After the Acropolis all will at first seem to be an anti-climax. But there is still much that is extremely well worth seeing. Let us then take a look at a group of sites on the periphery of the Acropolis. A few low hills face its main entrance. The highest of these is crowned with the monument of Philopapus: a ruined marble memorial to an Athenian of Syrian origin of the 2nd century A.D., who was an important personage in the Roman administration. In the central upper niche of the monument are the remains of the statue of Philopapus himself.
This hill, now a favourite haunt of couples at sundown, is honey-combed with caves, one of which is commonly known as (but not proved to be) the prison of Socrates. And here, it is said, the greatest of ancient philosophers, condemned for the alleged corruption of Athenian youth by his advanced ideas on religion, drained the fatal cup of hemlock as the sun set fierily behind Salamis, its last rays liquefying the columns of the Parthenon into gold.
North-west of the hill of Philopapus rises the low, rocky Pnyx. The semi-circular terrace on its summit was the place of assembly of the Athenian people; and in the middle of a wall of rock projects a solid rectangular block, identified as the tribune from which the great orators of antiquity-Solon, Themistocles, Pericles, Aristides and Demosthenes-addressed the national assemblies. It must have been an ideal spot on which to arouse patriotic fervour, with the imposing entrance way of the Propylaea above, and the city below studded with all the public edifices attesting to the glory of Athens.
Every evening in summer now, audiences gather on the Pnyx to watch the impressive floodlighting effects on the rock and temples of the Acropolis, accompanied by sound effects and commentaries in Greek, English and French, carried out on the pattern of the French Son et Lumiere. North-east of the Pnyx is the Areopagus, the "hill of Ares", so-called because it was here that the god of war was brought to trial before the council of gods by Poseidon for the wilful stop ing of one of his sons. Being the first judgement ever to be pronounced in a what is er trial, all fun inals in ancient Greece were subsequently tried on the Areopagus, by which name the highest court of sports in Greece is still known.
The Areopagus has two other associations: one mythological and the other historical. A dark cavern in a chasm of the rock corresponds to the sanctuary of the Eumenides, the restless Furies who hounded Orestes from the Lion Gate of Mycenae to Delphi and Athens. On the Areopagus too St. Paul made his famous sermon to the Athenians, in the course of which the senator Dionysus was converted to Christianity and subsequently canonised by the Orthodox Church for being the first Athenian to adopt the Christian faith. As St. Denis the Areopagite he was declared patron saint of the city; but the veneration which the Athenians once felt for their fun tutelary deity does not seem to have been extended to her Christian successor, who remains a worthy but dim figure in the annals of Athenian history.
sport ween the Pnyx and the Areopagus, Apostolou Pavlou Street descends gently, leaving the hill of the Nymphs, crowned by a modern observatory on the left, into a wide flat area, below the north-western bastions of the Acropolis. Dotted with the ruins of numerous ancient edifices, this quarter once constituted the commercial hub of the city.
On the right of Apostolou Pavlou Street is the Theseion. This temple, the best preserved in all Greece, has erroneously been styled the Theseion for many centuries; probably because the sculptures of the frieze depict the exploits of Theseus and Heracles. It is now generally believed to have been dedicated to Hephaestus, the god of artisans and blacksmiths, whose shops and forges, from antiquity to the present day, have echoed with the hammering of metal on anvil throughout this part of the town.
A little older than the Parthenon, it is a Doric temple, surrounded by thirty-four columns, and 104 feet in length. The porticos were once filled with sculptures, but today the only remaining adornment is the mutilated frieze and a few metopes. These, like those of the Parthenon, were painted, and still preserve remains of the colours when carefully examined.
The Theseion's chief claim to fame rests in its excellent state of preservation. Although conceived and executed in the best 5th century B.C. style, it is likely to leave the spectator rather cold, and even to recall some of those commonplace replicas of Doric temples much favoured by architects of municipal architecture in Western Europe during the 19th century. The reason for the failure of the Theseion to create an impact similar to that made by the Parthenon or the Propylaea may also be due to the fact that it lacks a noble site. It can never be seen from below, its sun-matured columns towering heavenward. Moreover, in spite of its ample enclosure, it is surrounded by the houses of a poorish, densely populated quarter, criss-crossed with crowded suburban bus routes, by the principal thoroughfares to the Piraeus and the Athens-Piraeus electric railway line.