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The Temple of Hephaistos also known as the Hephaiston and Thisseion


Ancient Agora

South-east side



The Nymphaeum

Between the Agii Apostoli (Church of the Holy Apostles) and the South-east Temple, part of the fountain of the Nymphaeum is still visible. It was a large, semicircular and elaborate fountain facing north towards the Panathenaic Way.

Construction began under Hadrian and was completed around 140 AD under Antonius Pius. It was built over the remains of the Mint which had previously occupied this site. Later it was replaced by the Byzantine church of the Holy Apostles.

The walls of the fountain had niches decorated with statues of the Antonine imperial family and its lower part was formed by basins, pools and springs fed by the city’s Hadrianic aqueduct. Top of the page


The Mint

The remains of a large, almost square, area (29 m by 27 m – 95.14 ft by 88.58 ft), identified as the Mint of Athens and dated to ca. 400 BC, can be found between the South-east Fountain House and the Panathenaic Way.

Today, only the northern half of the building, used mainly as an open courtyard, is still visible. It’s southern part was covered, ca. 150 AD, by the Nymphaeum and much later, ca 1000 AD, by the Byzantine Agii Apostoli (Holy Apostles) church.

The main manufacturing area consisted of a big room at the south-western corner where the metallurgical furnaces and water basins were. Two small rooms on the south-eastern corner served as storage areas or as offices for the supervisors or the Mint’s administrators. Not only coins were made at the Mint but other metal objects as well.Remains of the South-east Temple in the Ancient Agora


The south-east Temple

In the 1st century BC, a small prostyle temple was built on top of the ruins of the Mint. Eight columns from the classical Temple of Athena at Sounio were reused in the construction of its façade.

Inside the cella, piles of stones (mass of masonry) were found that formed the base of a statue as well as fragments of a statue of a female of the Caryatid type but double-sized. This temple is conventionally called “South-east” by the excavators because its suggested dedication to Athena cannot be verified. Top of the page


The Eleusinion

The EleusinionYou can see the remains of the Eleusinion “en astei” (in the city), equivalent to the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore (Persephone) in Eleusis, to the east of the Panathinaic Way. The area is marked by a rectangular precinct in the middle of which the foundations of a quite large temple (11 m by 17,70 m – 6.08 ft by 58.07 ft) with a rectangular cella are preserved.

The main entrance was at the south. A small room (the holy of holies) to the north served for the safekeeping of the sacred objects which were transported from the Eleusis Sanctuary to the Eleusinion of Athens during the celebrations of the Great Eleusinian Mysteries.

This temple, dated to 490 BC, replaced an older one, dated to the end of the 6the century BC. To the east of the temple, on the oblong base (15 m by 2 m – 49.21 ft by 6.56 ft) were the so-called “attic stalae”, stone or wooden slabs, generally taller than wide, erected for funerary or commemorative purposes. A list was inscribed on those stelae of the property of Alcibiades and others that was sold by auction after their involvement in the mutilation of the Herms and in ridiculing the Eleusinian Mysteries in 415 BC.

In the second half of the 4th century BC, the old entrance to the sanctuary was replaced by a monumental propylon. In about the middle of the 2nd century AD the sanctuary was expanded to the south where a small portico in Doric style was built of which only the foundations are preserved today. The sanctuary was completely ruined during the invasion of the Herulians in 267 AD.


THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES

Demeter, Triptolemus and Persephone (Kore) in the Great Eleusis Frieze – 5th century BC – National Archaeological Museum of AthensThe Eleusinian Mysteries, the annual celebrations in honor of Demeter and Persephone, were the first purely mystical and most important expression of religious worship in all of ancient Greece. The Great Mysteries were held in September (Boedromion) while the Small Mysteries, or Mysteries in the Fields, were held in March (Anthesterion), both in the Temple of Demeter and Kore near Ilissos.

Those who had been or were being initiated, took a vow of silence regarding the worship practices. Therefore very little is known about them. Some information is found in works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Plutarch and Pausanias who had all been initiated.

The Great Mysteries celebrations lasted nine days. On the first day there was a procession from Eleusis to the Eleusinion in the Ancient Agora. During the following days the celebration included “things shown”, “things said” and “things done”.

The most important ceremonies took place in the Telesterion of Eleusis. The Mysteries had a chthonic (of or relating to the underworld) character with an eschatological (related to death and the end of the world) content. They carried on until the early years of Christianity and it is believed that they influenced Christian religious practices. Top of the page

 
  WHAT TO SEE IN ATHENS
  THE ANCIENT AGORA
  THE ANCIENT AGORA
  SOUTH-EAST SIDE
    Nymphaeum
    Mint
    South-east Temple
    Eleusinion
  THE ANCIENT AGORA
  As it used to be
  PAINTED STOA
  SANCTUARY OF APHRODITE
  OURANIA
  PANATHINAIC WAY
  ROYAL STOA
  STOA OF ZEUS ELEUFTHERIOS
  ALTAR OF THE TWELVE GODS
  TEMPLE OF ARES
  TEMPLE OF APOLLO PATROOS
  ARSENAL
  STATUE OF HADRIAN
  TEMPLE OF HEPHAISTOS
  MONUMENT OF THE EPONYMOUS
  HEROES
  OLD BOULEUTERION AND THE
  METROON
  NEW BOULEUTERION
  THOLOS
  STRATIGEION
  SOUTH-WEST FOUNTAIN HOUSE
  HELIAIA
  SOUTH STOA
  ODEION OF AGRIPPA
  EAST BUILDING
  MIDDLE STOA
  ENNEAKROUNOS
  SOUTH-WEST TEMPLE
  PRIVATE HOUSES
  LIBRARY OF PANTAINOS
  STOA OF ATTALLOS
  ANCIENT AGORA MUSEUM
  AGHII APOSTOLI SOLAKI

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