Download Stoa of Attalos

Arrangement
 Classical Greek cities – either result of continuous growth, or created at a
single moment.
 Former – had streets –lines of communication, curving, bending- ease
gradients.
Later- had grid plans – straight streets crossing at right angles- ignoring
obstacles became stairways where gradients were too steep.
 Despite these differences, certain features and principles of arrangement
are common to both.
Greek towns
Towns had fixed boundaries.
In 6th century BC some were
surrounded by fortifications, later
became more frequent., but even
where there were no walls demarcation of interior and
exterior was clear.
 In most Greek towns availability
of area- devoted to public use
rather than private use.
 Agora- important gathering place
– conveniently placed for
communication and easily
accessible from all directions.
The Agora Of Athens
• Agora originally meant "gathering place" but came to
mean the market place and public square in an ancient
Greek city. It was the political, civic, and commercial
center of the city, near which were stoas, temples,
administrative & public buildings, market places,
monuments, shrines etc.
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The agora in Athens had private housing, until it was reorganized by
Peisistratus in the 6th century BC.
Although he may have lived on the agora himself, he removed the other
houses, closed wells, and made it the centre of Athenian government.
He also built a drainage system, fountains and a temple to the Olympian
gods.
Cimon later improved the agora by constructing new buildings and planting
trees.
In the 5th century BC there were temples constructed to Hephaestus, Zeus
and Apollo.
The Areopagus and the assembly of all citizens met elsewhere in Athens,
but some public meetings, such as those to discuss ostracism, were held in
the agora.
Beginning in the period of the radical democracy (after 509 BC), the Boule,
or city council, the Prytaneis, or presidents of the council, and the Archons,
or magistrates, all met in the agora.
The law courts were located there, and any citizen who happened to be in
the agora when a case was being heard, could be forced to serve as a juror.
The Scythian archers, a kind of mercenary police force, often wandered the
agora specifically looking for jurors.
The agora in Athens again became a residential area during Roman and
Byzantine times.
Socrates spent most of his time at the agora in Athens discussing the
serious issues of the day with anyone who was willing.
Stoa of attalos
Court house
To the Kerameikos and Dipylon
Gate
This is the Sacred Way leading first to
the Kerameikos (Potters' Quarter)and
then through the Dipylon Gate to the
holy city of Eleusis.
The "Sacred Way" is now the main
route out of Athens to the west.
The Panathenaic Way
This is where the Panathenaic Way left the Agora to begin its ascent to the
Acropolis.
This road got its name because the
great procession of t he Panathenaea
took this route on its way to the
Acropolis.
The Panathenaic Way cut diagonally
across the Agora from its northwest
corner to its southeast corner.
To the Piraeus
• The way to the Piraeus Gate,
leading to the port.
To the PNYX
• To the Pnyx : a six-minute walk up the hill to the hillside where the
EKKLESIA met.
• In earlier days, the people would have assembled in the Agora - but
from about 460 B.C. the meetings of the assembly were in the Pnyx.
• Officials ensured attendance by means of the "Red Rope" - a rope
dipped in red powder. If you were caught with the red on you, you
could be fined.
The Altar of Aphrodite Urania
• Found in 1981: restored view of an elegant altar of c.500
B.C. - it uses marble from the islands (Paros or Naxos),
rather than local Pentelic, which only started to be used
in 490 BC. There may be a temple somewhere nearby a statue of Aphrodite by Pheidias is mentioned by
Pausanias.
The Painted Stoa
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The "Painted Stoa" (Stoa Poikile) Built about 475-450 BC.
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A south facing stoa about 36m long decorated with painted wooden panels by
outstanding 5th century painters.
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The stoa was a general place for shelter and meeting - the written sources
mention sword-swallowers, jugglers, beggars and fishmongers –
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And it was the birthplace of Stoicism around 300 BC, when Zeno used it as a
base for his lectures on philosophy.
The Painted Stoa or Stoa Poikile was
located at a crossroads just across the
Panathenaic Way from the Royal Stoa
(Stoa Basileios) on the northern
boundary of the Agora.
It received its name from the paintings
depicting great Athenian military
victories (like the Battle of Marathon)
attached to its wall. These paintings
were the work of famous Athenian
artists.
Battle trophies were also displayed on
the wall of the Painted Stoa, like the
Spartan shields taken as spoils by the
Athenians at Pylos in 425 and 424 BC.
The Stoa Basileios (Royal Stoa)
• Built towards end of 6th century and rebuilt after damage in Persian
sack of 480 BC.
• Office of Archon Basileus (King Archon), who was responsible for
administering the laws on religious matters, including homicide as
well as impiety and religious disputes. He also organized the
Mysteries and the dramatic festival of Dionysus at the Lenaia.
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King Archon set up a stone to commemorate his term of office,
which records winners in Comedy and Tragedy.
In front of the stoa was a large block of unworked limestone, on which
officials of the democracy took their oath before taking up office.
Socrates stood on it to hear the charges against him in 399 BC.
Inside the building, lining the walls, were inscribed the laws of Athens.
Thus any citizen could come here to consult the offical version of the
constitution.
"The Herms" Crossroads
• This cross-roads was known as "the Herms" because of
the large number of herms dedicated here.
• Herms were square pillars topped with a head of
Hermes with a phallus halfway up.
• As Hermes was god of travel, luck (and thieves!) the
entrance to the Agora was an appropriate place for
them.
• In 415 BC nearly all the herms
in Athens were damaged or
mutilated on one night - before
the fleet was due to sail to
Sicily.
• The small shrine here may be the very ancient Leokoreion - set up
to commemorate three girls who were sacrificed to save the city
from plague.
• This was the spot where the tyrant Hipparchus was murdered in 514
BC by Harmodius and Aristogeiton. They became heroes of the
democracy, although the killing was probably the result of a lover's
quarrel.
herm painter sculpting a herm
a herm
The Altar of the Twelve Gods
An altar surrounded by a low stone wall.
All distances to Athens were measured from here, and it was obviously thought
of as the actual centre of Athens.
The place was sacred to the twelve gods (presumably the twelve
Olympians), and was famous as a place of asylum.
 Altar of the twelve gods, maybe used -the brink of a well
or an Zodiac altar.
 The object represents the twelve gods of the Roman
pantheon, each identified by an attribute:
Venus and Mars linked by Cupid,
Jupiter and a lightning bolt,
Minerva wearing a helmet,
Apollo, Juno and her sceptre,
Neptune and his trident,
Vulcan and his sceptre,
Mercury and his caduceus,
Vesta, Diana and her quiver and Ceres.
 Marble, found in Gabii (Italy), 1st century CE.
The Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios.
• Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios (Freedom) - dedicated to a god, but not a temple.
• The stoa was erected at the end of the 5th century B.C. in honor of those
who fought for the freedom and security of the city.
• The cult of Freedom began in 479 BC after the defeat of the Persians at the
battle of Plataea, when Greece was freed from the threat of Persian
dominance.
• The Stoa dates from about 430-420 BC: it is a handsome building in Pentelic
marble in the Doric order.
• It was decorated with shields of men who'd died in battle, and paintings of
battles. It was an informal meeting place.
• Socrates met his friends and pupils here.
• The roof, like those of temples, was decorated
with statues (acroteria), at least one of which
was a statue of Winged Nikê
• In the fourth century a number of paintings
depicting Athenian victories were displayed.
• Plato mentions this stoa as a favorite resting
place where one could sit and talk with friends.
The Temple of Hephaistos
• The temple, known as the "Theseion", is Doric,
peripteral, with a pronaos and opisthodomos. It crowns
the hill of Kolonos Agoraios and is the most prominent
and better preserved monument of the Agora.
• Dedicated to two gods, Hephaistos and Athena, whose
bronze cult statues stood in the interior.
• Built 460 - 420 BC (delays- because of building
programme on the Acropolis, and the Peloponnesian
War) of Pentelic marble, and is the best-preserved
Greek temple.
The sculptural decoration showed labours
of Heracles, labours of Theseus, and
battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, and inside
were statues of Athena and Hephaistos.
The sanctuary was landscaped to provide
shelter from the sun.
The Temple of Hephaistos (Hephaestus)
is a Doric peripteral temple that has 6
columns along the front and 13 along the
side.
It measures 3.71m x 38.24m and was built
around 449 BCE.
The Synhedrion
A set of wide steps on the slope of the low
hill. They were used as a meeting place,
and possibly also an open-air court.
The Old Bouleuterion or Metroön
Replaced as meeting place for the boule (reasons unknown) about 410, but
remained the official "public records office" where archives were kept, and
became known as Metroön
Laws, accounts, records of lawsuits, lists of ephebes etc were kept here: none have
been preserved as they would have been on papyrus - copies on stone were often
set up in a public place.
Bouleuterion means 'place for planning'.
At which time the old Bouleuterion was converted into a sanctuary for the Mother
goddess (Mêtrôon), which was also used to house an archive for public records.
The New Bouleuterion
• The New Bouleuterion replaced the Old Bouleuterion
about 415-406 BC as the daily meeting place of the
boule (council of 500).
• Normally only the 50 members of the monthly presiding
tribe (prytaneis) would be required, but the bouleuterion
had seating for the full 500, on wooden benches
arranged in a semi-circle.
The Great Drain
• The impressive "great
drain" ran under the
road here.
The Tholos
• At the southwest side of the agora in Athens, and part of the
Bouleuterion complex stood the Tholos ,a round temple (tholos is
the Greek word for "circle") or Skias (the sun-hat), eighteen metres
in diameter, which served as seat of the Prytaneis of Athens and so
was their Prytaneion.
• Here the 50 prytaneis ate their meals during their month-long tour of
duty (35/36 days) - one third was expected to be "on call" at any
time, and would have also slept in the building to deal with an
emergency.
• This was thus the control centre of the Athenian democracy.
Some of the crockery has been found - simple black-glazed ware with
DE scratched on it – the first two letters of DEMOSION (public
property) - presumably to prevent the prytaneis walking off with it.
It was built soon after 480 BC.
The Tholos at Athens was the building which housed the Prytaneion,
or seat of government, in ancient Athens.
It functioned as a kind of all purpose
venue, with both a dining hall and
sleeping quarters for some of the
officials.
This accommodation was necessary
as, after the reforms under
Cleisthenes, one third of the senate
had to be present in the complex at all
times.
It was built around 470 BCE by Cimon, to serve as a dining hall for the boule
(members of the senate).
The site had previously been occupied by an earlier civic building, the Prytanikon
The Strategeion
• This building was probably the headquarters of the ten generals
(strategoi).
• The strategoi were among the few officials elected (as opposed to
being selected by lot) and were the real positions of power.
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All citizens were liable for military sevice
Simon the Cobbler's Shop
Objects found here include nails eyelets and best of
all the base of a cup inscribed ΣΙΜΩΝΟΣ
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Almost certainly here, just outside the Agora, was the workshop of
Simon, the philosophical cobbler.
A discarded cup with his name was found in the street outside, and
inside were innumerable hobnails and eyelets for laces.
According to the literary evidence (Xenophon) Socrates used to chat
here with the boys who were too young to enter the Agora.
According to Plutarch, Pericles was also a frequent visitor.
The Prison
Small earthenware pots which could have
been used to hold a measured dose of
pounded hemlock
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This building was probably the state prison - it contains 8 square
rooms which could have been cells, 4 rooms for guards, a courtyard,
and only one entrance.
There are provisions for bathing.
Imprisonment was not a common sentence in Athens (fines, exile or
death were preferred) but it was here that Socrates was held in 399 BC
pending execution.
A large number of small medicine bottles which could have contained
have been found, and also a small statuette of Socrates.
A boundary stone
• The Agora was formally defined with a series of boundary stones
around 500 BC, placed wherever a street entered the open square.
These two are still in situ, and are inscribed "I am the boundary of
the Agora".
• As well as women and males under 18, certain types of offender
were banned from the open space: cowards, traitors, those who
mistreat their parents, and "those who do not have clean hands"
(Demosthenes). Basins for purification at the entrances emphasised
that the Agora was a religious centre as well as a commercial one.
The Monument of the Eponymous Heroes
This monument, a marble podium with ten bronze statues flanked on both sides
by tripods, was located directly across from the Metroôn, which was adjacent to
the Bouleuterion and the Tholos.
It was an important information center for the Athenians, to which were attached
whitened boards with proposed legislation, charges in public prosecutions,
agendas for the Assembly, and military conscription lists.
Here were statues of the ten heroes whose names were given to the ten new
tribes founded by Cleisthenes in 508/507 BC.
These tribes were the basis of the democracy, and provided 10 regiments,
elected a strategos (general) to lead each one, and provided 50 members
annually for the boule, and feasted together at tribal sacrifices.
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Members of a tribe came from the three geographical regions - the
city, the coast, inland - and, by fighting, feasting and serving as
citzens together, bonds of loyalty were forged which were a crucial
feature of the democracy.
The monument to the ten heroes after which the tribes were named
was also a notice-board: under each statue relevant notices for each
tribe would be hung.
General information was also
posted here – “motions for
discussion in the ekklesia.” (for
example.)
Citizens would have to visit
the monument every day,
and it provided an essential
focal point.
The Clepsydra - the town clock
• The large central tank would be filled, and as the water
drained away through the outlet hole at the bottom, its
falling level indicated the passing hours.
• The full tank took about 17 hours to empty (more than
enough for the longest day. The Greeks divided daylight
into twelve equal hours.
• A winter hour would be 45 minutes and a summer one
75).
• It was built between 350 and 300 B.C. and held about
1000 litres.
The Heliaea ( Law Court)
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The Heliaea or the „dikasteria‟ as it generally became known when it
was subdivided into smaller panels, was considered to be as vital as
the Ecclesia for the maintenance of democracy.
Building dating from end of 5th century BC in which six bronze
ballots were found in a terracotta "ballot box".
The ballots were designed to be held between thumb and
forefinger by the juror (so that his vote was secret) - there were two
types:
the solid axle for acquittal and the hollow axle for condemnation.
The identification of the building as a coutroom rests on these
finds.
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Solon had created the Heliaea as a court of appeal, staffed by the
people, which offered redress from the legal decisions of the
archons and the Areopagus.
Ephialtes’ reforms in 462 bc marked a dramatic change in the
demos’ control of legal system by establishing the Heliaea as a court
of primary jurisdiction, dealing with the vast majority of private and
public cases.
The South Stoa
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The South Stoa was a two story structure which had a row of seventyone Doric columns across the front and thirty-four Ionic columns to
form the portico.
Before the South Stoa was constructed, the site was occupied by
various structures. A stele shrine was located at the southwest end of
the South Stoa, while various commercial structures were located
under the westernmost shops and part of the portico. The early race
course concluded near the western end of the South Stoa.
There are multiple phases in the construction of the South Stoa.
The Greek Stoa was 164.38m long and 25.15m deep and had a series
of thirty-three shops and workrooms behind the portico. When it was
constructed, the South Stoa was the largest public building in Greece.
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Commencing during the reign of Augustus (31 B.C. to A.D. 14), shops
were removed to make administrative spaces. Later, a fountain house,
entrance court for the South Basilica, an elliptical room, a bath
complex and latrine were added to the urban ensemble. Several
spaces remained shops throughout the Roman period. The major
period of construction within the South Stoa by the Romans was from
ca. A.D. 50 to A.D. 150.
The exact functions of all of the Roman spaces within the South Stoa
are not known. It has been suggested that the duovirs, the aediles, the
Senate, and an official for the Isthmian Games all had office space
within the South Stoa. The precise location of the curia is unknown,
but several spaces within the South Stoa have been proposed.
The Southeast Fountain House
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Fountain-House
The facade consists of poros Doric half-columns faced with plaster and
supporting an entablature. Panels closed the intermediate spaces. Inside it
was an open tank from which the water was drawn (mid-4th c. BC). At a later
period (3rd c. BC) the tank was replaced by a well and the columns were
carved with the names of the damiourgoi (eponymous priests of ancient
Kameiros). Behind the fountain-house the remains of a stoa can be see. A
revetment wall on three sides retained the earth fill of the upper terrace.
• One of the oldest buildings in the Agora, built by Peisistratos about 530-520
BC. A fountainhouse contained a water-tank so that jars could be filled with
clean, fresh water from a spout - a popular improvement on drawing from a
well. It would also have been something of a social centre for women, as can
be seen from pictures on contemporary water-jars (hydria).
• The Southeast Fountain House was built of Kara limestone by the
Pisistratides around 530 BC. It was badly damaged by the Persians when
they occupied the city. However, the Athenians managed to repair it and it
continued to be in use throughout the Classical Period.
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The fountain measured 18 m wide and faced north. At its west end, a 6
m wide by 3 m deep reservoir floored with marble slabs allowed to dip
jugs. At its east end a similar space was used for water spouts in the
shape of animal heads.
During our period of reference, the Fountain House stood on the south
side of the Agora between the South Stoa on the west and the Mint on
the east. It was separated form the Mint by a narrow alley.
The Mint
Dated to around 400 BC, and identified by furnaces, slag and unstruck coinblanks. Athens did not use bronze for coinage in the 5th century, but no
trace of metals other than bronze or lead have been found here.
Possibly it would have made bronze jurors' tickets (pinakia) and lamps
before going over to coinage in the 4th century.
About 100.000 coins have been found in the Agora - mostly bronze: people
took time to look for silver or gold. It is not known where the famous silver
"owls" were minted.
A silver 4-drachma piece (tetradrachm) of about 435 BC. It has Athena on the
obverse, and on the reverse a Little Owl - her symbol, together with an olive
twig and the first three letters of Athens in Greek.
The Greek goddess Athena was
considered the child of Zeus alone for
Zeus had swallowed her mother,
Metis, and gave birth to Athena
himself through his head and fully
grown. She a goddess of civilization
and war, reason and violence.
The Mint was an
important part of any
Greek city since each
city-state had its own
coinage.
Stoa Of Attalos
It was first build about the year 150 BC by Attalos II, king of Pergamon
and reproduced in later years, 1953-1956,to house the Agora Museum.
• The Stoa of Attalos (also spelled Attalus) is recognised as one of
the most impressive stoa in the Athenian Agora. It was built by and
named after King Attalos II of Pergamon who ruled between 159 BC
and 138 BC.
• Typical of the Hellenistic age, the stoa was more elaborate and
larger than the earlier buildings of ancient Athens. The stoa's
dimensions are 115 by 20 metres wide and it is made of Pentelic
marble and limestone. The building skillfully makes use of different
architectural orders. The Doric order was used for the exterior
colonnade on the ground floor with Ionic for the interior colonnade.
• The building is similar in its basic design to the Stoa that Attalos'
brother, and predecessor as king, Eumenes II had erected on the
south slope of the Acropolis next to the theatre of Dionysus. The
main difference is that Attalos' stoa had a row of rooms at the rear
on the ground floor that have been interpretted as shops.
The Middle Stoa
Middle Stoa was present during the second and first centuries B.C.
It was located in the Sanctuary of Apollo Thermios.
It ran north-south between the Temple of Apollo and the South Stoa.
Middle Stoa is approximately in the middle of the Agora and dividing it into
north and south areas.
It was built between 175 and 150
B.C.
It is 146 m by 480 ft long.
Open on all sides, with Doric
columnsaround the perimeter
suppoting the roof, this was
divided into two aisles by ionic
columns
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