Agoraea

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Agoraea and Agoraeus (Gr. Ἀγοραία and Ἀγοραῖος) were epithets given to several divinities of Greek mythology who were considered to be the protectors of the as­semblies of the people in the agora (ἀγορά), particularly in Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. The gods so named were Zeus,[1] Athena,[2] Artemis,[3] and Hermes.[4] As Hermes was the god of commerce, this epithet seems to have reference to the agora as the marketplace;[5] a bronze statue of Hermes Agoraeus is mentioned as standing near the agora in Athens by both Aristophanes and Demosthenes.[6][7]

The Colonus Agoraeus, or "Market Hill", was a precinct on the westernmost boundary of the agora in Athens.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece iii. 11. § 8, v. 15. § 3
  2. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece iii. 11. § 8
  3. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece v. 15. § 3
  4. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece i. 15. § 1, ii. 9. § 7, ix. 17. § 1
  5. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), “Agoraea”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 75 
  6. ^ Aristophanes, Knights
  7. ^ Smith, William, ed. (1878), “Agoraea”, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 294 
  8. ^ Weller, Charles Heald (1913). Athens and its Monuments. New York: Macmillan & Co.. 

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).