The story of Areopagus

This rocky outcrop northwest of the Acropolis is the Areopagus, the Hill of Ares, which gave its name to one of the principal councils of ancient Athens. Myth says the war god Ares was tried here by the other gods for killing Halirrhothius, a son of Poseidon. Homicide trials seem to have been held on the hill as early as the seventh century BC.

In 594 BC Solon restructured the council, and in 462/461 BC the reforms of Ephialtes may have stripped it of almost all its powers except that of a murder court. In Aeschylus' Eumenides of 458 BC, this is where Orestes stands trial for killing his mother, with the goddess Athena presiding. In the second half of the fourth century BC the court grew powerful again and investigated Demosthenes over the Harpalus affair in 324 BC.

Climb up and look across to the Acropolis and down to the Agora below.