Aglaureion

This sanctuary, built in a crack of the cliff on the northern side of the Acropolis, was dedicated to
Aglaurus, one of the daughters of Cecrops, the first king of Athens (see Herodotus' Histories, VIII, 53). It
is there that the Athenian ephebes used to take the pledge of allegiance to their homeland, invoking in it
Aglaurus, along with Ares and other local and more "universal" divinities.
Altar of Athena
This was a very ancient altar to Athena and Erechtheus, that was used by the various temples that
replaced one another on the Acropolis.
Chalcothece
This building, whose name means in Greek "case for bronze (chalcos) vessels", was used as a store-
house for bronze artifacts offered to Athena.
Eleusinion
This location, at the foot of the Acropolis below the Propyla, was the probable location of the sanctuary
of Demeter, the Goddess whose mysteries were celebrated at Eleusis. It was the starting point of the
official precession taking place during the celebration of the Great Mysteries and leading to the
Telesterion in Eleusis via the "Sacred Way".
Erechtheion
This temple was built to replace the older temple of Athena and was also dedicated to (and named
after) Erechtheus, one of the legendary kings of Athens, later divinized and sometimes identified to
Poseidon himself. Its construction started during the peace of Nicias (421-415 B. C.), was interrupted by
the resumption of the war and was not completed until 406. At that time, it took over the role of the
older temple of Athena as temple dedicated to Athena Polias. The temple was said to be built at the
location where Poseidon, in his contest with Athena for the dominion over Attica, in the time of king
Cecrops, had struck the rock to make sea water flow and Athena had grown an olive-tree to win the
contest (see Herodotus' Histories, VIII, 55).
Odeum of Pericles
See commentary on the map of Athens intra-muros for more on the Odeum of Pericles.
Older temple of Athena
This is the location where several temples to Athena Polias (protector of the city) were successively
built, taking advantage of the leveling of the ground that had been done earlier for a Mycenan palace.
The last of these temples dated back from the VIth century B. C., in the time of the Pisistratid and had
probably been built toward 525 B. C. The temple hosted a wooden statue (xoanon) of Athena that was
said to have fallen from the sky. The temple and the statue were destroyed and burned down by the
Persians in 480 B. C. After the Medean wars, the temple was partly restored and stayed in use till 406, at
which date the xoanon of Athena that had replaced the one burned by the Persians was moved into the
Erechteion, now completed.
Panathenaic Way
See commentary on the map of Athens intra-muros for more on the Panathenaic Way.
Pandroseion
This sanctuary was dedicated to Pandrosus, one of the daughters of Cecrops, the first king of Athens . It
seems that mystery cults were associated with her name.
Parthenon
The temple of Athena, the Virgin ("parthenos" in Greek) Goddess, protector of Athens, at the top of the
Acropolis. Its construction, on the site of two earlier temples to Athena Parthenos, the second of which
was yet unfinished when it was destroyed by the Persians in 480 B. C., was ordered by Pericles and took
10 years, from 447 to 438 B. C., date of its inauguration during the Panathena of that year, but the
decoration was not completed until 432. The architects who built it were Ictinus and Callicrates, working
under the leadership of Phidias, a friend and art councelor of Pericles, who sculpted the
chryselephantine (meaning "plated with gold ("chrusos" in Greek) and ivory ("elephas, elephantos" in
Greek)") statue of Athena that was inside the temple (Thucydides tells us in his Histories, II, 13, 5, that
forty talents of pure gold had been used for the plating of the statue, and could be removed in case of
financial need).
Peripatos
This Greek word meaning "walk around" was the name of the walkway circling the foot of the Acropolis.
Propyla
The Greek word propulaia means "entrance", or, more specifically, "what stands before the doors (pro-
pulai)". The propyla of the Acropolis were built by Pericles as part of his plans to enhance the site and
constituted the doorway to the flat top of the sacred rock. Construction started in 437 B. C. and was
paid for with the money from the tribute levied on "allies" of the Delian League (see Thucydides'
Histories, II, 13, 3). It lasted until 432, but it is possible that the project was never completed because of
the Peloponnesian war that broke out soon after.
Sanctuary of Asclepius
This set of buildings, also called Asclepieion, were built close to a spring after the cult of Asclepius, the
son of Apollo and god of medicine, had been introduced in Athens in 420 B. C. (Asclepius is the god to
whom, according to Plato (Phdo, 118a), Socrates, in his last words before drinking the hemlock, asks
Crito to sacrifice a cock.)
Sanctuary of Artemis Braurnia
Braurn was a location, east of Athens, where the cult of Artemis was celebrated around a statue of the
goddess which was said to be the one brought back from Tauris by Orestes and Iphigenia (see
Herodotus, VI, 138). Artemis, though often associated with virginity, was celebrated there as the
protector of women about to give birth. In the time of Pisistratus, her cult was moved to Athens and this
sanctuary built for her.
Sanctuary of Pandion
This sanctuary was dedicated to king Pandion, the father of Erechtheus, or to his great-grandson, aslo
named Pandion, who was the grandson of Erechtheus and the father of geus (himself father of
Theseus).
Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus
This sanctuary was dedicated to Zeus as protector of the polis (the city), hence the name "polieus".
Statue of Athena Promachos
This gigantic statue (7m high on top of a 2m base) that could be seen from the sea by travellers doubling
Cape Sunium, was one of the first works of the great sculptor Phidias. It was erected as a tribute to
Athena, the goddess who had "fought for (pro-machos in Greek)" Athens, after the naval victory of
Eurymedon over the Persian fleet in 466 B. C. and paid for with the spoils from that victory. It was one of
the most famous statues of antiquity.
Temenos and theater of Dionysus Eleuthereus
See commentary on the map of Athens intra-muros for more on the Temenos (Greek of "sacred
grounds") and theater of Dionysus Eleuthereus.
Temple of Athena Nike
The construction of that small temple dedicated to Athena as provider of victory (nik in Greek) was
planed in the time of Pericles, and its plans probably drawn by Callicrates, the architect of the
Parthenon, but, for lack of money and because of the war, it was not undertaken until 427, that is, two
years after Pericles' death, and it was not completed until much later, toward 410.
Tripod Road
This street leading from the agora to the theater of Dionysus by the eastern side of the Acropolis, owed
its name to the fact that monuments and tripods erected in memory of their victories at the theater by
wealthy citizens selected as choirmasters (chorgoi) were lining up on its sides. It was one of the busiest
streets of ancient Athens.