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Archaic Athens and the topography of the Kylon affair1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Diane Harris-Cline
Diane Harris-Cline
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati
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Abstract

Working from an inscription discovered in Athens nearly 20 years ago, suggestions have been recently made by Robertson, Shear, and Dontas for the proper placement of the Archaic agora and for the Aglaurion, Prytaneion, Theseion, and Anakeion. Based upon these recent suggestions, we may now propose a location for the Archaic Altars of the Dread Goddesses (Semnai Theai) and for the route that Kylon's followers took down from the Akropolis before they were murdered in the aftermath of their conspiracy c. 632 BC.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 94 , November 1999 , pp. 309 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1999

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References

2 e.g. Travlos, J., Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens (London, 1971), 1–2Google Scholar.

3 Dontas, G., ‘The True Aglaurion’, Hesp., 52, 1983), 48–63Google Scholar: cf. also Robertson, N., ‘Solon's axones and kyrbeis, and the sixth century background’. Historia, 35 (1986), 147–76Google Scholar; Shear, T. L. Jr, ‘Ἰσονόμους τ' Άθήνας ἐποιησάτην: the Agora and the democracy’, in Coulson, W. D. E. et al. (eds), The Archaeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy (Athens, 1994), 225–48Google Scholar; Parker, R., Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford, 1996), 8–9Google Scholar.

4 Robertson, N., ‘The city center of Archaic Athens’, Hesp., 67 (1998), 283, 302CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Robertson's article appeared and became available to me only after an initial version of the present paper had already been written and submitted to BSA: thus many of the suggestions presented by both Robertson and myself were arrived at independently. The phrase ‘Archaic agora’ favoured by Robertson is used here as well, instead of ‘Old Agora.’ which was employed by previous scholars.

5 Cf. especially Paus. i. 28. 1: Hdt. v. 71: Thuc. i. 126.3–12. Other ancient sources include Plut. Thes. 27. Sol. 12: Heraclides Const. of Ath. 2: A. Knights 445: Paus. i. 40. 1. vii. 25–3: Eusebius lor the 35th Olympiad. Lévy, E., ‘Notes sur la chronologie athénienne an VIe siècle’, Hisloria, 27 (1978), 513–21Google Scholar attempted to lower the Kylon affair to 597 593 BC. but has been refuted by Gagarin, M., ‘The Thesmothetai and the earliest Athenian tyranny law’. TAPA III (1981), 74Google Scholar (n. 18), and by Rhodes, P. J., A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia. rev. ed. (Oxford, 1993), 79–84Google Scholar.

6 See Thomas, R., Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 1989), 272–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar for a discussion of the various written traditions concerning the Kylon affair.

7 Ibid., 274.

8 Cf. Wallace, R. W., The Areopagos Council. to 307 BC. Baltimore, 1989, 24Google Scholar: Lang, M., ‘Kylonian conspiracy’. CP 62 1967, 247Google Scholar.

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14 Robertson n. 4: previously Dontas n. 3: Shear n. 3: Robertson n. 3.

15 See the photograph and text in Dontas n. 3. 52–3. 1. 30.

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18 Cf. Shear (n. 3), 227 9: Robertson (n. 4), 298–9.

19 Cf. Boegehold (n. 16), 118–19 no. 1. Pausanias then descends to the area of the Olympieion. the llissos river, and the stadium.

20 In the basement of the modren building now located at 34 Tripods Street. at the corner Tripods Street, at the corner of Thespis Street, is a foundation for one large choregic monument. Further north, at 28 Tripods Street, is another choregic monument and, one block further north again, at 20 inpods Street, is a 1arge marble base. Augstan in date, which bears the the dedication of Theophilos son of Diodorus of Halai. who signs as epimelcte oi the Prytaneion IG ii2 2877: see Wycherley, R. E., Literary and Epigraphical Testimonia (Princeton, 1957), no. 571Google Scholar: Miller, S. G., ‘Old discoveries from Old Athens’. Hesp., 39 (1970), 224, 230Google Scholar: Shear (n. 3), 227: Choremi-Spetzieri, A., ‘Η οδός των Τριπόδων και τα Χορηγικά μνημεία στην αχαία Αθήνα’. in Coulson, W. D. E. et al. (eds), The Archaeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy (Athens, 1994), 31–43Google Scholar: Robertson n. 4–288.

21 Robertson (n. 14), 283–4. 287–8. 298–9. fig. 1. This agrees with John McK. Camp in Boegehold (n. 16), 11, ‘The Prytaneion was on the east slope of the Akropolis’.

22 Arist. Ath. Pol. 3–5.

23 Cf. Sourvinou-Inwood, C., ‘What is polis religion?’, in Murray, O. (ed.), The Greek City: From Homer to Alexander (Oxford, 1990), 308Google Scholar; Miller, S. G., The Prytaneion: Its Function and Architectural Form (Berkeley, 1978), 4–23Google Scholar.

24 Wallace (n. 8), 38–9, 207–8.

25 Jacoby. FGrH 323a F 24. On the testimoma and archaeological evidence for the courts of Athens, see Boegehold (n. 16).

26 Cf. Wallace (n. 8), 34–5 with discussion.

27 Rhodes (n. 5), 153 6 on Ath. Pol. 8. 4.

28 Arist., Ath. Pol. 15, 4Google Scholar: Polyacnus i. 21. 2: cf. Robertson n. 4.295) 8: id. (n. 3), 163–8: Shear (n. 3), 245–6 n. 21.

29 Pint. Thes. 36. 2: Kïm. 8. 5–6: Paus. i. 17. 2. 6.

30 Vanderpool, E., ‘The “Agora” of Pausanias I. 17. 1–2’. Hesp., 43 (1974), 308–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The finds, located 200 m east of the Roman Market in a Post-Hernlian wall near the Church of St. Demeirios Katephoros. included IG ii2 956–8 and a relief of Theseus and the Minotaur NMA inv. 1664–1664a.

31 Robertson (n. 4), 297: they are not shown on his fig. 1.

32 Lucian. Pivator. 42: Shear (n. 3), 228: cf. also the plan in Robertson n. 3. 158.

33 Robertson n. 4. 295.

34 Domas n. 3. 60.

35 Sources tor the Ahar s of the Dread Goddesses Erinyes. Semnai include Aesch. Eum. 804 ff.: Deinarechos i. 47. 64–87: Thue. i. 126: Soph. Oed. Col. 89–90. 1590–1: Ar. Thesm. 224. 931. 940: Lobon of Argos. About Poets F 16 Cröncrt ap. Diog. Laert. i. 112: Paus. vii. 25–2: Val. Max. v. 3. ext. 3. See also Morris (n. 12), 36–4:Wallance (n. 8), 106–12. 236 n. 93: Gagarin (n.5), 72 n.6: Jordan, B., Servants of the Gods (Göttingen, 1979), 56–9Google Scholar: id., ‘Herodotos 51–7. 2 and the Naukraroi of Athens’, CSCA 3–1970: 153–75: Lévy (n. 5), 513 4: Lang (n. 8), 243–9: Frazer, J. G., Pausanias's Description of Greece. vol. II London, 1898, 365–6Google Scholar.

36 Wycherley (n. 20), no. 349: cf. Jacoby. FGrH 328 F 177. The Etym. Magn. dales to the 12th c. AD), but is based on the 3rd c. BC : historian Philoehoros.

37 Cf. Wycherley (n. 20), no. 341 with text of scholiast no. 342: Christensen, K. A., ‘The Theseion: a slave refuge at Athens’. AJAH 9 (1984 [1990]), 23–32Google Scholar.

38 Wycherley (n. 20), no. 358.

39 Jacoby. FGrH 457 T 1: cf. Wallace (n. 8), 236 n. 93. For the nameless shrines, see Henrichs, A., ‘Anonymity and polarity: unknown gods and nameless altars at the Areopagos’. Illinois Classical Studies. 19 (1994), 35–9Google Scholar. For Epimenides’ purification, see also Arist. Ath. Pol. 1: Plut. Sol 12: cf. Rhodes (n. 5), 83.

40 Jacoby. commentary on FGrH 328 F 177.

41 Cf. Wallace (n. 8), 77–8.

42 Cf. ibid., 77.

43 Aesch. Eum. 482–8. 681–4. 704–6: cf. Jacoby. FGrH 323a F 24. See also Wallace (n. 8), 87–93: Davies, M. I., ‘Thoughts on the Oresteia before Aischylos’, BCH 93 (1969), 214–60Google Scholar: Brown, A. L., ‘Eumenides in Greek tragedy’. CQ n.s. 34 (1984), 271Google Scholar.

44 For the pattern of the opening and closing of wells in the area of the Classical Agora, see Shear, T. L. Jr,‘Tyrants and buildings in Archaic Adieus’, in Childs, W. A. P (ed.), Athens Comes of Age: From Solon to Salamis (Princelon, 1978), 4Google Scholar.

45 See id., ‘The Athenian Agora: excavations of 1970’, Hesp., 40 (1971),. 259 60: Robertson (n. 3), 171.

46 See Jacoby. FGrH 323a F 24: Wallace (n. 8), 226–7; Clinton, K., ‘Review article: A new Lex Sacra front Selinus: Kindly Zeuses. Eumenides. Impure and Pure Tritopatorcs. and Elastcroi’, CP 91 (1996), 166Google Scholar.

47 Wallace (n. 8), III adds: ‘There is no evidence for any religious activity by the Areopagos before 462/1’.

48 Parker (n. 3), 130 n. 31: Henrichs (n.39), 45–6: Wallace (n. 8), 106–12.

49 Cf. Parker (n. 3), 130: Wallace (n. 8), 109.

50 Wallace (n. 8), 109.

51 For the tomb of Oedipus, see Paus. i. 28. 6 and Val. Max. v. 3. 3: cf. Hennchs (n. 39), 41. On Lykourgos and his religious initiatives, see Humphreys, S., ‘Lycurgus of Butadae: an Athenian aristocrat,’ in Eadie, J. W. and Ober, J. (eds), The Graft of the Ancient Historian: Essays in Honor of Chester G. Starr, Lanham MD, 1985), 199–252Google Scholar: Harris, D., ‘Bronze statues on the Athenian Acropolis: the evidence of a Lycurgan inventory’ AJA 96 (1992), 637–52Google Scholar.

52 Robertson (n. 3), 164: ‘In the early fifth century a part of this area became the civic Theseion. whether this was a new creation or the enlargement of a preexisting sanctuary: in the Hellenistic period another part became the Gymnasium of Ptolemy.’

53 Cf. Robertson (n. 4), 296 8: Rhodes (n. 5), 77.

54 Cf. Boegehold (n. 16), 44. Perhaps the transfer of the altars from the sacred area in the Archaic agora to the Areopagos was undertaken at the same time as the lithos or oath stone was moved from the Prytaneion to the Royal Stoa.

55 Lang (n. 8), 243–9.

56 Boegehold (n. 16), 44. following Vanderpool, E., ‘The Apostle Paul in Athens’, Archaeology, 3 (1950), 34–7Google Scholar.

57 Lang (n. 8), 245–6.

58 Robertson (n. 4), fig. 1.

59 Shear (n. 3), fig. 1.

60 For the northern Mycenaean fortification walls, see Sp.Iakovides, E., 'Η Μυκηναϊκὴ Άκρόπολις τῶ0 Ἀθηνῶν (Athens, 1962), Shear (n. 3), 227Google Scholar associates this gate with the literary sources that mention the Propylaion in the singular, asserting that ‘there is no good disbelieve that the old Myeenaean gate was still open and serviceable in the mid sixth century BC’; cf. also Bundgaard, J. A., Parthenon and the Mycenaean City on the Height (Copenhagen, 1976), 23–31Google Scholar: Dontas (n. 3), 61; Robertson (n. 3), 159 60, 173–4. For the excavation report of the north-eastern ascent, see Broneer, O., ‘Excavations on the North Slope of the Acropolis in Athens. 1933–34’. Hesp., 4 (1935), 109–88Google Scholar.