DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0037
16 THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS
served for filling in the crevices of the rock and extending
its area on the sides, particularly south of the Parthenon, and
also numerous clay images of divinities, particularly of Athena.
Brauronian Artemis and Aphrodite Pandemos (Fig. 3), which
came to light in recent excavations and which are now
exhibited in the Museum on the Acropolis (18).
Remnants of the oldest Pelasgic wall of defence which
guarded the western approach and entrance have survived.
But it is difficult to tell how much of the walls whose remains
are still to be seen belongs to this prehistoric and how much
to the later period of Pisistratus.
The royal palace on the hill was the centre of the life
portrayed for us in the Homeric poems. Here the elders
sat in council, and the king dispensed hospitality and issued
commands. Here too was the hearth of the head of the
tribe by the side of which stood the altar of Zeus Herceios
('EjO/cefos), at which the king in his office as head of the
household exercised his priestly function. Hence in the later
period we find an altar to Zeus Herceios close by the sacred
olive tree in the sanctuary of Erechtheus.
In this earliest period then we find that the Acropolis was
at once a sanctuary, a citadel and a residence. Sanctuary
it remained during all later time, citadel (19) until the age
of Pericles, but as residence it continued to serve only during
the period of Pisistratus, to which now we turn.
served for filling in the crevices of the rock and extending
its area on the sides, particularly south of the Parthenon, and
also numerous clay images of divinities, particularly of Athena.
Brauronian Artemis and Aphrodite Pandemos (Fig. 3), which
came to light in recent excavations and which are now
exhibited in the Museum on the Acropolis (18).
Remnants of the oldest Pelasgic wall of defence which
guarded the western approach and entrance have survived.
But it is difficult to tell how much of the walls whose remains
are still to be seen belongs to this prehistoric and how much
to the later period of Pisistratus.
The royal palace on the hill was the centre of the life
portrayed for us in the Homeric poems. Here the elders
sat in council, and the king dispensed hospitality and issued
commands. Here too was the hearth of the head of the
tribe by the side of which stood the altar of Zeus Herceios
('EjO/cefos), at which the king in his office as head of the
household exercised his priestly function. Hence in the later
period we find an altar to Zeus Herceios close by the sacred
olive tree in the sanctuary of Erechtheus.
In this earliest period then we find that the Acropolis was
at once a sanctuary, a citadel and a residence. Sanctuary
it remained during all later time, citadel (19) until the age
of Pericles, but as residence it continued to serve only during
the period of Pisistratus, to which now we turn.