Where to go in Athens

Pnyka

If you want to walk, talk and discuss to the same place where Themistocles, Pericles, Alcebiades and Demosthenes used to address their public speeches, then you should visit Pnyx. Dedicated to the worship of Zeus Agoraios, protector of the constitution, Pnyx was also the meeting place for the Ecclesiae of the Demos - the Assembly of the Athenians. This is where democracy was conceived and realized for the first time.
The function of the large, theatre- like area on the hill west of Acropolis had, in the past, been explained by a number of different theories, before it was surely identified as the Pnyx, the place where the Assembly of the Athenians held its meetings.
The most important monuments of Pnyx are:
1) The two large “stoas” bordering the south side of the spacious terrace above the “vima” (tribune). Their purpose was to shelter the people in bad weather conditions.
2) The big rectangular cutting above the vima, for the altar of Zeus Agoraios.
3) The large cutting between the two stoas, which according to the excavators it was the foundation of the Propylaea for the whole architectural complex.
4) The sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos

by Leda Tsene

posted by fejsgr @ 2:31 PM