The Area South of the Ancient Agora

The Area South of the Ancient Agora. . Η ΠΕΡΙΟΧΜ ΝΟΤΙΩΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΑΣ ΑΓΟΡΑΣ , (Text in Greek on the left side. To read it enlarge the marker image.) , English: , The "Eleusinion in the City", a shrine sacred to the mystery religion of the goddesses Demeter and Kore/Persephone, together with their mortal counterpart Triptolemos, dominated the north slope of the Acropolis, to the southeast of the Ancient Agora. , These Eleusinian deities were already worshipped here in the 6th cent. B.C. in an open-air shrine surrounded by a wall. In the 5th cent. a small rectangular Ionic temple was built in the shrine. The following centuries auxiliary establishments, and dedications were added. The shrine was bordered by the Panathenaic Way on the west and the two branches of the «Street of the Tripods» on the north and south. , The Panathenaic Way extended from the Dipylon in the Keramelkos to the entrance to the Acropolis, cutting diagonally through the central square of the Agora. It was mainly of soil, but in the 1st or 2nd cent. A.D. the section in the northeast corner of the Agora and that along the west side of the Eleusinion was paved with stone. , On the west of the Acropolis is situated a rock outcrop called the "Areopagus". The hill derives its name probably from Ares, the god of war, and the Ares-Erinyes or Semnes, underground goddesses of punishment and revenge. A judicial body the Areopagus Council met on this hill. The Areopagus was also a place of religious worship. Among the several sanctuaries located here was that of the Semnes or Eumenides. , In the Mycenaean and Geometric periods (1600-700 B.C.) the northern slope of the hill served as a cemetery, with both vaulted tombs and simple cist graves. From the 6th cent. B.C. onward the hillside as a whole became a residential quarter belonging to the fashionable district of Melite. By the Late Roman period (4th-6th cent. A.D.) four luxury houses, which probably served as philosophical schools, had replaced the houses of the Classical era. , The Areopagus is also associated with the spread of Christianity into Greece. Some time near the middle of the 1st cent. A.D. the Apostle Paul is said to have converted a number of Athenians by teaching the tenets of the new religion from the summit of the hill. Among the converts was Dionysios the Areopagite, the patron saint of the city of Athens, who, according to tradition, was the city's first bishop. , Remains of the church of St. Dionysios the Areopagite closed into the north and west by the monumental Archbishop's Palace (16th-17th cent.) are preserved on the north slope of the hill.