The Areopagus

You're standing on the Hill of Ares, the Areopagus. Today it's a crowded viewpoint, but for centuries one of Athens' oldest courts met here: the council of the Areopagus, made up of former archons who held their seats for life.

1The court for murderers

In the classical period, after Ephialtes' reforms in 462 BC, the council lost almost all its political power, but it kept one fearsome responsibility: trying cases of premeditated homicide. The Greeks set mythical trials here too. According to myth, Ares was tried for killing Halirrhothius, son of Poseidon, and Orestes stood trial for murdering his mother, as Aeschylus tells in “The Eumenides”, first staged in 458 BC just a short walk away, in the Theatre of Dionysus.

2A speech to the unknown god

Around AD 50, the apostle Paul spoke before the Areopagus, according to the Acts of the Apostles (chapter 17). He told the Athenians he had seen an altar dedicated “to an unknown god” and that he had come to proclaim that god to them. Among those who believed him, the text names Dionysius the Areopagite, whom later tradition made the first bishop of Athens.

Greece's Supreme Court is still called the Areios Pagos today.

3What to look for

• The bronze plaque at the foot of the stairs, with Paul's speech in Greek.
• The steps cut into the rock, worn smooth over the centuries.
• The view of the Agora and the Temple of Hephaestus, the best-preserved temple in Greece.