Athens
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ATHENS.In the earliest times, Athens, on the Gulf of Ægina, consisted of two settlements, the town on the plain and the citadel on the hill above, the Acropolis, where the population fled from invasion. Its name and the name of its patron-goddess Athene (Athenaia) are inextricably connected. She was the maiden goddess, the warlike defender of her people, the patroness of the arts. The city lies about 3 miles from the seacoast on a large plain. When Greece was free, during the period before b.c., 146 Athens was the capital of the district Attica, and developed a unique history in Greece. It first gained distinction by the repulse of the Persian invasions in b.c. 490 and 480, and afterwards had a brilliant career of political, commercial, literary, and artistic supremacy. It was in the 5th cent. b.c. the greatest of Greek democracies, and produced the greatest sculptures and literary works the world has ever seen. In the same century Socrates lived and taught there, as did later Plato and Aristotle. The conflict with Sparta, the effects of the Macedonian invasion, and ultimately the Roman conquest of Greece, which became a Roman province under the name Achaia (wh. see), lessened the political importance of Athens, but as a State it received from Rome a position of freedom and consideration worthy of its undying merits. Athens remained supreme in philosophy and the arts, and was in St. Pauls time (Act_17:15 to Act_18:1, 1Th_3:1) the seat of a famous university.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Capital of Attica, the center of Grecian refinement and philosophy. Paul visited it in journeying from Macedonia, and stayed sometime (Act_17:14, etc.; FOUR-DRACHM OF ATHENS. 1Th_3:1). Four hills are within it, the Acropolis, N.E., a square rock 150 feet high; W. of it is the Areopagus. (See AREOPAGUS.) S.W. is the Pnyx, or Assembly Hill. S. of this is the Museum Hill. The Agora where Paul disputed was in the valley between the four. The newsmongering taste of the people (Act_17:21) is noticed by their great orator Demosthenes, "Ye go about the marketplace asking, Is there any news?"
Their pure atmosphere, open air life, and liberal institutions, stimulated liveliness of thought. Pausanias (1:24, sec. 3) confirms Paul's remark on their religiousness even to superstition: "the zeal devoted by the Athenians to the rites of the gods exceeds that of all others." (See ALTAR; AREOPAGUS.) Dionysius the Areopagite convert of Paul was, according to tradition, the first bishop of an Athenian church. Theseus' temple is the most perfect of the remaining monuments. The Parthenon or temple of Minerva, built of Penrelic marble, 228 feet long, 102 broad, 66 high, with 8 Doric columns on each front and 17 on each side, was the masterpiece of Athenian architecture. The colossal statue of Minerva Promachus, Phidias' workmanship, was 70 feet high, so as to be seen towering above the Parthenon by the mariner in doubling Cape Suniurn. Lord Elgin deposited in the British Museum several of the finest sculptures.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Ath'ens. (city of Athene). The capital of Attica, and the chief seat of Grecian learning and civilization during the golden period of the history of Greece.
Description. ? Athens is situated about three miles from the seacoast, in the central plain of Attica. In this plain, rise several eminences. Of these, the most prominent is a lofty insulated mountain with a conical peaked Summit, now called the Hill of St. George, and which bore in ancient times the name of Lycabettus. This mountain, which was not included within the ancient walls, lies to the northeast of Athens, and forms the most striking feature in the environs of the city. It is to Athens, what Vesuvius is to Naples, or Arthur's Seat, to Edinburgh. Southwest of Lycabettua, there are four hills of moderate height, all of which formed part of the city.
Of these, the nearest to Lycabettus and at the distance of a mile from the latter, was the Aeropolis, or citadel of Athens, a square craggy rock rising abruptly about 150 feet, with a flat summit of about 1000 feet long from east to west, by 500 feet broad from north to south. Immediately west of the Aeropolis is a second hill of irregular form, the Areopagus (Mars' Hill). To the southwest, there rises a third hill, the Pnyx, on which the assemblies of the citizens were held. South of the city was seen the Saronic Gulf, with the harbors of Athens.
History. ? Athens is said to have derived its name from the prominence given to the worship of the goddess Athena (Minerva) by its king, Erechtheus. The inhabitants were previously called Cecropidae, from Cecrops, who, according to tradition, was the original founder of the city. This, at first, occupied only the hill or rock which afterwards became the Acropolis; but gradually, the buildings spread over the ground at the southern foot of this hill. It was not till the time of Pisistratus and his sons, (B.C. 560-514), that the city began to assume any degree of splendor.
The most remarkable building of these despots was the gigantic temple of the Olympian Zeus or Jupiter. Under Themistocles, the Acropolis began to form the centre of the city, round which the new walls described an irregular circle of about 60 stadia or 7 1/4 miles in circumference. Themistocles transferred the naval station of the Athenians to the peninsula of Piraeus, which is distant about 4 1/2 miles from Athens, and contains three natural harbors. It was not till the administration of Pericles that the walls were built which connected Athens with her ports.
Buildings. ? Under the administration of Pericles, Athens was adorned with numerous public buildings, which existed in all their glory when St. Paul visited the city. The Acropolis was the centre of the architectural splendor of Athens. It was covered with the temples of gods and heroes; and thus, its platform presented not only a sanctuary, but a museum containing the finest productions of the architect and the sculptor, in which the whiteness of the marble was relieved by brilliant colors, and rendered still more dazzling by the transparent clearness of the Athenian atmosphere.
The chief building was the Parthenon (that is, House of the Virgin), the most perfect production of Grecian architecture. It derived its name from its being the temple of Athena Parthenos, or Athena, the Virgin, the invincible goddess of war. It stood on the highest part of the Acropolis, near its centre. It was entirely of Pentelic marble, on a rustic basement of ordinary limestone, and its architecture, which was of the Doric order, was of the purest kind.
It was adorned with the most exquisite sculptures, executed by various artists under the direction of Phidias. But the chief wonder of the Parthenon was the colossal statue of the virgin goddess executed by Phidias himself: The Acropolis was adorned with another colossal figure of Athena, in bronze, also the work of Phidias. It stood in the open air, nearly opposite the Propylaea. With its pedestal, it must have been about 70 feet high, and consequently towered above the roof of the Parthenon, so that the point of its spear and the crest of its helmet were visible off the promontory of Sunium to ships approaching Athens. The Areopagus, or Hill of Ares (Mars), is described elsewhere. See Mars' Hill.
The Pnyx, or place for holding the public assemblies of the Athenians, stood on the side of a low rocky hill, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile from the Areopagus. Between the Pnyx on the west, the Areopagus on the north and the Acropolis on the east, and closely adjoining the base of these hills, stood the Agora or "Market," where St. Paul disputed daily. Through it ran the road to the gymnasium and gardens of the Academy, which were situated about a mile from the walls. The Academy was the place where Plato and his disciples taught. East of the city, and outside the walls was the Lyceum, a gymnasium dedicated to Apollo Lyceus, and celebrated as the place in which Aristotle taught.
Character. ? The remark of the sacred historian respecting the inquisitive character of the Athenians Act_17:21 is attested by the unanimous voice of antiquity. Their natural liveliness was partly owing to the purity and clearness of the atmosphere of Attica, which also allowed them to pass much of their time in the open air. The Athenian carefulness in religion is confirmed by the ancient writers. Of the Christian church, founded by St. Paul at Athens, according to ecclesiastical tradition, Dionysius, the Areopagite, was the first bishop. See Dionysius.
Present condition. ? (The population of Athens in 1871 was 48,000. Its university has 52 professors and 1200 students. Educational institutions are very numerous. A railway connects the Pirzeus or port with the city and its terminus stands in the midst of what was once the Agora. ? Editor).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a celebrated city of Greece, too well known to be here described. St. Paul's celebrated sermon, Acts xvii, was preached on the Areopagus, or Hill of Mars, where a celebrated court was held which took cognizance of matters of religion, blasphemies against the gods, the building of temples, &c. (See Areopagus.) The inscription on the altar, to the unknown God, which St. Paul so appropriately made the text of his discourse, was adopted on the occasion of the city having been relieved from a pestilence; and they erected altars to the God unknown, either as not knowing to which of their divinities they were indebted for the favour, or, which is more probable, because there was something in the circumstances of this deliverance, which led them to refer it to a higher power than their own gods, even to the supreme God, who was not unfrequently styled, the unknown, by the wiser Heathens. The existence of such altars is expressly mentioned by Lucian. On the place where the great Apostle bore his noble testimony against idols, and declared to them the God whom they ignorantly worshipped, Dr. E. D. Clarke, the traveller, remarks, It is not possible to conceive a situation of greater peril, or one more calculated to prove the sincerity of a preacher, than that in which the Apostle was here placed; and the truth of this, perhaps, will never be better felt than by a spectator, who from this eminence actually beholds the monuments of Pagan pomp and superstition by which he, whom the Athenians considered as the setter forth of strange gods, was then surrounded: representing to the imagination the disciples of Socrates and of Plato, the dogmatist of the porch, and the skeptic of the academy, addressed by a poor and lowly man, who, rude in speech,' without the enticing words of man's wisdom,' enjoined precepts contrary to their taste, and very hostile to their prejudices. One of the peculiar privileges of the Areopagitae seems to have been set at defiance by the zeal of St. Paul on this occasion; namely, that of inflicting extreme and exemplary punishment upon any person who should slight the celebration of the holy mysteries, or blaspheme the gods of Greece. We ascended to the summit by means of steps cut in the natural stone. The sublime scene here exhibited is so striking, that a brief description of it may prove how truly it offers to us a commentary upon the Apostle's words, as they were delivered upon the spot. He stood upon the top of the rock, and beneath the canopy of heaven. Before him there was spread a glorious prospect of mountains, islands, seas, and skies; behind him towered the lofty Acropolis, crowned with all its marble temples. Thus every object, whether in the face of nature, or among the works of art, conspired to elevate the mind, and to fill it with reverence toward that Being who made and governs the world, Act_17:24; Act_17:28; who sitteth in that light which no mortal eye can approach, and yet is nigh unto the meanest of his creatures; in whom we live, and move and have our being.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
In the time of the New Testament, Athens was the worlds great centre of learning. It was famous also for its magnificent architecture, seen in its many temples and public buildings. There is only one recorded occasion on which Paul visited the city, and on that occasion his evangelism was only moderately successful (Act_17:15-34). Concerning Pauls debate with the philosophers of the city see AREOPAGUS; EPICUREANS; STOICS.
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
ath?enz Ἀθῆναι, Athḗnai In antiquity the celebrated metropolis of Attica, now the capital of Greece. Two long walls, 250 ft. apart, connected the city with the harbor (Peiraeus). In Acts 17 we are told what Paul did during his single sojourn in this famous city. He came up from the sea by the new road (North of the ancient) along which were altars of unknown gods, entered the city from the West, and passed by the Ceramicus (burial-ground), which can be seen to this day, the ?Theseum,? the best preserved of all Greek temples, and on to the Agora (Market-Place), just North of the Acropolis, a steep hill, 200 ft. high, in the center of the city. Cimon began and Pericles completed the work of transforming this citadel into a sanctuary for the patron goddess of the city. The magnificent gateway (Propylaea), of which the Athenians were justly proud, was built by Mnesicles (437-432 bc). A monumental bronze statue by Phidias stood on the left, as one emerged on the plateau, and the mighty Parthenon a little further on, to the right. In this temple was the famous gold and ivory statue of Athena. The eastern pediment contained sculptures representing the birth of the goddess (Elgin Marbles, now in the British Museum), the western depicting her contest with Poseidon for supremacy over Attica. This, the most celebrated edifice, architecturally, in all history, was partially destroyed by the Venetians in 1687. Other temples on the Acropolis are the Erechtheum and the ?Wingless Victory.? In the city the streets were exceedingly narrow and crooked. The wider avenues were called πλατεῖαι, plateı́ai, whence English ?place,? Spanish ?plaza.? The roofs of the houses were flat. In and around the Agora were many porticoes stoaı́̌. In the Stoa Poecile (?Painted Portico?), whose walls were covered with historical paintings, Paul met with the successors of Zeno, the Stoics, with whom he disputed daily. In this vicinity also was the Senate Chamber for the Council of Five Hundred, and the Court of the Areopagus, whither Socrates came in 399 bc to face his accusers, and where Paul, five centuries later, preached to the Athenians ?the unknown God.? In this neighborhood also were the Tower of the Winds and the water-clock, which must have attracted Paul's attention, as they attract our attention today.
The apostle disputed in the synagogue with the Jews (Act_17:17), and a slab found at the foot of Mount Hymettus (a range to the East of the city, 3,000 ft. high), with the inscription αὔτη ἡ πύλη τοῦ κυρίου, δίκαιοι εἰσελεύσονται ἐν αὐτῇ (Psa_118:20), was once thought to indicate the site, but is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th century. Slabs bearing Jewish inscriptions have been found in the city itself.
The population of Athens was at least a quarter of a million. The oldest inhabitants were Pelasgians. Cecrops, the first traditional king, came from Egypt in 1556 bc, and by marrying the daughter of Actaeon, obtained the sovereignty. The first king was Erechtheus. Theseus united the twelve communities of Attica and made Athens the capital. After the death of Codrus in 1068 bc, the governing power was entrusted to an archon who held office for life. In 753 bc the term of office was limited to ten years. In 683 bc nine archons were chosen for a term of one year. Draco's laws, ?written in blood,? were made in 620 bc. Solon was chosen αρχον, archon in 594 bc and gave the state a constitution. The tyrant Pisistratus was in control permanently from 541 to 527 bc; his son Hipparchus was assassinated in 514. Clisthenes changed the constitution and introduced the practice of ostracism. In 490 bc the Athenians defeated the Persians at Marathon, and again in 480 bc at Salamis. In 476 bc Aristides organized the great Athenian Confederacy. After his death Conon became the leader of the conservative party; and when the general Cimon was killed, Pericles became the leader of the people. In 431 bc the Peloponnesian War broke out and continued till 404 bc, when Athens succumbed to Sparta. An oligarchical government was set up with Critias and Theramenes at the head. War broke out again but peace was restored by the pact of Antalcidas (387 bc). In the Sacred War (357-355 bc) Athens exhausted her strength. When Philip of Macedon began to interfere in Greek affairs, Athens could neither resolve on war measures (to which the oratory of Demosthenes incited her), nor make terms with Philip. Finally, she joined Thebes in making armed resistance, but in spite of her heroic efforts at Chaeronea, she suffered defeat (338 bc). Philip was murdered in 336 bc, and Alexander the Great became master. After the subjugation of Greece by the Romans, Athens was placed under the supervision of the governor of Macedonia, but was granted local independence in recognition of her great history. As the seat of Greek art and science, Athens played an important role even under Roman sway - she became the university city of the Roman world, and from her radiated spiritual light and intellectual energy to Tarsus, Antioch and Alexandria. Philo, the Jew, declares that the Athenians were Ἑλλήνων ὀξυδερκέστατοι διάνοιαν (?keenest in intellect?) and adds that Athens was to Greece what the pupil is to the eye, or reason to the soul. Although the city had lost her real independence, the people retained their old characteristics: they were still interested in art, literature and philosophy. Paul may possibly have attended theater of Dionysus (under the Southeast cliff of the Acropolis) and witnessed a play of the Greek poets, such as Euripides or Menander. Many gifts were received from foreign monarchs by Athens. Attalus I of Perg amum endowed the Academy, Eumenes added a splendid Stoa to theater and Antiochus Epiphanes began the Olympeium (15 columns of which are still standing), the massive sub-basement of which had been constructed by Pisistratus. Athens became a favorite residence for foreign writers who cultivated history, geography and literature. Horace, Brutus and Cassius sojourned in the city for some time. Josephus declares that the Athenians were the most god-fearing of the Greeks (εὐσεβεστάτους τῶν Ἑλλήνων). Compare Livy xlv.27.
Literature
See Wordsworth, Athens and Attica; Butler, Story of Athens; Ernest Gardner, Ancient Athens; Tucker, Life in Ancient Athens; A. Mommsen, Athenae Christianae; Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of Paul, chapter x; Gregorovius, Stadt Athen im Mittelalter; Leake, Grote, Thirlwall, Curtius, Wachsmuth, Holm, and Pausanias' Attica, recently edited by Carroll (Ginn and Co.), or in the large work of Frazer.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
A′thens. This celebrated city, as the birthplace of Plato, and through him so widely influential on Judaism and Christianity, deserves something else than a geographical notice here. We shall briefly allude to the stages of her history, and remark on some of the causes of her pre-eminent greatness in arms, arts, and intellectual subtlety.
The earlier and more obscure period of the Grecian province named Attica reaches down nearly to the final establishment of democracy in it. Yet we know enough to see that the foundations of her greatness were then already laid. To a king named Theseus (whose deeds are too much mixed with fable to be narrated as history) is ascribed the credit of uniting all the country-towns of Attica into a single state, the capital of which was Athens. This is the first political event that we can trust as historical, although its date and circumstances are by no means free from obscurity.
The population of this province was variously called Pelasgian, Achaian, and Ionian, and probably corresponds most nearly to what was afterwards called ?olian. The first name carries the mind back to an extremely primitive period. When the Dorians, another tribe of Greeks of very different temperament, invaded and occupied the southern peninsula, great numbers of its Achaian inhabitants took refuge in Attica. Shortly after, the Dorians were repulsed in an inroad against Athens, an event which has transmitted to legendary renown the name of King Codrus; and thenceforward Athens was looked upon as the bulwark of the Ionian tribes against the barbarous Dorians. Overloaded with population, Attica now poured forth colonies into Asia; some of which, as Miletus, soon rose to great eminence, and sent out numerous colonies themselves; so that Athens was reverenced as a mother of nations, by powerful children scattered along the western and northern coasts of Anatolia.
Dim tradition shows us isolated priesthoods and elective kings in the earliest times of Attica; these however gradually gave way to an aristocracy, which in a series of years established themselves as a hereditary ruling caste. But a country 'ever unravaged' (and such was their boast) could not fail to increase in wealth and numbers; and after two or three centuries, while the highest commoners pressed on the nobles, the lowest became overwhelmed with debt. The disorders caused by the strife of the former were vainly sought to be stayed by the institutions of Draco; the sufferings of the latter were ended, and the sources of violence dried up, by the enactments of Solon. Henceforth the Athenians revered the laws of Solon as the groundwork of their whole civil polity; yet they retained by the side of them the ordinances of Draco in many matters pertaining to religion. The date of Solon's reforms was probably B.C. 594.
The usurpation of Pisistratus and his sons made a partial breach in the constitution; but upon their expulsion, a more serious change was effected by Cleisthenes, head of the noble house of the Alcm?onid? (B.C. 508), almost in the same year in which Tarquin was expelled from Rome. An entirely new organization of the Attic tribes was framed, which destroyed whatever remained of the power of the nobles as an order, and established among the freemen a democracy, in fact, as well as in form. Out of this proceeded all the good and all the evil with which the name of Athens is associated; and though greatness which shot up so suddenly could not be permanent, there can be no difficulty in deciding that the good greatly preponderated.
Fig. 66?Athens
Very soon after this commenced hostilities with Persia; and the self-denying, romantic, successful bravery of Athens, with the generous affability and great talents of her statesmen, soon raised her to the head of the whole Ionian confederacy. As long as Persia was to be feared, Athens was loved; but after tasting the sweets of power, her sway degenerated into a despotism, and created at length, in the war called the Peloponnesian, a coalition of all Dorian and ?olian Greece against her (B.C. 431). In spite of a fatal pestilence and the revolt of her Ionian subjects, the naval skill of Athenian seamen and the enterprise of Athenian commanders proved more than a match for the hostile confederacy; and when Athens at last fell (B.C. 404), she fell by the effects of internal sedition more truly than by Spartan lances or Persian gold, or even by her own rash and overgrasping ambition. The demoralizing effects of this war on all Greece were infinitely the worst result of it, and they were transmitted to succeeding generations. It was substantially a civil war in every province; and as all the inhabitants of Attica were every summer forced to take refuge in the few fortresses they possessed, or in Athens itself, the simple countrymen became transformed into a hungry and profligate town rabble.
From the earliest times the Ionians loved the lyre and the song, and the hymns of poets formed the staple of Athenian education. The constitution of Solon admitted and demanded in the people a great knowledge of law, with a large share in its daily administration. Thus the acuteness of the lawyer was grafted on the imagination of the poet. These are the two intellectual elements out of which Athenian wisdom was developed; but it was stimulated and enriched by extended political action and political experience. History and Philosophy, as the words are understood in modern Europe, had their birth in Athens about the time of the Peloponnesian war. Then first, also, the Oratory of the bar and of the popular assembly was systematically cultivated, and the elements of mathematical science were admitted into the education of an accomplished man.
In the imitative arts of Sculpture and Painting, as well as in Architecture, it need hardly be said that Athens carried off the palm in Greece: yet, in all these, the Asiatic colonies vied with her. Miletus took the start of her in literary composition; and, under slight conceivable changes, might have become the Athens of the world. But all details on these subjects would be here out of place.
That Athens after the Peloponnesian war never recovered the political place which she previously held, can excite no surprise?that she rose so high towards it was truly wonderful, Sparta and Thebes, which successively aspired to the 'leadership' of Greece, abused their power as flagrantly as Athens had done, and, at the same time, more coarsely. The never-ending cabals, the treaties made and violated, the coalitions and breaches, the alliances and wars, recurring every few years, destroyed all mutual confidence, and all possibility of again uniting Greece in any permanent form of independence; and, in consequence, the whole country was soon swallowed up in the kingdom of Macedonia. With the loss of civil liberty, Athens lost her genius, her manly mind, and whatever remained of her virtue she long continued to produce talents, which were too often made tools of iniquity, panders to power, and petty artificers of false philosophy.
A Christian church existed in Athens soon after the apostolic times; but as the city had no political importance, the church never assumed any eminent position.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Athens
(Α᾿θῆναι, plural of Α᾿θήνη, Minerva, the tutelary goddess of the place), mentioned in several passages of Scripture (2Ma_9:15; Act_17:15 sq.; Act_18:1; 1Th_3:1), a celebrated city, the capital of Attica and of the leading Grecian republic, and the seat of the Greek literature in the golden period of the nation (Müller, Topog. of Athens, trans. by Lockhart, Lond. 1842; Kruse, Hellas, Lpz. 1826, II, 1:10 sq.; Leake, Topography of Athens, Lond. 1841, 2d ed.; Forchhammer, Topographie von Athen, Kiel, 1841; Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterth. 1, 1783 sq.; Grote, Hist. of Greece, 6, 20 sq.; Wordsworth, Athens and Attica, Lond. 1836; Stuart and Revelt, Antiquities of Athens, Lond. 1762-1816, 4 vols., and later; Dodwell, Tour through Greece, Lond. 1819; Pittakis, Αἱ παλαιαὶ Αθῆναι Athens, 1835; Prokesch, Denkwiurdigkeiten, Sttuttg. 1836, 2; Mure, Journal of a Tour in Greece. Edinb. 1842, 2; Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 1, 344 sq.), belonged in the apostle's time to the Roman province of Achsea (q.v.). The inhabitants had the reputation of being fond of novelty (Act_17:21; comp. AElian, Var. Hist. 5, 13; Demosth. Php_1:4; Schol. ad Thuc. 2, 38; ad A ristopb. Plut. 338: see Wetstein, 2:567), and as being remarkably zealous in the worship of the gods (Act_17:16; comp. Pausan. 1:24, 3; Stralbo, 10:471; Philostr. Apol. 6:3; 4:19; AElian, Var. Hist. 5. 17; Himer, in Phot. cod. 243; see Eckhard, Athenae superstitiosc, Viteb. 1618); hence the city was full of temples, altars, and other sacred places (Liv. 45:27). Paul visited Athens on his second missionary journey from Bercea (Act_17:14 sq.; comp. 1Th_3:1), and delivered in (but not before) the Areopagus (q.v.) his famous speech (Act_17:22-31).
The earlier and more obscure period of the Grecian province named Attica reaches down nearly to the final establishment of democracy in it, and even then the foundations of her greatness were already laid. The infertile soil and dry atmosphere of Attica, in connection with the slender appetite of the people, have been thought favorable to their mental development; the barrenness of the soil, moreover, prevented invaders from coveting it; so that, through a course of ages, the population remained unchanged, and a moral union grew up between the several districts. To a king named Theseus (whose deeds are too much mixed with fable to be narrated as history) is ascribed the credit of uniting all the country towns of Attica into a single state, the capital of which was Athens. The population of this province was variously called Pelasgian, Achaian, and Ionian, and probably corresponds most nearly to what was afterward called AEolian (Prichard, Phys. Hist. of Man, 3, 404). When the Dorians, another tribe of Greeks of very different temperament, invaded and occupied the southern peninsula, great numbers of its Achaian inhabitants took refuge in Attica. Shortly after, the Dorians were repulsed in an inroad against Athens, an event which has transmitted to legendary renown the name of King Codrus, and thenceforward Athens was looked upon as the bulwark of the Ionian tribes against the barbarous Dorians. Overloaded with population, Attica now poured forth colonies into Asia, some of which, as Miletus, soon rose to great eminence, and sent out numerous colonies themselves, so that Athens was reverenced as a mother of nations by powerful children scattered along the western and northern coasts of Anatolia. Dim tradition shows us isolated priesthoods and elective kings in the earliest times of Attica; these, however, gradually gave way to an aristocracy, which in a series of years established themselves as a hereditary ruling caste. But a country ever unravaged' (such was their boast) could not fail to increase in wealth and numbers; and after two or three centuries, while the highest commoners pressed on the nobles, the lowest became overwhelmed with debt. The disorders caused by the strife of the former were vainly sought to be stayed by the institutions of Draco; the sufferings of the latter were ended, and the sources of violence dried up by the enactments of Solon. Henceforth the Athenians revered the laws of Solon (νόμοι) as the groundwork of their whole civil polity; yet they retained by the side of them the ordinances of Draco (θεσμοί) in many matters pertaining to religion. The date of Solon's reforms was probably B.C. 594.
The usurpation of Pisistratus and his sons made a partial breach in the constitution; but upon their expulsion, a more serious change was effected by Clisthenes, head of the noble house of the Alcmoeonidoe (B.C. 508), almost in the same year in which Tarquin was expelled from Rome. An entirely new organization of the Attic tribes was framed, which destroyed whatever remained of the power of the nobles as an order, and established among the freemen a democracy, in fact as well as in form. Out of this proceeded all the good and all the evil with which the name of Athens is associated; and though greatness which shot up so suddenly could not be permanent, there can be no difficulty in deciding that the good greatly preponderated. Very soon after this commenced hostilities with Persia; and the self-denying, romantic, successful bravery of Athens, with the generous affability and great talents of her statesmen, soon raised her to the head of the whole Ionian confederacy. As long as Persia was to be feared, Athens was loved; but after tasting the sweets of power, her sway degenerated into a despotism, and created at length, in the war called the Peloponnesian, a coalition of all Dorian and AEolian Greece against her (B.C. 431). In spite of a fatal pestilence and the revolt of her Ionian subjects, the naval skill of Athenian seamen and the enterprise of Athenian commanders proved more than a match for the hostile confederacy; and when Athens at last fell (B.C. 404), she fell by the effects of internal sedition more truly than by Spartan lances or Persian gold, or even by her own rash and over-grasping ambition. The demoralizing effects of this war on all Greece were infinitely the worst result of it, and they were transmitted to succeeding generations. It was substantially a civil war in every province; and, as all the inhabitants of Attica were every summer forced to take refuge in the few fortresses they possessed, or in Athens itself, the simple countrymen became transformed into a hungry and profligate town rabble. From the earliest times the Ionians loved the lyre and the song, and the hymns of poets formed the staple of Athenian education. The constitution of Solon admitted and demanded in the people a great knowledge of law, with a large share in its daily administration. Thus the acuteness of the lawyer was grafted on the imagination of the poet.
These are the two intellectual elements out of which Athenian wisdom was developed; but it was stimulated and enriched by ex. tended political action and political experience. History and philosophy, as the words are understood in modern Europe, had their birth in Athens about the time of the Peloponnesian war. Then first, also, the oratory of the bar and of the popular assembly was systematically cultivated, and the elements of mathematical science were admitted into the education of an accomplished man. This was the period of the youth of Plato, whose philosophy was destined to leave so deep an impress on the Jewish and Christian schools of Alexandria. Its great effort was to unite the contemplative mysticism of Eastern sages with the accurate science of Greece; to combine, in short, the two qualities intellectual and moral, argumentative and spiritual into a single harmonious whole; and whatever opinion may be formed of the success which attended the experiment, it is not wonderful that so magnificent an aim attracted the desires and riveted the attention of thoughtful and contemplative minds for ages afterward. In the imitative arts of sculpture and painting, as well as in architecture, it need hardly be said that Athens carried off the palm in Greece; yet, in all these, the Asiatic colonies vied with her. Miletus took the start of her in literary composition; and, under slight conceivable changes, might have become the Athens of the world. That Athens after the Peloponnesian war never recovered the political place which she previously held, can excite no surprise that she rose so high toward it was truly wonderful. Sparta and Thebes, which successively aspired to the leadership of Greece, abused their power as flagrantly as Athens had done, and, at the same time, more coarsely. The never-ending cabals, the treaties made and violated, the coalitions and breaches, the alliances and wars, recurring every few years, destroyed all mutual confidence, and all possibility of again uniting Greece in any permanent form of independence; and, in consequence, the whole country was soon swallowed up in the kingdom of Macedonia. With the loss of civil liberty, Athens lost her genius, her manly mind, and whatever remained of her virtue: she long continued to produce talents, which were too often made tools of iniquity, panders to power, and petty artificers of false philosophy. Under the Roman empire, into which it was absorbed with the rest of Greece, its literary importance still continued, and it was the great resort of students from Rome itself.
During the Middle Ages it languished under the Ottoman yoke in every respect, but since Greece regained its independence (in 1834), it has revived (see Schubert, Reisen, 3, 473 sq.) as the capital of the new European king. dom. (For a detailed account of the history and topography of Athens, see the Penny Cyclopadia, s.v.; M'Culloch's Gazetteer, s.v.; Smith's Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v. Athenai.) SEE GREECE.
In order to understand the localities mentioned in the sacred narrative, it may be observed that four hills of moderate height rise within the walls of the city. Of these, one to the north-east is the celebrated Acropolis, or citadel, being a square craggy rock of about 150 feet high. Immediately to the west of the Acropolis is a second hill of irregular form, but inferior height, called the Areopagus. To the south-west rises a third hill, the Pnyx, on which the assemblies of the citizens were held; and to the south of the latter is a fourth hill, known as the Museum. SEE AREOPAGUS.
A Christian Church existed in Athens soon after the apostolic times, having doubtless been planted by the labors of Paul (although no allusions to it occur in the N.T.), but as the city had no political importance, the Church never assumed any eminent position (see Baronius, Annal. Eccl. an. 354, n. 25, 26). Tradition, however (Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiastes 3, 4), assigns as its first bishop Dionysius (q.v.) the Areopagite (Act_17:34). There are two points requiring special elucidation connected with the N.T. mention of Athens (from Winer):
(1.) Respecting the altar on which was inscribed, To the Unknown God, referred to in Act_17:23, various opinions have been expressed by interpreters (see Fabric. Bibliogr. antiq, p. 296; Wolf, Cur. 2, 1261 sq.; Dougtsei Anal. p. 86 sq.; Kuinol, Comment. 4, 598 sq.; comp. also Grube [Segers], De ara ignoti dei, Regiom. 1710; Heller, De leo ignoto Athen. in Gronov. Thes. 7, 223 sq.; Schickendanz, De ara ignoto deo consecrate, Tervest. 1748; Geiger, De ignoto Athen. deo, Marb. 1754;1 Wallenius, De deo ignoto, Gryph. 1797; Baden, Diss. arce deo ignoto dicatas, Havn. 1787). It by no means follows from the classical passages usually adduced (Pausan. 1:1, 4; Philostr. Apoll. 6, 3; comp. Lucian, Philopatr. 9, 29), that any of the single altars mentioned in these writers had the inscription to unknown gods (ἀγνώστοις θεοῖς), in the plural, but more naturally that each was dedicated separately to an unknown deity (ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ); yet these instances in the singular must have been collectively employed with a plural reference, since they unitedly speak of all such altars. There appear, moreover, to have been several altars in various parts of Athens with the inscription to an unknown god, a circumstance that is not invalidated by the mention (Pausan. v. 14, 6) of a single (in Elis!) altar of unknown gods (βωμὸς ἀγνώστων θεῶν). One plausible interpretation respecting the altar in question (in Eichhorn's Bibl. d. bibl. Lit. 3, 414) supposes that, as in ancient times the art of writing was not generally known, or but little practiced, there were (perhaps several) altars at Athens without any inscription (βωμοὶ ἀνώνυμοι, Diog. Laert. 1:10, 3). Eventually these, when found standing thus indefinite by the religious Athenians, would be marked by the words to some unknown god (ἀγν. θεῷ). It is simpler, however, to suppose that in spots where some supposed preternatural event had occurred, which persons sought by a memorial to attribute to some distinct deity as author, they erected such an altar, that profane steps might not approach too near (compare the phrases Si deo, Si deoe, used in such cases, Gell. 1:28, 3; Macrob. Saturn. 3, 9, ed. Bip.; see Dougtaei Anal. 2, 87) the unrecognized deity (comp. Neander, Planting, 1, 262 sq.). That the expression was intended to designate specially the God of the Jews (comp. the ironical expression Judaea devoted to the worship of an uncertain god, in Lucian, 2:592), as Anton insists (Progr. in Acts 17, 22 sq., Gorlic. 1822), is very unlikely. (The treatise of Wolle, De ignoto Judaeor. et Athen. deo, Lips. 1727, is without worth; and Mosheim, Cogit. in N.T. loc. 1, 77 sq., treats the subject in an unantiquarian manner.) SEE ALTAR.
(2.) The market -(ἀγορά) at Athens, mentioned (Act_17:17) as the place where Paul spoke to the assembled populace, has (with most modern interpreters since Kuinol) been understood as meaning, not the proper definite market-place called the Forum in the Ceramicus (ἀγορὰ ἐν Κεραμεικῶ), but a so-called new market-place lying much farther north, to which Meursius (Ceramic. gemin. c. 16) was the first to call attention, and which Müller (Hall. Encyclop. 6, 132) located on his plan from the notice in Pausanias (1, 17) and Strabo (10, 447); according to the latter of which; this spot appears to have borne the designation of the Erestria (Ε᾿ρετρία). Pausanias, however, refers to no other market-place than the well-known one lying between the Acropolis, the Pnyx, and the place of holding the Areopagus (Forchhammer, ut sup. p. 53 sq.); and Strabo's words (from the Eretria at Athens, which is now the market-place), which have been regarded as indicating that the Forum was situated there in his time, are susceptible of another and more probable interpretation (Leake, Attica, p. 21). Later inquirers have therefore acquiesced in the opinion that the passage in the Acts refers to nothing more than the usual market-place, in the neighborhood of which (see Forchhammer's Plan, opposite the Acropolis on the west), moreover, lay the miscellaneous porch (στοὰ ποικίλη), of which avail may be made (as has usually been found necessary) for the explanation of Act_17:18 (Cookesly, Map of Athens, Lond. 1852). SEE MARKET.
Treatises on Paul's proceedings in Athens have been written by Olearius (Lips. 1706, and since), Strimesius (Lund. 1706), Majus (Giess. 1727, and in Ikenii Thess. Diss. 2, 669 sq.); on his address in the Areopagus, by Anspach (Lugd. B. 1829), Anton (Gorl. 1822), Bentzel (Upsal, 1669), Eskuche (Rint. 1735), Heumann (Gott. 1724); on his disputations with the philosophers, by Boemer (Jen. 1751); also the essays of Joch, De Spiritu Attico (Viteb. 1726); Schurtzmann, De ἀναστάσει dea Atheniensibus credita (Lips. 1708); Zorn, De Atheniensium sarcasmo (Kilon. 1710); Alexander, St. Paul at Athens (Edinb. 1865). SEE PAUL.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Capital of Attica, the center of Grecian refinement and philosophy. Paul visited it in journeying from Macedonia, and stayed sometime (Act_17:14, etc.; FOUR-DRACHM OF ATHENS. 1Th_3:1). Four hills are within it, the Acropolis, N.E., a square rock 150 feet high; W. of it is the Areopagus. (See AREOPAGUS.) S.W. is the Pnyx, or Assembly Hill. S. of this is the Museum Hill. The Agora where Paul disputed was in the valley between the four. The newsmongering taste of the people (Act_17:21) is noticed by their great orator Demosthenes, "Ye go about the marketplace asking, Is there any news?"
Their pure atmosphere, open air life, and liberal institutions, stimulated liveliness of thought. Pausanias (1:24, sec. 3) confirms Paul's remark on their religiousness even to superstition: "the zeal devoted by the Athenians to the rites of the gods exceeds that of all others." (See ALTAR; AREOPAGUS.) Dionysius the Areopagite convert of Paul was, according to tradition, the first bishop of an Athenian church. Theseus' temple is the most perfect of the remaining monuments. The Parthenon or temple of Minerva, built of Penrelic marble, 228 feet long, 102 broad, 66 high, with 8 Doric columns on each front and 17 on each side, was the masterpiece of Athenian architecture. The colossal statue of Minerva Promachus, Phidias' workmanship, was 70 feet high, so as to be seen towering above the Parthenon by the mariner in doubling Cape Suniurn. Lord Elgin deposited in the British Museum several of the finest sculptures.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Ath'ens. (city of Athene). The capital of Attica, and the chief seat of Grecian learning and civilization during the golden period of the history of Greece.
Description. ? Athens is situated about three miles from the seacoast, in the central plain of Attica. In this plain, rise several eminences. Of these, the most prominent is a lofty insulated mountain with a conical peaked Summit, now called the Hill of St. George, and which bore in ancient times the name of Lycabettus. This mountain, which was not included within the ancient walls, lies to the northeast of Athens, and forms the most striking feature in the environs of the city. It is to Athens, what Vesuvius is to Naples, or Arthur's Seat, to Edinburgh. Southwest of Lycabettua, there are four hills of moderate height, all of which formed part of the city.
Of these, the nearest to Lycabettus and at the distance of a mile from the latter, was the Aeropolis, or citadel of Athens, a square craggy rock rising abruptly about 150 feet, with a flat summit of about 1000 feet long from east to west, by 500 feet broad from north to south. Immediately west of the Aeropolis is a second hill of irregular form, the Areopagus (Mars' Hill). To the southwest, there rises a third hill, the Pnyx, on which the assemblies of the citizens were held. South of the city was seen the Saronic Gulf, with the harbors of Athens.
History. ? Athens is said to have derived its name from the prominence given to the worship of the goddess Athena (Minerva) by its king, Erechtheus. The inhabitants were previously called Cecropidae, from Cecrops, who, according to tradition, was the original founder of the city. This, at first, occupied only the hill or rock which afterwards became the Acropolis; but gradually, the buildings spread over the ground at the southern foot of this hill. It was not till the time of Pisistratus and his sons, (B.C. 560-514), that the city began to assume any degree of splendor.
The most remarkable building of these despots was the gigantic temple of the Olympian Zeus or Jupiter. Under Themistocles, the Acropolis began to form the centre of the city, round which the new walls described an irregular circle of about 60 stadia or 7 1/4 miles in circumference. Themistocles transferred the naval station of the Athenians to the peninsula of Piraeus, which is distant about 4 1/2 miles from Athens, and contains three natural harbors. It was not till the administration of Pericles that the walls were built which connected Athens with her ports.
Buildings. ? Under the administration of Pericles, Athens was adorned with numerous public buildings, which existed in all their glory when St. Paul visited the city. The Acropolis was the centre of the architectural splendor of Athens. It was covered with the temples of gods and heroes; and thus, its platform presented not only a sanctuary, but a museum containing the finest productions of the architect and the sculptor, in which the whiteness of the marble was relieved by brilliant colors, and rendered still more dazzling by the transparent clearness of the Athenian atmosphere.
The chief building was the Parthenon (that is, House of the Virgin), the most perfect production of Grecian architecture. It derived its name from its being the temple of Athena Parthenos, or Athena, the Virgin, the invincible goddess of war. It stood on the highest part of the Acropolis, near its centre. It was entirely of Pentelic marble, on a rustic basement of ordinary limestone, and its architecture, which was of the Doric order, was of the purest kind.
It was adorned with the most exquisite sculptures, executed by various artists under the direction of Phidias. But the chief wonder of the Parthenon was the colossal statue of the virgin goddess executed by Phidias himself: The Acropolis was adorned with another colossal figure of Athena, in bronze, also the work of Phidias. It stood in the open air, nearly opposite the Propylaea. With its pedestal, it must have been about 70 feet high, and consequently towered above the roof of the Parthenon, so that the point of its spear and the crest of its helmet were visible off the promontory of Sunium to ships approaching Athens. The Areopagus, or Hill of Ares (Mars), is described elsewhere. See Mars' Hill.
The Pnyx, or place for holding the public assemblies of the Athenians, stood on the side of a low rocky hill, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile from the Areopagus. Between the Pnyx on the west, the Areopagus on the north and the Acropolis on the east, and closely adjoining the base of these hills, stood the Agora or "Market," where St. Paul disputed daily. Through it ran the road to the gymnasium and gardens of the Academy, which were situated about a mile from the walls. The Academy was the place where Plato and his disciples taught. East of the city, and outside the walls was the Lyceum, a gymnasium dedicated to Apollo Lyceus, and celebrated as the place in which Aristotle taught.
Character. ? The remark of the sacred historian respecting the inquisitive character of the Athenians Act_17:21 is attested by the unanimous voice of antiquity. Their natural liveliness was partly owing to the purity and clearness of the atmosphere of Attica, which also allowed them to pass much of their time in the open air. The Athenian carefulness in religion is confirmed by the ancient writers. Of the Christian church, founded by St. Paul at Athens, according to ecclesiastical tradition, Dionysius, the Areopagite, was the first bishop. See Dionysius.
Present condition. ? (The population of Athens in 1871 was 48,000. Its university has 52 professors and 1200 students. Educational institutions are very numerous. A railway connects the Pirzeus or port with the city and its terminus stands in the midst of what was once the Agora. ? Editor).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a celebrated city of Greece, too well known to be here described. St. Paul's celebrated sermon, Acts xvii, was preached on the Areopagus, or Hill of Mars, where a celebrated court was held which took cognizance of matters of religion, blasphemies against the gods, the building of temples, &c. (See Areopagus.) The inscription on the altar, to the unknown God, which St. Paul so appropriately made the text of his discourse, was adopted on the occasion of the city having been relieved from a pestilence; and they erected altars to the God unknown, either as not knowing to which of their divinities they were indebted for the favour, or, which is more probable, because there was something in the circumstances of this deliverance, which led them to refer it to a higher power than their own gods, even to the supreme God, who was not unfrequently styled, the unknown, by the wiser Heathens. The existence of such altars is expressly mentioned by Lucian. On the place where the great Apostle bore his noble testimony against idols, and declared to them the God whom they ignorantly worshipped, Dr. E. D. Clarke, the traveller, remarks, It is not possible to conceive a situation of greater peril, or one more calculated to prove the sincerity of a preacher, than that in which the Apostle was here placed; and the truth of this, perhaps, will never be better felt than by a spectator, who from this eminence actually beholds the monuments of Pagan pomp and superstition by which he, whom the Athenians considered as the setter forth of strange gods, was then surrounded: representing to the imagination the disciples of Socrates and of Plato, the dogmatist of the porch, and the skeptic of the academy, addressed by a poor and lowly man, who, rude in speech,' without the enticing words of man's wisdom,' enjoined precepts contrary to their taste, and very hostile to their prejudices. One of the peculiar privileges of the Areopagitae seems to have been set at defiance by the zeal of St. Paul on this occasion; namely, that of inflicting extreme and exemplary punishment upon any person who should slight the celebration of the holy mysteries, or blaspheme the gods of Greece. We ascended to the summit by means of steps cut in the natural stone. The sublime scene here exhibited is so striking, that a brief description of it may prove how truly it offers to us a commentary upon the Apostle's words, as they were delivered upon the spot. He stood upon the top of the rock, and beneath the canopy of heaven. Before him there was spread a glorious prospect of mountains, islands, seas, and skies; behind him towered the lofty Acropolis, crowned with all its marble temples. Thus every object, whether in the face of nature, or among the works of art, conspired to elevate the mind, and to fill it with reverence toward that Being who made and governs the world, Act_17:24; Act_17:28; who sitteth in that light which no mortal eye can approach, and yet is nigh unto the meanest of his creatures; in whom we live, and move and have our being.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
In the time of the New Testament, Athens was the worlds great centre of learning. It was famous also for its magnificent architecture, seen in its many temples and public buildings. There is only one recorded occasion on which Paul visited the city, and on that occasion his evangelism was only moderately successful (Act_17:15-34). Concerning Pauls debate with the philosophers of the city see AREOPAGUS; EPICUREANS; STOICS.
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
ath?enz Ἀθῆναι, Athḗnai In antiquity the celebrated metropolis of Attica, now the capital of Greece. Two long walls, 250 ft. apart, connected the city with the harbor (Peiraeus). In Acts 17 we are told what Paul did during his single sojourn in this famous city. He came up from the sea by the new road (North of the ancient) along which were altars of unknown gods, entered the city from the West, and passed by the Ceramicus (burial-ground), which can be seen to this day, the ?Theseum,? the best preserved of all Greek temples, and on to the Agora (Market-Place), just North of the Acropolis, a steep hill, 200 ft. high, in the center of the city. Cimon began and Pericles completed the work of transforming this citadel into a sanctuary for the patron goddess of the city. The magnificent gateway (Propylaea), of which the Athenians were justly proud, was built by Mnesicles (437-432 bc). A monumental bronze statue by Phidias stood on the left, as one emerged on the plateau, and the mighty Parthenon a little further on, to the right. In this temple was the famous gold and ivory statue of Athena. The eastern pediment contained sculptures representing the birth of the goddess (Elgin Marbles, now in the British Museum), the western depicting her contest with Poseidon for supremacy over Attica. This, the most celebrated edifice, architecturally, in all history, was partially destroyed by the Venetians in 1687. Other temples on the Acropolis are the Erechtheum and the ?Wingless Victory.? In the city the streets were exceedingly narrow and crooked. The wider avenues were called πλατεῖαι, plateı́ai, whence English ?place,? Spanish ?plaza.? The roofs of the houses were flat. In and around the Agora were many porticoes stoaı́̌. In the Stoa Poecile (?Painted Portico?), whose walls were covered with historical paintings, Paul met with the successors of Zeno, the Stoics, with whom he disputed daily. In this vicinity also was the Senate Chamber for the Council of Five Hundred, and the Court of the Areopagus, whither Socrates came in 399 bc to face his accusers, and where Paul, five centuries later, preached to the Athenians ?the unknown God.? In this neighborhood also were the Tower of the Winds and the water-clock, which must have attracted Paul's attention, as they attract our attention today.
The apostle disputed in the synagogue with the Jews (Act_17:17), and a slab found at the foot of Mount Hymettus (a range to the East of the city, 3,000 ft. high), with the inscription αὔτη ἡ πύλη τοῦ κυρίου, δίκαιοι εἰσελεύσονται ἐν αὐτῇ (Psa_118:20), was once thought to indicate the site, but is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th century. Slabs bearing Jewish inscriptions have been found in the city itself.
The population of Athens was at least a quarter of a million. The oldest inhabitants were Pelasgians. Cecrops, the first traditional king, came from Egypt in 1556 bc, and by marrying the daughter of Actaeon, obtained the sovereignty. The first king was Erechtheus. Theseus united the twelve communities of Attica and made Athens the capital. After the death of Codrus in 1068 bc, the governing power was entrusted to an archon who held office for life. In 753 bc the term of office was limited to ten years. In 683 bc nine archons were chosen for a term of one year. Draco's laws, ?written in blood,? were made in 620 bc. Solon was chosen αρχον, archon in 594 bc and gave the state a constitution. The tyrant Pisistratus was in control permanently from 541 to 527 bc; his son Hipparchus was assassinated in 514. Clisthenes changed the constitution and introduced the practice of ostracism. In 490 bc the Athenians defeated the Persians at Marathon, and again in 480 bc at Salamis. In 476 bc Aristides organized the great Athenian Confederacy. After his death Conon became the leader of the conservative party; and when the general Cimon was killed, Pericles became the leader of the people. In 431 bc the Peloponnesian War broke out and continued till 404 bc, when Athens succumbed to Sparta. An oligarchical government was set up with Critias and Theramenes at the head. War broke out again but peace was restored by the pact of Antalcidas (387 bc). In the Sacred War (357-355 bc) Athens exhausted her strength. When Philip of Macedon began to interfere in Greek affairs, Athens could neither resolve on war measures (to which the oratory of Demosthenes incited her), nor make terms with Philip. Finally, she joined Thebes in making armed resistance, but in spite of her heroic efforts at Chaeronea, she suffered defeat (338 bc). Philip was murdered in 336 bc, and Alexander the Great became master. After the subjugation of Greece by the Romans, Athens was placed under the supervision of the governor of Macedonia, but was granted local independence in recognition of her great history. As the seat of Greek art and science, Athens played an important role even under Roman sway - she became the university city of the Roman world, and from her radiated spiritual light and intellectual energy to Tarsus, Antioch and Alexandria. Philo, the Jew, declares that the Athenians were Ἑλλήνων ὀξυδερκέστατοι διάνοιαν (?keenest in intellect?) and adds that Athens was to Greece what the pupil is to the eye, or reason to the soul. Although the city had lost her real independence, the people retained their old characteristics: they were still interested in art, literature and philosophy. Paul may possibly have attended theater of Dionysus (under the Southeast cliff of the Acropolis) and witnessed a play of the Greek poets, such as Euripides or Menander. Many gifts were received from foreign monarchs by Athens. Attalus I of Perg amum endowed the Academy, Eumenes added a splendid Stoa to theater and Antiochus Epiphanes began the Olympeium (15 columns of which are still standing), the massive sub-basement of which had been constructed by Pisistratus. Athens became a favorite residence for foreign writers who cultivated history, geography and literature. Horace, Brutus and Cassius sojourned in the city for some time. Josephus declares that the Athenians were the most god-fearing of the Greeks (εὐσεβεστάτους τῶν Ἑλλήνων). Compare Livy xlv.27.
Literature
See Wordsworth, Athens and Attica; Butler, Story of Athens; Ernest Gardner, Ancient Athens; Tucker, Life in Ancient Athens; A. Mommsen, Athenae Christianae; Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of Paul, chapter x; Gregorovius, Stadt Athen im Mittelalter; Leake, Grote, Thirlwall, Curtius, Wachsmuth, Holm, and Pausanias' Attica, recently edited by Carroll (Ginn and Co.), or in the large work of Frazer.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
A′thens. This celebrated city, as the birthplace of Plato, and through him so widely influential on Judaism and Christianity, deserves something else than a geographical notice here. We shall briefly allude to the stages of her history, and remark on some of the causes of her pre-eminent greatness in arms, arts, and intellectual subtlety.
The earlier and more obscure period of the Grecian province named Attica reaches down nearly to the final establishment of democracy in it. Yet we know enough to see that the foundations of her greatness were then already laid. To a king named Theseus (whose deeds are too much mixed with fable to be narrated as history) is ascribed the credit of uniting all the country-towns of Attica into a single state, the capital of which was Athens. This is the first political event that we can trust as historical, although its date and circumstances are by no means free from obscurity.
The population of this province was variously called Pelasgian, Achaian, and Ionian, and probably corresponds most nearly to what was afterwards called ?olian. The first name carries the mind back to an extremely primitive period. When the Dorians, another tribe of Greeks of very different temperament, invaded and occupied the southern peninsula, great numbers of its Achaian inhabitants took refuge in Attica. Shortly after, the Dorians were repulsed in an inroad against Athens, an event which has transmitted to legendary renown the name of King Codrus; and thenceforward Athens was looked upon as the bulwark of the Ionian tribes against the barbarous Dorians. Overloaded with population, Attica now poured forth colonies into Asia; some of which, as Miletus, soon rose to great eminence, and sent out numerous colonies themselves; so that Athens was reverenced as a mother of nations, by powerful children scattered along the western and northern coasts of Anatolia.
Dim tradition shows us isolated priesthoods and elective kings in the earliest times of Attica; these however gradually gave way to an aristocracy, which in a series of years established themselves as a hereditary ruling caste. But a country 'ever unravaged' (and such was their boast) could not fail to increase in wealth and numbers; and after two or three centuries, while the highest commoners pressed on the nobles, the lowest became overwhelmed with debt. The disorders caused by the strife of the former were vainly sought to be stayed by the institutions of Draco; the sufferings of the latter were ended, and the sources of violence dried up, by the enactments of Solon. Henceforth the Athenians revered the laws of Solon as the groundwork of their whole civil polity; yet they retained by the side of them the ordinances of Draco in many matters pertaining to religion. The date of Solon's reforms was probably B.C. 594.
The usurpation of Pisistratus and his sons made a partial breach in the constitution; but upon their expulsion, a more serious change was effected by Cleisthenes, head of the noble house of the Alcm?onid? (B.C. 508), almost in the same year in which Tarquin was expelled from Rome. An entirely new organization of the Attic tribes was framed, which destroyed whatever remained of the power of the nobles as an order, and established among the freemen a democracy, in fact, as well as in form. Out of this proceeded all the good and all the evil with which the name of Athens is associated; and though greatness which shot up so suddenly could not be permanent, there can be no difficulty in deciding that the good greatly preponderated.
Fig. 66?Athens
Very soon after this commenced hostilities with Persia; and the self-denying, romantic, successful bravery of Athens, with the generous affability and great talents of her statesmen, soon raised her to the head of the whole Ionian confederacy. As long as Persia was to be feared, Athens was loved; but after tasting the sweets of power, her sway degenerated into a despotism, and created at length, in the war called the Peloponnesian, a coalition of all Dorian and ?olian Greece against her (B.C. 431). In spite of a fatal pestilence and the revolt of her Ionian subjects, the naval skill of Athenian seamen and the enterprise of Athenian commanders proved more than a match for the hostile confederacy; and when Athens at last fell (B.C. 404), she fell by the effects of internal sedition more truly than by Spartan lances or Persian gold, or even by her own rash and overgrasping ambition. The demoralizing effects of this war on all Greece were infinitely the worst result of it, and they were transmitted to succeeding generations. It was substantially a civil war in every province; and as all the inhabitants of Attica were every summer forced to take refuge in the few fortresses they possessed, or in Athens itself, the simple countrymen became transformed into a hungry and profligate town rabble.
From the earliest times the Ionians loved the lyre and the song, and the hymns of poets formed the staple of Athenian education. The constitution of Solon admitted and demanded in the people a great knowledge of law, with a large share in its daily administration. Thus the acuteness of the lawyer was grafted on the imagination of the poet. These are the two intellectual elements out of which Athenian wisdom was developed; but it was stimulated and enriched by extended political action and political experience. History and Philosophy, as the words are understood in modern Europe, had their birth in Athens about the time of the Peloponnesian war. Then first, also, the Oratory of the bar and of the popular assembly was systematically cultivated, and the elements of mathematical science were admitted into the education of an accomplished man.
In the imitative arts of Sculpture and Painting, as well as in Architecture, it need hardly be said that Athens carried off the palm in Greece: yet, in all these, the Asiatic colonies vied with her. Miletus took the start of her in literary composition; and, under slight conceivable changes, might have become the Athens of the world. But all details on these subjects would be here out of place.
That Athens after the Peloponnesian war never recovered the political place which she previously held, can excite no surprise?that she rose so high towards it was truly wonderful, Sparta and Thebes, which successively aspired to the 'leadership' of Greece, abused their power as flagrantly as Athens had done, and, at the same time, more coarsely. The never-ending cabals, the treaties made and violated, the coalitions and breaches, the alliances and wars, recurring every few years, destroyed all mutual confidence, and all possibility of again uniting Greece in any permanent form of independence; and, in consequence, the whole country was soon swallowed up in the kingdom of Macedonia. With the loss of civil liberty, Athens lost her genius, her manly mind, and whatever remained of her virtue she long continued to produce talents, which were too often made tools of iniquity, panders to power, and petty artificers of false philosophy.
A Christian church existed in Athens soon after the apostolic times; but as the city had no political importance, the church never assumed any eminent position.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Athens
(Α᾿θῆναι, plural of Α᾿θήνη, Minerva, the tutelary goddess of the place), mentioned in several passages of Scripture (2Ma_9:15; Act_17:15 sq.; Act_18:1; 1Th_3:1), a celebrated city, the capital of Attica and of the leading Grecian republic, and the seat of the Greek literature in the golden period of the nation (Müller, Topog. of Athens, trans. by Lockhart, Lond. 1842; Kruse, Hellas, Lpz. 1826, II, 1:10 sq.; Leake, Topography of Athens, Lond. 1841, 2d ed.; Forchhammer, Topographie von Athen, Kiel, 1841; Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterth. 1, 1783 sq.; Grote, Hist. of Greece, 6, 20 sq.; Wordsworth, Athens and Attica, Lond. 1836; Stuart and Revelt, Antiquities of Athens, Lond. 1762-1816, 4 vols., and later; Dodwell, Tour through Greece, Lond. 1819; Pittakis, Αἱ παλαιαὶ Αθῆναι Athens, 1835; Prokesch, Denkwiurdigkeiten, Sttuttg. 1836, 2; Mure, Journal of a Tour in Greece. Edinb. 1842, 2; Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 1, 344 sq.), belonged in the apostle's time to the Roman province of Achsea (q.v.). The inhabitants had the reputation of being fond of novelty (Act_17:21; comp. AElian, Var. Hist. 5, 13; Demosth. Php_1:4; Schol. ad Thuc. 2, 38; ad A ristopb. Plut. 338: see Wetstein, 2:567), and as being remarkably zealous in the worship of the gods (Act_17:16; comp. Pausan. 1:24, 3; Stralbo, 10:471; Philostr. Apol. 6:3; 4:19; AElian, Var. Hist. 5. 17; Himer, in Phot. cod. 243; see Eckhard, Athenae superstitiosc, Viteb. 1618); hence the city was full of temples, altars, and other sacred places (Liv. 45:27). Paul visited Athens on his second missionary journey from Bercea (Act_17:14 sq.; comp. 1Th_3:1), and delivered in (but not before) the Areopagus (q.v.) his famous speech (Act_17:22-31).
The earlier and more obscure period of the Grecian province named Attica reaches down nearly to the final establishment of democracy in it, and even then the foundations of her greatness were already laid. The infertile soil and dry atmosphere of Attica, in connection with the slender appetite of the people, have been thought favorable to their mental development; the barrenness of the soil, moreover, prevented invaders from coveting it; so that, through a course of ages, the population remained unchanged, and a moral union grew up between the several districts. To a king named Theseus (whose deeds are too much mixed with fable to be narrated as history) is ascribed the credit of uniting all the country towns of Attica into a single state, the capital of which was Athens. The population of this province was variously called Pelasgian, Achaian, and Ionian, and probably corresponds most nearly to what was afterward called AEolian (Prichard, Phys. Hist. of Man, 3, 404). When the Dorians, another tribe of Greeks of very different temperament, invaded and occupied the southern peninsula, great numbers of its Achaian inhabitants took refuge in Attica. Shortly after, the Dorians were repulsed in an inroad against Athens, an event which has transmitted to legendary renown the name of King Codrus, and thenceforward Athens was looked upon as the bulwark of the Ionian tribes against the barbarous Dorians. Overloaded with population, Attica now poured forth colonies into Asia, some of which, as Miletus, soon rose to great eminence, and sent out numerous colonies themselves, so that Athens was reverenced as a mother of nations by powerful children scattered along the western and northern coasts of Anatolia. Dim tradition shows us isolated priesthoods and elective kings in the earliest times of Attica; these, however, gradually gave way to an aristocracy, which in a series of years established themselves as a hereditary ruling caste. But a country ever unravaged' (such was their boast) could not fail to increase in wealth and numbers; and after two or three centuries, while the highest commoners pressed on the nobles, the lowest became overwhelmed with debt. The disorders caused by the strife of the former were vainly sought to be stayed by the institutions of Draco; the sufferings of the latter were ended, and the sources of violence dried up by the enactments of Solon. Henceforth the Athenians revered the laws of Solon (νόμοι) as the groundwork of their whole civil polity; yet they retained by the side of them the ordinances of Draco (θεσμοί) in many matters pertaining to religion. The date of Solon's reforms was probably B.C. 594.
The usurpation of Pisistratus and his sons made a partial breach in the constitution; but upon their expulsion, a more serious change was effected by Clisthenes, head of the noble house of the Alcmoeonidoe (B.C. 508), almost in the same year in which Tarquin was expelled from Rome. An entirely new organization of the Attic tribes was framed, which destroyed whatever remained of the power of the nobles as an order, and established among the freemen a democracy, in fact as well as in form. Out of this proceeded all the good and all the evil with which the name of Athens is associated; and though greatness which shot up so suddenly could not be permanent, there can be no difficulty in deciding that the good greatly preponderated. Very soon after this commenced hostilities with Persia; and the self-denying, romantic, successful bravery of Athens, with the generous affability and great talents of her statesmen, soon raised her to the head of the whole Ionian confederacy. As long as Persia was to be feared, Athens was loved; but after tasting the sweets of power, her sway degenerated into a despotism, and created at length, in the war called the Peloponnesian, a coalition of all Dorian and AEolian Greece against her (B.C. 431). In spite of a fatal pestilence and the revolt of her Ionian subjects, the naval skill of Athenian seamen and the enterprise of Athenian commanders proved more than a match for the hostile confederacy; and when Athens at last fell (B.C. 404), she fell by the effects of internal sedition more truly than by Spartan lances or Persian gold, or even by her own rash and over-grasping ambition. The demoralizing effects of this war on all Greece were infinitely the worst result of it, and they were transmitted to succeeding generations. It was substantially a civil war in every province; and, as all the inhabitants of Attica were every summer forced to take refuge in the few fortresses they possessed, or in Athens itself, the simple countrymen became transformed into a hungry and profligate town rabble. From the earliest times the Ionians loved the lyre and the song, and the hymns of poets formed the staple of Athenian education. The constitution of Solon admitted and demanded in the people a great knowledge of law, with a large share in its daily administration. Thus the acuteness of the lawyer was grafted on the imagination of the poet.
These are the two intellectual elements out of which Athenian wisdom was developed; but it was stimulated and enriched by ex. tended political action and political experience. History and philosophy, as the words are understood in modern Europe, had their birth in Athens about the time of the Peloponnesian war. Then first, also, the oratory of the bar and of the popular assembly was systematically cultivated, and the elements of mathematical science were admitted into the education of an accomplished man. This was the period of the youth of Plato, whose philosophy was destined to leave so deep an impress on the Jewish and Christian schools of Alexandria. Its great effort was to unite the contemplative mysticism of Eastern sages with the accurate science of Greece; to combine, in short, the two qualities intellectual and moral, argumentative and spiritual into a single harmonious whole; and whatever opinion may be formed of the success which attended the experiment, it is not wonderful that so magnificent an aim attracted the desires and riveted the attention of thoughtful and contemplative minds for ages afterward. In the imitative arts of sculpture and painting, as well as in architecture, it need hardly be said that Athens carried off the palm in Greece; yet, in all these, the Asiatic colonies vied with her. Miletus took the start of her in literary composition; and, under slight conceivable changes, might have become the Athens of the world. That Athens after the Peloponnesian war never recovered the political place which she previously held, can excite no surprise that she rose so high toward it was truly wonderful. Sparta and Thebes, which successively aspired to the leadership of Greece, abused their power as flagrantly as Athens had done, and, at the same time, more coarsely. The never-ending cabals, the treaties made and violated, the coalitions and breaches, the alliances and wars, recurring every few years, destroyed all mutual confidence, and all possibility of again uniting Greece in any permanent form of independence; and, in consequence, the whole country was soon swallowed up in the kingdom of Macedonia. With the loss of civil liberty, Athens lost her genius, her manly mind, and whatever remained of her virtue: she long continued to produce talents, which were too often made tools of iniquity, panders to power, and petty artificers of false philosophy. Under the Roman empire, into which it was absorbed with the rest of Greece, its literary importance still continued, and it was the great resort of students from Rome itself.
During the Middle Ages it languished under the Ottoman yoke in every respect, but since Greece regained its independence (in 1834), it has revived (see Schubert, Reisen, 3, 473 sq.) as the capital of the new European king. dom. (For a detailed account of the history and topography of Athens, see the Penny Cyclopadia, s.v.; M'Culloch's Gazetteer, s.v.; Smith's Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v. Athenai.) SEE GREECE.
In order to understand the localities mentioned in the sacred narrative, it may be observed that four hills of moderate height rise within the walls of the city. Of these, one to the north-east is the celebrated Acropolis, or citadel, being a square craggy rock of about 150 feet high. Immediately to the west of the Acropolis is a second hill of irregular form, but inferior height, called the Areopagus. To the south-west rises a third hill, the Pnyx, on which the assemblies of the citizens were held; and to the south of the latter is a fourth hill, known as the Museum. SEE AREOPAGUS.
A Christian Church existed in Athens soon after the apostolic times, having doubtless been planted by the labors of Paul (although no allusions to it occur in the N.T.), but as the city had no political importance, the Church never assumed any eminent position (see Baronius, Annal. Eccl. an. 354, n. 25, 26). Tradition, however (Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiastes 3, 4), assigns as its first bishop Dionysius (q.v.) the Areopagite (Act_17:34). There are two points requiring special elucidation connected with the N.T. mention of Athens (from Winer):
(1.) Respecting the altar on which was inscribed, To the Unknown God, referred to in Act_17:23, various opinions have been expressed by interpreters (see Fabric. Bibliogr. antiq, p. 296; Wolf, Cur. 2, 1261 sq.; Dougtsei Anal. p. 86 sq.; Kuinol, Comment. 4, 598 sq.; comp. also Grube [Segers], De ara ignoti dei, Regiom. 1710; Heller, De leo ignoto Athen. in Gronov. Thes. 7, 223 sq.; Schickendanz, De ara ignoto deo consecrate, Tervest. 1748; Geiger, De ignoto Athen. deo, Marb. 1754;1 Wallenius, De deo ignoto, Gryph. 1797; Baden, Diss. arce deo ignoto dicatas, Havn. 1787). It by no means follows from the classical passages usually adduced (Pausan. 1:1, 4; Philostr. Apoll. 6, 3; comp. Lucian, Philopatr. 9, 29), that any of the single altars mentioned in these writers had the inscription to unknown gods (ἀγνώστοις θεοῖς), in the plural, but more naturally that each was dedicated separately to an unknown deity (ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ); yet these instances in the singular must have been collectively employed with a plural reference, since they unitedly speak of all such altars. There appear, moreover, to have been several altars in various parts of Athens with the inscription to an unknown god, a circumstance that is not invalidated by the mention (Pausan. v. 14, 6) of a single (in Elis!) altar of unknown gods (βωμὸς ἀγνώστων θεῶν). One plausible interpretation respecting the altar in question (in Eichhorn's Bibl. d. bibl. Lit. 3, 414) supposes that, as in ancient times the art of writing was not generally known, or but little practiced, there were (perhaps several) altars at Athens without any inscription (βωμοὶ ἀνώνυμοι, Diog. Laert. 1:10, 3). Eventually these, when found standing thus indefinite by the religious Athenians, would be marked by the words to some unknown god (ἀγν. θεῷ). It is simpler, however, to suppose that in spots where some supposed preternatural event had occurred, which persons sought by a memorial to attribute to some distinct deity as author, they erected such an altar, that profane steps might not approach too near (compare the phrases Si deo, Si deoe, used in such cases, Gell. 1:28, 3; Macrob. Saturn. 3, 9, ed. Bip.; see Dougtaei Anal. 2, 87) the unrecognized deity (comp. Neander, Planting, 1, 262 sq.). That the expression was intended to designate specially the God of the Jews (comp. the ironical expression Judaea devoted to the worship of an uncertain god, in Lucian, 2:592), as Anton insists (Progr. in Acts 17, 22 sq., Gorlic. 1822), is very unlikely. (The treatise of Wolle, De ignoto Judaeor. et Athen. deo, Lips. 1727, is without worth; and Mosheim, Cogit. in N.T. loc. 1, 77 sq., treats the subject in an unantiquarian manner.) SEE ALTAR.
(2.) The market -(ἀγορά) at Athens, mentioned (Act_17:17) as the place where Paul spoke to the assembled populace, has (with most modern interpreters since Kuinol) been understood as meaning, not the proper definite market-place called the Forum in the Ceramicus (ἀγορὰ ἐν Κεραμεικῶ), but a so-called new market-place lying much farther north, to which Meursius (Ceramic. gemin. c. 16) was the first to call attention, and which Müller (Hall. Encyclop. 6, 132) located on his plan from the notice in Pausanias (1, 17) and Strabo (10, 447); according to the latter of which; this spot appears to have borne the designation of the Erestria (Ε᾿ρετρία). Pausanias, however, refers to no other market-place than the well-known one lying between the Acropolis, the Pnyx, and the place of holding the Areopagus (Forchhammer, ut sup. p. 53 sq.); and Strabo's words (from the Eretria at Athens, which is now the market-place), which have been regarded as indicating that the Forum was situated there in his time, are susceptible of another and more probable interpretation (Leake, Attica, p. 21). Later inquirers have therefore acquiesced in the opinion that the passage in the Acts refers to nothing more than the usual market-place, in the neighborhood of which (see Forchhammer's Plan, opposite the Acropolis on the west), moreover, lay the miscellaneous porch (στοὰ ποικίλη), of which avail may be made (as has usually been found necessary) for the explanation of Act_17:18 (Cookesly, Map of Athens, Lond. 1852). SEE MARKET.
Treatises on Paul's proceedings in Athens have been written by Olearius (Lips. 1706, and since), Strimesius (Lund. 1706), Majus (Giess. 1727, and in Ikenii Thess. Diss. 2, 669 sq.); on his address in the Areopagus, by Anspach (Lugd. B. 1829), Anton (Gorl. 1822), Bentzel (Upsal, 1669), Eskuche (Rint. 1735), Heumann (Gott. 1724); on his disputations with the philosophers, by Boemer (Jen. 1751); also the essays of Joch, De Spiritu Attico (Viteb. 1726); Schurtzmann, De ἀναστάσει dea Atheniensibus credita (Lips. 1708); Zorn, De Atheniensium sarcasmo (Kilon. 1710); Alexander, St. Paul at Athens (Edinb. 1865). SEE PAUL.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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