, and a procession, with songs in praise of Dionysus and Ariadne. (5) The _Chalkeia_ (feast of smiths), at which the birth of Erechtheus and the invention of the plough were celebrated. (6) The _Plynteria_ and _Callynteria_, at which her ancient image and peplus in the Erechtheum and the temple itself were cleaned, with a procession in which bunches of figs (frequently used in lustrations) were carried. (7) The _Arrhephoria_ or _Errephoria_ (perhaps = _Ersephoria_, "dew-bearing"), at which four girls, between seven and eleven years of age, selected from noble families, carried certain unknown sacred objects to and from the temple of Aphrodite "in the gardens" (see J.E. Harrison, _Classical Review_, April 1889). (8) The _Panathenaea_, at which the new robes for the image of he goddess were carried through the city, spread like a sail on a mast. The reliefs of the frieze of the cella of the Parthenon enable us to form an idea of the procession. Athletic games, open to all who traced their nationality to Athens, were part of this festival. Mention should also be made of the Argive ceremony, at which the _xoanon_ (ancient wooden statue) of Athena was washed in the river Inachus, a symbol of her purification after the Gigantomachia.

The usual attributes of Athena were the helmet, the aegis, the round shield with the head of Medusa in the centre, the lance, an olive branch, the owl, the cock and the snake. Of these the aegis, usually explained as a storm-cloud, is probably intended as a battle-charm, like the Gorgon's head on the shield and the faces on the shields of Chinese soldiers; the owl probably represents the form under which she was worshipped in primitive times, and subsequently became her favourite bird (the epithet [Greek: glaukopis], meaning "keen-eyed" in Homer, may have originally signified "owl-faced"); the snake, a common companion of the earth deities, probably refers to her connexion with Erechtheus-Erichthonius.

As to artistic representations of the goddess, we have first the rude figure which seems to be a copy of the Palladium; secondly, the still rude, but otherwise more interesting, figures of her, as e.g. when accompanying heroes, on the early painted vases; and thirdly, the type of her as produced by Pheidias, from which little variation appears to have been made. Of his numerous statues of her, the three most celebrated were set up on the Acropolis. (1) Athena _Parthenos_, in the Parthenon. It was in ivory and gold, and 30 ft. high. She was represented standing, in a long tunic; on her head was a helmet, ornamented with sphinxes and griffins; on her breast was the aegis, fringed with serpents and the Gorgon's head in centre. In her right hand was a Nike or winged victory, while her left held a spear, which rested on a shield on which were represented the battles of the Amazons with the giants. (2) A colossal statue said to have been formed from the spoils taken at Marathon, the so-called Athena _Promachos_. (3) Athena _Lemnia_, so called because it had been dedicated by the Athenian cleruchies in Lemnos. In this she was represented without arms, as a brilliant type of virgin beauty. The two last statues were of bronze. From the time of Pheidias calm earnestness, self-conscious might, and clearness of intellect were the main characteristics of the goddess. The eyes, slightly cast down, betoken an attitude of thoughtfulness; the forehead is clear and open; the mouth indicates firmness and resolution. The whole suggests a masculine rather than a feminine form.

From Greece the worship of Athena extended to Magna Graecia, where a number of temples were erected to her in various places. In Italy proper she was identified with Minerva (q.v.).

See articles in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_; W.H. Roscher's
_Lexikon der Mythologie_; Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des
antiquites_ (s.v. "Minerva"); L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_;
W.H. Roscher, "Die Grundbedeutung der Athene," in _Nektar und
Ambrosia_ (1883); F.A. Voigt, "Beitrage zur Mythologie des Ares und
Athena," in _Leipziger Studien_, iv. (1881); L.R. Farnell, _The Cults
of the Greek States_, i. (1896); J.E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the
Study of Greek Religion_ (1903), for the festivals especially; O.
Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, ii. (1907). In the article GREEK
ART, fig. 21 represents Athena in the act of striking a prostrate
giant; fig. 38 a statuette of Athena Parthenos, a replica of the work
of Pheidias. (J. H. F.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] O. Gruppe (_Griechische Mythologie_, ii. p. 1194) thinks that it
probably means "without mother's milk," either in an active or in a
passive sense "not giving suck," or "unsuckled," in her character as
the virgin goddess, or as springing from the head of Zeus. In support
of this view he refers to Hesychius [Greek: thaenion gala] and a
passage in Athenagoras (_Legatio pro Christianis_, 17), where it is
stated that Athena was sometimes called [Greek: Athela] or [Greek:
Athele]. For Pallas, he prefers the old etymology from [Greek: palla]
(to "shake"), rather in the sense of "earth-shaker" than
"lance-brandisher."

[2] According to J.E. Harrison in Classical Review (June 1894),
Athena Ergane is the goddess of the fruits of the field and the
procreation of children.

ATHENAEUM, a name originally applied in ancient Greece ([Greek: Athaenaion]) to buildings dedicated to Athena, and specially used as the designation of a temple in Athens, where poets and men of learning were accustomed to meet and read their productions. The academy for the promotion of learning which the emperor Hadrian built (about A.D. 135) at Rome, near the Forum, was also called the Athenaeum. Poets and orators still met and discussed there, but regular courses of instruction were given by a staff of professors in rhetoric, jurisprudence, grammar and philosophy. The institution, later called Schola Romana, continued in high repute till the 5th century. Similar academies were also founded in the provinces and at Constantinople by the emperor Theodosius II. In modern times the name has been applied to various academies, as those of Lyons and Marseilles, and the Dutch high schools; and it has become a very general designation for literary clubs. It is also familiar as the title of several literary periodicals, notably of the London literary weekly founded in 1828.

ATHENAEUS, of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. Suidas only tells us that he lived "in the times of Marcus"; but the contempt with which he speaks of Commodus (died 192) shows that he survived that emperor. Athenaeus himself states that he was the author of a treatise on the _thratta_--a kind of fish mentioned by Archippus and other comic poets--and of a history of the Syrian kings, both of which works are lost. We still possess the _Deipnosophistae_, which may mean dinner-table philosophers or authorities on banquets, in fifteen books. The first two books, and parts of the third, eleventh and fifteenth, are only extant in epitome, but otherwise we seem to possess the work entire. It is an immense storehouse of miscellaneous information, chiefly on matters connected with the table, but also containing remarks on music, songs, dances, games, courtesans. It is full of quotations from writers whose works have not come down to us; nearly 800 writers and 2500 separate writings are referred to by Athenaeus; and he boasts of having read 800 plays of the Middle Comedy alone. The plan of the _Deipnosophistae_ is exceedingly cumbrous, and is badly carried out. It professes to be an account given by the author to his friend Timocrates of a banquet held at the house of Laurentius (or Larentius), a scholar and wealthy patron of art. It is thus a dialogue within a dialogue, after the manner of Plato, but a conversation of sufficient length to occupy several days (though represented as taking place in one) could not be conveyed in a style similar to the short conversations of Socrates. Among the twenty-nine guests are Galen and Ulpian, but they are all probably fictitious personages, and the majority take no part in the conversation. If Ulpian is identical with the famous jurist, the _Deipnosophistae_ must have been written after his death (228); but the jurist was murdered by the praetorian guards, whereas Ulpian in Athenaeus dies a natural death. The conversation ranges from the dishes before the guests to literary matters of every description, including points of grammar and criticism; and they are expected to bring with them extracts from the poets, which are read aloud and discussed at table. The whole is but a clumsy apparatus for displaying the varied and extensive reading of the author. As a work of art it can take but a low rank, but as a repertory of fragments and morsels of information it is invaluable.

Editio princeps, Aldine, 1524; Casaubon, 1597-1600; Schweighauser,
1801-1807; Dindorf, 1827; Meineke, 1859-1867; Kaibel, 1887-1890;
English translation by Yonge in Bohn's _Classical Library_.

ATHENAGORAS, a Christian apologist of the 2nd century A.D., was, according to an emendator of the Paris Codex 451 of the 11th century, a native of Athens. The only sources of information regarding him are a short notice by Philip of Side, in Pamphylia (c. A.D. 420), and the inscription on his principal work. Philip--or rather the compiler who made excerpts from him--says that he was at the head of an Alexandrian school (the catechetical), that he lived in the time of Hadrian and Antoninus, to whom he addressed his _Apology_, and that Clement of Alexandria was his pupil; but these statements are more than doubtful. The inscription on the work describes it as the "Embassy of Athenagoras, the Athenian, a philosopher and a Christian concerning the Christians, to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, &c." This statement has given rise to considerable discussion, but from it and internal evidence the date of the _Apology_ ([Greek: Presbeia peri Christianon]) may be fixed at about A.D. 177. Athenagoras is also the author of a discourse on the resurrection of the body, which is not authenticated otherwise than by the titles on the various manuscripts. In the _Apology_, after contrasting the judicial treatment of Christians with that of other accused persons, he refutes the accusations brought against the Christians of atheism, eating human flesh and licentiousness, and in doing so takes occasion to make a vigorous and skilful attack on pagan polytheism and mythology. The discourse on the resurrection answers objections to the doctrine, and attempts to prove its truth from considerations of God's purpose in the creation of man, His justice and the nature of man himself. Athenagoras is a powerful and clear writer, who strives to comprehend his opponents' views and is acquainted with the classical writers. He used the _Apology_ of Justin, but hardly the works of Aristides or Tatian. His theology is strongly tinged with Platonism, and this may account for his falling into desuetude. His discussion of the Trinity has some points of speculative interest, but it is not sufficiently worked out; he regards the Son as the Reason or Wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit as a divine effluence. On some other points, as the nature of matter, the immortality of the soul and the principle of sin, his views are interesting.

EDITIONS.--J.C. Th. Eg. de Otto, _Corpus Apol. Christ. Saec._ II. vol.
vii. (Jena, 1857); E. Schwartz in _Texte und Untersuchungen_, iv. 2
(Leipzig, 1891).

TRANSLATIONS.--Humphreys (London, 1714); B.P. Pratten (_Ante-Nic.
Fathers_, Edinburgh, 1867).

LITERATURE.--A. Harnack, _Gesch. der altchr. Litt._ pp. 526-558, and
similar works by O. Bardenhewer and A. Ehrhard; Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyk._; G. Kruger, _Early Chr. Lit._ p. 130 (where additional
literature is cited). In 1559 and 1612 appeared in French a work on
_True and Perfect Love_, purporting to be a translation from the Greek
of Athenagoras; it is a palpable forgery.

ATHENODORUS, the name of two Stoic philosophers of the 1st century B.C., who have frequently been confounded.

1. ATHENODORUS CANANITES (c. 74 B.C.-A.D. 7), so called from his birthplace Canana near Tarsus (not Cana in Cilicia nor Canna in Lycaonia), was the son of one Sandon, whose name indicates Tarsian descent, not Jewish as many have held. He was a personal friend of Strabo, from whom we derive our knowledge of his life. He taught the young Octavian (afterwards Augustus) at Apollonia, and was a pupil of Posidonius at Rhodes. Subsequently he appears to have travelled in the East (Petra and Egypt) and to have made himself famous by lecturing in the great cities of the Mediterranean. Writing in 50 B.C., Cicero speaks of him with the highest respect (cf. _Ep. ad. Att._, xvi. 11. 4, 14. 4), a fact which enables us to fix the date of his birth as not later than about 74. His influence over Augustus was strong and lasting. He followed him to Rome in 44, and is said to have criticized him with the utmost candour, bidding him repeat the letters of the alphabet before acting on an angry impulse. In later years he was allowed by Augustus to return to Tarsus in order to remodel the constitution of the city after the degenerate democracy which had misgoverned it under Boethus. He succeeded (c. 15-10 B.C.) in setting up a timocratic oligarchy in the imperial interest (see TARSUS). Sir W.M. Ramsay is inclined to attribute to the influence of Athenodorus the striking resemblances which can be established between Seneca and Paul, the latter of whom must certainly have been acquainted with his teachings. According to Eusebius and Strabo he was a learned scientist for his day, and some attribute to him a history of Tarsus. He helped Cicero in the composition of the _De Officiis_. His works are not certainly known, and none are extant. (See Sir W.M. Ramsay in the _Expositor_, September 1906, pp. 268 ff.)

2. ATHENODORUS CORDYLION, also of Tarsus, was keeper of the library at Pergamum, and was an old man in 47 B.C. In his enthusiasm for Stoicism he used to cut out from Stoic writings passages which seemed to him unsatisfactory. He also settled in Rome, where he died in the house of the younger Cato.

Among others of the name may be mentioned (3) ATHENODORUS OF TEOS, who
played the cithara at the wedding of Alexander the Great and Statira
at Susa (324 B.C.); (4) a Greek physician of the 1st century A.D., who
wrote on epidemic diseases; and two sculptors, of whom (5) one
executed the statues of Apollo and Zeus which the Spartans dedicated
at Delphi after Aegospotami; and (6) the other was a son of Alexander
of Rhodes, whom he helped in the Laocoon group.

ATHENRY, a market town of county Galway, Ireland, 14 m. inland (E.) from Galway on the Midland Great Western main line. Pop. (1901) 853. Its name is derived from _Ath-na-riogh_, the ford of kings; and it grew to importance after the Anglo-Norman invasion as the first town of the Burgs and Berminghams. The walls were erected in 1211 and the castle in 1238, and the remains of both are noteworthy. A Dominican monastery was founded with great magnificence by Myler de Bermingham in 1241, and was repaired by the Board of Works in 1893. Of the Franciscan monastery of 1464 little is left. The town returned two members to the Irish parliament from the time of Richard II. to the Union; but it never recovered from the wars of the Tudor period, culminating in a successful siege by Red Hugh O'Donnell in 1596.

ATHENS [[Greek: Athaenai], _Athenae_, modern colloquial Greek [Greek: Athaena]], the capital of the kingdom of Greece, situated in 23 deg. 44' E. and 37 deg. 58' N., towards the southern end of the central and principal plain of Attica. The various theories with regard to the origin of the name are all somewhat unconvincing; it is conceivable that, with the other homonymous Greek towns, such as Athenae Diades in Euboea, [Greek: Athaenai] may be connected etymologically with [Greek: anthos], a flower (cf. _Firenze_, Florence); the patron goddess, Athena, was probably called after the place of her cult.

I. TOPOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES

The Attic plain, [Greek: to pedion], slopes gently towards the coast of the Saronic Gulf on the south-west; on the east it is overlooked by Mount Hymettus (3369 ft.); on the north-east by Pentelicus or Brilessus (3635 ft.) from which, in ancient and modern times, an immense quantity of the finest marble has been quarried; on the north-west by Parnes (4636 ft.), a continuation of the Boeotian Cithaeron, and on the west by Aegaleus (1532 ft.), which descends abruptly to the bay of Salamis. In the centre of the plain extends from north-east to south-west a series of low heights, now known as Turcovuni, culminating towards the south in the sharply pointed Lycabettus (1112 ft.), now called Hagios Georgios from the monastery which crowns its summit. Lycabettus, the most prominent feature in the Athenian landscape, directly overhung the ancient city, but was not included in its walls; its peculiar shape rendered it unsuitable for fortification. The Turcovuni ridge, probably the ancient Anchesmus, separates the valley of the Cephisus on the north-west from that of its confluent, the Ilissus, which skirted the ancient city on the south-west. The Cephisus, rising in Pentelicus, enters the sea at New Phalerum; in summer it dwindles to an insignificant stream, while the Ilissus, descending from Hymettus, is totally dry, probably owing to the destruction of the ancient forests on both mountains, and the consequent denudation of the soil. Separated from Lycabettus by a depression to the south-west, through which flows a brook, now a covered drain (probably to be identified with the Eridanus), stands the remarkable oblong rocky mass of the Acropolis (512 ft.), rising precipitously on all sides except the western; its summit was partially levelled in prehistoric times, and the flat area was subsequently enlarged by further cutting and by means of retaining walls. Close to the Acropolis on the west is the lower rocky eminence of the Areopagus, [Greek: Areios pagos] (377 ft.), the seat of the famous council; the name (see also AREOPAGUS) has been connected with Ares, whose temple stood on the northern side of the hill, but is more probably derived from the [Greek: Apai] or Eumenides, whose sanctuary was formed by a cleft in its north-eastern declivity. Farther west of the Acropolis are three elevations; to the north-west the so-called "Hill of the Nymphs" (341 ft.), on which the modern Observatory stands; to the west the Pnyx, the meeting-place of the Athenian democracy (351 ft.), and to the south-west the loftier Museum Hill (482 ft.), still crowned with the remains of the monument of Philopappus. A cavity, a little to the west of the Observatory Hill, is generally supposed to be the ancient Barathron or place of execution. To the south-east of the Acropolis, beyond the narrow valley of the Ilissus, is the hill Ardettus (436 ft.). The distance from the Acropolis to the nearest point of the sea coast at Phalerum is a little over 3 m.

Influence of the geographical position.

The natural situation of Athens was such as to favour the growth of a powerful community. For the first requisites of a primitive settlement--food supply and defence--it afforded every advantage. The Attic plain, notwithstanding the lightness of the soil, furnished an adequate supply of cereals; olive and fig groves and vineyards were cultivated from the earliest times in the valley of the Cephisus, and pasturage for sheep and goats was abundant. The surrounding rampart of mountains was broken towards the north-east by an open tract stretching between Hymettus and Pentelicus towards Marathon, and was traversed by the passes of Decelea, Phyle and Daphne on the north and north-west, but the distance between these natural passages and the city was sufficient to obviate the danger of surprise by an invading land force. On the other hand Athens, like Corinth, Megara and Argos, was sufficiently far from the sea to enjoy security against the sudden descent of a hostile fleet. At the same time the relative proximity of three natural harbours, Peiraeus, Zea and Munychia, favoured the development of maritime commerce and of the sea power which formed the basis of Athenian hegemony. The climate is temperate, but liable to sudden changes; the mean temperature is 63 deg. .1 F., the maximum (in July) 99 deg. .01, the minimum (in January) 31 deg. .55. The summer heat is moderated by the sea-breeze or by cool northerly winds from the mountains (especially in July and August). The clear, bracing air, according to ancient writers, fostered the intellectual and aesthetic character of the people and endowed them with mental and physical energy. For the architectural embellishment of the city the finest building material was procurable without difficulty and in abundance; Pentelicus forms a mass of white, transparent, blue-veined marble; another variety, somewhat similar in appearance, but generally of a bluer hue, was obtained from Hymettus. For ordinary purposes grey limestone was furnished by Lycabettus and the adjoining hills; limestone from the promontory of Acte (the so-called "poros" stone), and conglomerate, were also largely employed. For the ceramic art admirable material was at hand in the district north-west of the Acropolis. For sculpture and various architectural purposes white, fine-grained marble was brought from Paros and Naxos. The main drawback to the situation of the city lay in the insufficiency of its water-supply, which was supplemented by an aqueduct constructed in the time of the Peisistratids and by later water-courses dating from the Roman period. A great number of wells were also sunk and rain-water was stored in cisterns.

Sources for Athenian topography.

For the purposes of scientific topography observation of the natural
features and outlines is followed by exact investigation of the
architectural structures or remnants, a process demanding high
technical competence, acute judgment and practical experience, as well
as wide and accurate scholarship. The building material and the manner
of its employment furnish evidence no less important than the
character of the masonry, the design and the modes of ornamentation.
The testimony afforded by inscriptions is often of decisive
importance, especially that of commemorative or votive tablets or of
boundary-stones found _in situ_; the value of this evidence is, on the
other hand, sometimes neutralized owing to the former removal of
building material already used and its incorporation in later
structures. Thus sepulchral inscriptions have been found on the
Acropolis, though no burials took place there in ancient times. In the
next place comes the evidence derived from the whole range of ancient
literature and specially from descriptions of the city or its
different localities. The earliest known description of Athens was
that of Diodorus, [Greek: ho periaegtes], who lived in the second half
of the 4th century B.C. Among his successors were Polemon of Ilium
(beginning of 2nd century B.C.), whose great [Greek: kosmikae
periaegaesis] gave a minute account of the votive offerings on the
Acropolis and the tombs on the Sacred Way; and Heliodorus (second half
of the 2nd century) who wrote fifteen volumes on the monuments of
Athens. Of these and other works of the earliest topographers only
some fragments remain. In the period between A.D. 143 and 159
Pausanias visited Athens at a time when the monuments of the great age
were still in their perfection and the principal embellishments of the
Roman period had already been completed. The first thirty chapters of
his invaluable _Description of Greece_ ([Greek: periaegaesis taes
Hellados]) are devoted to Athens, its ports and environs. Pausanias
makes no claim to exhaustiveness; he selected what was best worth
noticing ([Greek: ta axiologotata]). His account, drawn up from notes
taken in the main from personal observation, possesses an especial
importance for topographical research, owing to his method of
describing each object in the order in which he saw it during the
course of his walks. His accuracy, which has been called in question
by some scholars, has been remarkably vindicated by recent excavations
at Athens and elsewhere. The list of ancient topographers closes with
Pausanias. The literature of succeeding centuries furnishes only
isolated references; the more important are found in the scholia on
Aristophanes, the lexicons of Hesychius, Photius and others, and the
_Etymologicum Magnum_. The notices of Athens during the earlier middle
ages are scanty in the extreme. In 1395 Niccola da Martoni, a pilgrim
from the Holy Land, visited Athens and wrote a description of a
portion of the city. Of the work of Cyriac of Ancona, written about
1450, only some fragments remain, which are well supplemented by the
contemporaneous description of the capable observer known as the
"Anonymous of Milan." Two treatises in Greek by unknown writers belong
to the same period. The Dutchman Joannes Meursius (1579-1639) wrote
three disquisitions on Athenian topography. The conquest by Venice in
1687 led to the publication of several works in that city, including
the descriptions of De la Rue and Fanelli and the maps of Coronelli
and others. The systematic study of Athenian topography was begun in
the 17th century by French residents at Athens, the consuls Giraud and
Chataignier and the Capuchin monks. The visit of the French physician
Jacques Spon and the Englishman, Sir George Wheler or Wheeler
(1650-1723), fortunately took place before the catastrophe of the
Parthenon in 1687; Spon's _Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grece et
du Levant_, which contained the first scientific description of the
ruins of Athens, appeared in 1678; Wheler's _Journey into Greece_, in
1682. A period of British activity in research followed in the 18th
century. The monumental work of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, who
spent three years at Athens (1751-1754), marked an epoch in the
progress of Athenian topography and is still indispensable to its
study, owing to the demolition of ancient buildings which began about
the middle of the 18th century. To this period also belong the labours
of Richard Pococke and Richard Dalton, Richard Chandler, E.D. Clarke
and Edward Dodwell. The great work of W.M. Leake (_Topography of
Athens and the Demi_, 2nd ed., 1841) brought the descriptive
literature to an end and inaugurated the period of modern scientific
research, in which German archaeologists have played a distinguished
part.

Recent research.

Recent investigation has thrown a new and unexpected light on the art,
the monuments and the topography of the ancient city. Numerous and
costly excavations have been carried out by the Greek government and
by native and foreign scientific societies, while accidental
discoveries have been frequently made during the building of the
modern town. The museums, enriched by a constant inflow of works of
art and inscriptions, have been carefully and scientifically arranged,
and afford opportunities for systematic study denied to scholars of
the past generation. Improved means of communication have enabled many
acute observers to apply the test of scrutiny on the spot to theories
and conclusions mainly based on literary evidence; five foreign
schools of archaeology, directed by eminent scholars, lend valuable
aid to students of all nationalities, and lectures are frequently
delivered in the museums and on the more interesting and important
sites. The native archaeologists of the present day hold a recognized
position in the scientific work; the patriotic sentiment of former
times, which prompted their zeal but occasionally warped their
judgment, has been merged in devotion to science for its own sake, and
the supervision of excavations, as well as the control of the
art-collections, is now in highly competent hands. Athens has thus
become a centre of learning, a meeting-place for scholars and a basis
for research in every part of the Greek world. The attention of many
students has naturally been concentrated on the ancient city, the
birthplace of European art and literature, and a great development of
investigation and discussion in the special domain of Athenian
archaeology has given birth to a voluminous literature. Many theories
hitherto universally accepted have been called in question or proved
to be unsound: the views of Leake, for instance, have been challenged
on various points, though many of his conclusions have been justified
and confirmed. The supreme importance of a study of Greek antiquities
on the spot, long understood by scholars in Europe and in America, has
gradually come to be recognized in England, where a close attention to
ancient texts, not always adequately supplemented by a course of local
study and observation, formerly fostered a peculiarly conservative
attitude in regard to the problems of Greek archaeology. Since the
foundation of the German Institute in 1874, Athenian topography has to
a large extent become a speciality of German scholars, among whom
Wilhelm Dorpfeld occupies a pre-eminent position owing to his great
architectural attainments and unrivalled local knowledge. Many of his
bold and novel theories have provoked strenuous opposition, while
others have met with general acceptance, except among scholars of the
more conservative type.

The early citadel.

_Prehistoric Athens._--Numerous traces of the "Mycenaean" epoch have recently been brought to light in Athens and its neighbourhood. Among the monuments of this age discovered in the surrounding districts are the rock-hewn tombs of Spata, accidentally revealed by a landslip in 1877, and domed sepulchre at Menidi, near the ancient Acharnae, excavated by Lolling in 1879. Other "Mycenaean" landmarks have been laid bare at Eleusis, Thoricus, Halae and Aphidna. These structures, however, are of comparatively minor importance in point of dimensions and decoration; they were apparently designed as places of sepulture for local chieftains, whose domains were afterwards incorporated in the Athenian realm by the [Greek: synoikismos] (synoecism) attributed to Theseus. The situation of the Acropolis, dominating the surrounding plain and possessing easy communication with the sea, favoured the formation of a relatively powerful state--inferior, however, to Tiryns and Mycenae; the myths of Cecrops, Erechtheus and Theseus bear witness to the might of the princes who ruled in the Athenian citadel, and here we may naturally expect to find traces of massive fortifications resembling in some degree those of the great Argolid cities. Such in fact have been brought to light by the modern excavations on the Acropolis (1885-1889). Remains of primitive polygonal walls which undoubtedly surrounded the entire area have been found at various points a little within the circuit of the existing parapet. The best-preserved portions are at the eastern extremity, at the northern side near the ancient "royal" exit, and at the south-western angle. The course of the walls can be traced with a few interruptions along the southern side. On the northern side are the foundations of a primitive tower and other remains, apparently of dwelling-houses, one of which may have been the [Greek: pukinos domos Erthaeos] mentioned by Homer (_Od_. vii. 81). Among the foundations were discovered fragments of "Mycenaean" pottery. The various approaches to the citadel on the northern side--the rock-cut flight of steps north-east of the Erechtheum (q.v.), the stairs leading to the well Clepsydra, and the intermediate passage supposed to have furnished access to the Persians--are all to be attributed to the primitive epoch. Two pieces of polygonal wall, one beneath the bastion of Nike Apteros, the other in a direct line between the Roman gateway and the door of the Propylaea, are all that remain of the primitive defences of the main entrance.

The Pelasgicum.

These early fortifications of the Acropolis, ascribed to the primitive non-hellenic Pelasgi, must be distinguished from the Pelasgicum Or Pelargicum, which was in all probability an encircling wall, built round the base of the citadel and furnished with nine gates from which it derived the name of Enneapylon. Such a wall would be required to protect the clusters of dwellings around the Acropolis as well as the springs issuing from the rock, while the gates opening in various directions would give access to the surrounding pastures and gardens. This view, which is that of E. Curtius, alone harmonizes with the statement of Herodotus (vi. 137) that the wall was "around" ([Greek: peri]) the Acropolis, and that of Thucydides (ii. 17) that it was "beneath" ([Greek: hypo]) the fortress. Thus it would appear that the citadel had an outer and an inner line of defence in prehistoric times. The space enclosed by the outer wall was left unoccupied after the Persian wars in deference to an oracular response apparently dictated by military considerations, the maintenance of an open zone being desirable for the defence of the citadel. A portion of the outer wall has been recognized in a piece of primitive masonry discovered near the Odeum of Herodes Atticus; other traces will probably come to light when the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis have been completely explored. Leake, whom Frazer follows, assumed the Pelasgicum to be a fortified space at the western end of the Acropolis; this view necessitates the assumption that the nine gates were built one within the other, but early antiquity furnishes no instance of such a construction; Dorpfeld believes it to have extended from the grotto of Pan to the sacred precinct of Asclepius. The well-known passage of Lucian (_Piscator_, 47) cannot be regarded as decisive for any of the theories advanced, as any portion of the old _enceinte_ dismantled by the Persians may have retained the name in later times. The Pelasgic wall enclosed the spring Clepsydra, beneath the north-western corner of the Acropolis, which furnished a water-supply to the defenders of the fortress. The spring, to which a staircase leads down, was once more included in a bastion during the War of Independence by the Greek chief Odysseus.

The Pnyx.

To the "Pelasgic" era may perhaps be referred (with Curtius and Milchhofer) the immense double terrace on the north-eastern slope of the Pnyx (395 ft. by 212), the upper portion of which is cut out of the rock, while the lower is enclosed by a semicircular wall of massive masonry; the theory of these scholars, however, that the whole precinct was a sanctuary of the Pelasgian Zeus cannot be regarded as proved, nor is it easy to abandon the generally received view that this was the scene of the popular assemblies of later times, notwithstanding the apparent unsuitability of the ground and the insufficiency of room for a large multitude. These difficulties are met by the assumption that the semicircular masonry formed the base of a retaining-wall which rose to a considerable height, supporting a theatre-like structure capable of seating many thousand persons. The masonry may be attributed to the 5th century; the chiselling of the immense blocks is not "Cyclopean." Projecting from the upper platform at the centre of the chord of the semicircular area is a cube of rock, 11 ft. square and 5 ft. high, approached on either side by a flight of steps leading to the top; this block, which Curtius supposes to have been the primitive altar of Zeus [Greek: Hupsistos], may be safely identified with the orators' bema, [Greek: ho lithos en tae Pykni] (Aristoph. _Pax_, 680). Plutarch's statement that the Thirty Tyrants removed the bema so as to face the land instead of the sea is probably due to a misunderstanding. Other cubes of rock, apparently altars, exist in the neighbourhood. There can be little doubt that the Pnyx was the seat of an ancient cult; the meetings of the Ecclesia were of a religious character and were preceded by a sacrifice to Zeus [Greek: Agoraios]; nor is it conceivable that, but for its sacred associations, a site would have been chosen so unsuitable for the purposes of a popular assembly as to need the addition of a costly artificial auditorium.

Rock-dwellings and tombs.

The Pnyx, the Hill of the Nymphs and the Museum Hill are covered with vestiges of early settlements which extend to a considerable distance towards the south-east in the direction of Phalerum. They consist of chambers of various sizes, some of which were evidently human habitations, together with cisterns, channels, seats, steps, terraces and quadrangular tombs, all cut in the rock. This neighbourhood was held by Curtius to have been the site of the primeval rock city, [Greek: kranaa polis] (Aristoph. _Ach_. 75), anterior to the occupation of the Acropolis and afterwards abandoned for the later settlement. It seems inconceivable, however, that any other site should have been preferred by the primitive settlers to the Acropolis, which offered the greatest advantages for defence; the Pnyx, owing to its proximity to the centres of civic life, can never have been deserted, and that portion which lay within the city walls must have been fully occupied when Athens was crowded during the Peloponnesian War. Some of the rock chambers originally intended for tombs were afterwards converted, perhaps under pressure of necessity, into habitations, as in the case of the so-called "Prison of Socrates," which consists of three chambers horizontally excavated and a small round apartment of the "beehive" type. The remains on the Pnyx and its neighbourhood cannot all be assigned to one epoch, the prehistoric age. The dwellings do not correspond in size or details with the undoubtedly prehistoric abodes on the Acropolis. In view of the ancient law which forbade burial within the city, the tombs within the circuit of the city walls must either be earlier than the time of Themistocles or several centuries later; in the similar rock-tombs on the neighbouring slopes of the Acropolis and Areopagus both Mycenaean and Dipylon pottery have been found. But the numerous vertically excavated tombs outside the walls are of late date and belong for the most part to the Roman period.

The Areopagus.

The Areopagus is now a bare rock possessing few architectural traces. The legend of its occupation by the Amazons (Aeschylus, _Eum_. 681 seq.) may be taken as indicating its military importance for an attack on the Acropolis; the Persians used it as a _point d'appui_ for their assault. The seat of the old oligarchical council and court for homicide was probably on its eastern height. Here were the altar of Athena Areia and two stones, the [Greek: lithos Ybreos], on which the accuser, and the [Greek: lithos Anaideias], on which the accused, took their stand. Beneath, at the north-eastern corner, is the cleft which formed the sanctuary of the [Greek: Semnai], or Erinyes. There is no reason for disturbing the associations connected with this spot as the scene of St Paul's address to the Athenians (E. Gardner, _Anc. Athens_, p. 505).

_Hellenic Period._--While modern research has added considerably to our knowledge of prehistoric Athens, a still greater light has been thrown on the architecture and topography of the city in the earlier historic or "archaic" era, the subsequent age of Athenian greatness, and the period of decadence which set in with the Macedonian conquest; the first extends from the dawn of history to 480-479 B.C., when the city was destroyed by the Persians; the second, or classical, age closes in 322 B.C., when Athens lost its political independence after the Lamian War; the third, or Hellenistic, in 146 B.C., when the state fell under Roman protection. We must here group these important epochs together, as distinguished from the later period of Roman rule, and confine ourselves to a brief notice of their principal monuments and a record of the discoveries by which they have been illustrated in recent years.

The city in the "archaic" era.

The earliest settlement on the Acropolis was doubtless soon increased by groups of dwellings at its base, inhabited by the dependents of the princes who ruled in the stronghold. These habitations would naturally in the first instance lie in close proximity to the western approach; after the building of the Pelasgicum they seem to have extended beyond its walls towards the south and south-west--towards the sea and the waters of the Ilissus. The district thus occupied sloped towards the sun and was sheltered by the Acropolis from the prevailing northerly winds. The Thesean synoecism led to the introduction of new cults and the foundation of new shrines partly on the Acropolis, partly in the inhabited district at its base both within and without the wall of the Pelasgicum. Some of the shrines in this region are mentioned by Thucydides in a passage which is of capital importance for the topography of the city at this period (ii. 15). By degrees the inhabited area began to comprise the open ground to the north-west, the nearer portion of the later Ceramicus, or "potters' field" (afterwards divided by the walls of Themistocles into the Inner and Outer Ceramicus), and eventually extended to the north and east of the citadel, which, by the beginning of the 5th century B.C., had become the centre of a circular or wheel-shaped city, [Greek: polios trochoeideos akra karaena] (Oracle _apud_ Herod, vii. 140). To this enlarged city was applied, probably about the second half of the 6th century, the special designation [Greek: to aste], which afterwards distinguished Athens from its port, the Peiracus; the Acropolis was already [Greek: e polis] (Thucyd. ii. 15). The city is supposed to have been surrounded by a wall before the time of Solon, the existence of which may be deduced from Thucydides' account of the assassination of Hipparchus (vi. 57), but no certain traces of such a wall have been discovered; the materials may have been removed to build the walls of Themistocles.

The Agora.

The centre of commercial and civic life of the older group of communities, as of the greater city of the classical age, was the Agora or market. Here were the various public buildings, which, when the power of the princes on the citadel was transferred to the archons, formed the offices of the administrative magistracy. The site of the primitive Agora ([Greek: archaia agora]) was probably in the hollow between the Acropolis and the Pnyx, which formed a convenient meeting-place for the dwellers on the north and south sides of the fortress as well as for its inhabitants. In the time of the Peisistratids the Agora was enlarged so as to extend over the Inner Ceramicus on the north-west, apparently reaching the northern declivities of the Areopagus and the Acropolis on the south. After the Persian Wars the northern portion was used for commercial, the southern for political and ceremonial purposes. In the southern were the Orchestra, where the Dionysiac dances took place, and the famous statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton by Antenor which were carried away by Xerxes; also the Metroum, or temple of the Mother of the Gods, the Bouleuterium, or council-chamber of the Five Hundred, the Prytaneum, the hearth of the combined communities, where the guests of the state dined, the temple of the Dioscuri, and the Tholus, or Skias, a circular stone-domed building in which the Prytaneis were maintained at the public expense; in the northern were the Leocorium, where Hipparchus was slain, the [Greek: stoa basilikae], the famous [Greek: stoa poikilae], where Zeno taught, and other structures. The Agora was commonly described as the "Ceramicus," and Pausanias gives it this name; of the numerous buildings which he saw here scarcely a trace remains; their position, for the most part, is largely conjectural, and the exact boundaries of the Agora itself are uncertain. What are perhaps the remains of the [Greek: stoa basilikae], in which the Archon Basileus held his court and the Areopagus Council sat in later times, were brought to light in the winter of 1897-1898, when excavations were carried out on the eastern slope of the "Theseum" hill. Here was found a rectangular structure resembling a temple, but with a side door to the north; it possessed a portico of six columns. The north slope of the Areopagus, where a number of early tombs were found, was also explored, and the limits of the Agora on the south and north-west were approximately ascertained. A portion of the main road leading from the Dipylon to the Agora was discovered.

The Enneacrunus.