Areopagus
From Wikinfo
The Areopăgus (Greek Άρειος πάγος) is a rocky promenence in Athens Greece lying to the north-west of the Athenian Acropolis. The ancient Athenian agora lays at the bottom of the hill. The ancient aristocratic council of the area, which played a significant and differing roles throughout Athenian history, took its anonym from there which was also its meeting place.
The name "Areopăgus" is a compound word having its origins from two different words: "πάγος" which means "rock" and "αραί" which means "curses"; i.e. "the hill of curses". 1 There was a cave at the bottom of the hill decorated as a shrine to the "Curses" or the Erinyes, "the Awful Goddesses". Another name for these goddesses were the vengeful ones. The religious functions of these goddesses and this site transferred into the aristocratic council that met there; hence the dual responsibilities of the council in legistative and juridicial roles and as guardian of the laws.
In the legendary accounts, it was called "the hill of Ares" so-called because the Amazons encamped there when they attacked Athens. Again, the Greek poet Aeschylus said it was called such because sacrifices to Ares was offered there while other more consequential ancients declared that the name derived from when Ares was brought to trial there by Poseidon for the murder of his son, Halirrhothius. In Roman times, since the Roman name for "Ares" was "Mars", it was also known as "the hill of Mars".
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Council of the Areopagus
This council existed from the pre-classical era. Like what Homer describes in the Illiad, the ancient kings of the various Greek tribes formed a boule (council) of elders around them for advice. Its earliest arrangement was similar to the Spartan Gerousia and the Roman Senate. For the Ionic Greeks that inhabited the Attic area, this was the Athenian kings tribal council. It underwent many changes thru time. Its powers were sometimes expanded and in other times restricted. At one point in its history, it was disbanded only to be reconstituted at a later date.
At this time, it was simply called ή βουλή (The council). In later history, when another council was created, it was then known as the ή έξ Άρείου πάγου βουλή (the Council of the Areopagus). It was also known as the ή ανω βουλή. It's attendees were known as Άρειοπαγιται (Areopagites).
Under the Athenian monarchy, nothing much is known. It was solely comprised of the heads of aristocractic families known as Eupatridai. The king summoned the council and presided over it. Its function served to advise the king. It also held criminal court. This council adjudicated cases of wounding, arson, murder but more specifically religious crimes such as blasphemy and irreligion which such crimes would have terribly upset the Greek society and sensiblities.
Quod vide
Miscellania
- St. Paul
- Ancient authors reported that Saint Denis, the first bishop of Athens, had been an Areopagite, and that he was converted to christianity by Saint Paul�s preaching before those judges.
- It was also a title for an association of aristrocratic courtiers and poets in Elizabethan England. The best-known members were Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Fulke Greville, Edward Dyer, and Gabriel Harvey. The group was concerned with prosody and classical meters.
- In 1644, the English poet and man of letters, John Milton, published the Areopagitica, an appeal to Parliament to rescind their Licensing Order of June 16th, 1643.
References
- A Handbook of Greek Constitutional History, A. H. J. Greenidge, M.A., William S. Hein & Co., Inc., Buffalo, NY, 2001. pg 144.
Bibliography
- See same entry. Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, ed. by Harry Thurston Peck, Cooper Square Publishers, NY, 1st publ.1896, republ. 1962.
- Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911, Volume V02, Page 454.
- See same entry. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 2nd edition, 1970.
