© 1998 Bernard SUZANNE   Last updated December 27, 1998 
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Map of the Agora of Athens
in Socrates and Plato's time

Altar of the Twelve Gods
This altar ("bômos" in Greek) in the center of the agora was dedicated to the twelve great gods of Greece : Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis, Hephæstus, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite and Hermes. It was the point from which distances were reckoned (see Herodotus, II, 7).
Bouleuterion
This was the meeting room of the Council of Five-Hundred, in Greek boulè (the word meaning "council"), hence the name "bouleuterion (see the section on Athenian institutions for more on the boulè). When Cleisthenes reformed the boulè in 508 B. C., he also had a new meeting room built next to the older one.
Colonos Agoraios
The Greek word "kolônos" means "hill". Hence, "Colonos Agoraios" means "the hill next to the agora". It was a meeting place for the craftsmen, close to the temple of their tutelary god, Hephæstus, further north on the same hill.
Enneacrounos
A Greek word meaning "nine spouts", that was used as the name of a public well built in the time of Pisistratus on the location of a spring formerly called Kallirhoè ("beautiful flow") (see Thucydides, II, 15, 5). The exact location of this well is not known and this location on the agora is only one among several suggested locations (other possible locations include : at the foot of the Pnyx, east of the Acropolis, next to the Olympeion or near the Ilisus).
Heliæa (law court)
This is the building where the chief law-court of Athens, the Heliæa, met and trials of its jusrisdiction were held. It is here that the trial of Socrates took place in 399 B. C.
Hephaisteion
The temple of Hephæstus, the tutelary god of craftsmen.
Peristylar Court
Another law-court of Athens, besides the Heliæa (peristylar means "surrounded by pillars).
Poikile Stoa
Greek for "Painted Porch". This is the porch were the Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium used to teach, toward the beginning of the IIIrd century B. C., the first principles of what would become known as a result as "Stoic" philosophy, from the Greek word "stoa", meaning "porch".
Royal Stoa
This porch (stoa in Greek) was the seat of the King-Archon (see the section on Athenian institutions for more on the King-Archon). It is next to this porch that Plato's Euthyphro takes place, when Socrates has been called by the King-Archon to answer the charges brought against him by Meletus and Anytus (see Euthyphro, 2a).
Statues of Eponym Heroes
This monument included a statue of each one of the ten eponym heroes of the ten tribes instituted by Cleisthenes : Erechtheus, Ægeus (Theseus' father), Pandion, Leos, Acamas (one of Theseus' sons), Oeneus, Cecrops, Hippothoon, Ajax and Antiochus (a son of Heracles). It is on this monument that official decrees and annoucements were posted.
Stoa of Zeus
Another porch (stoa in Greek), this one dedicated to Zeus.
Strategeion
The meeting room of the 10 strategoi (see the section on Athenian institutions for more on the strategoi).
Temple of Aphrodite Urania
Aphrodite, the goddess of love, like most Greek gods and goddesses, was worshiped under different qualifications. Under the name "Urania" (celestial), she was praised as the goddess of conjugal love. In Plato's Symposium, Pausanias speech on love (Symposium, 180c-185c) centers on the opposition between two Aphrodites, Urania (celestial) and Pandemos (popular), and the two kinds of love (heavenly and vulgar) they inspire.
Temple of Apollo Patrôos
Under the epithet "Patrôos" (meaning "from the fathers"), Apollo was worshiped as the protector of families.
Tholos
The round residency of the prytanes, or presidents of the boulè, during their tenure (see the section on Athenian institutions for more on the boulè and prytanes).

Plato and his dialogues : Home - Biography - Works and links to them - History of interpretation - New hypotheses - Map of dialogues : table version or non tabular version. Tools : Index of persons and locations - Detailed and synoptic chronologies - Maps of Ancient Greek World. Site information : About the author.

First published December 13, 1998 - Last updated December 27, 1998
© 1998 Bernard SUZANNE (click on name to send your comments via e-mail)
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