#pnyx

Tree on the hill of The Pnyx which was the official meeting place of the Athenian democratic assembly in the early 5th century. // trees 7

December 2026, Athens, Greece

Bema, Pnyx, Athes, Gree

Pnyx (First democratic parliament in the world)

Athens, Greece

507 BCE

The Pnyx (Greek:Pnyka) is a hill in central Athens, the capital of Greece. Beginning as early as 507 BCE, the Athenians gathered on the Pnyx to host their popular assemblies, thus making the hill one of the earliest and most important sites in the creation of democracy.

The Pnyx was used for popular assemblies in Athens as early as 507 BCE, when the reforms of Cleisthenes transferred political power to the citizenry. It was then outside the city proper, but close enough to be convenient. It looks down on the ancient Agora, which was the commercial and social centre of the city. At this site all the great political struggles of Athens of the "Golden Age" were fought out. Pericles, Aristides and Alcibiades spoke here, within sight of the Parthenon, temple of Athena. Here Demosthenes delivered his vilifications of Philip II of Macedon.

The Pnyx was the official meeting place of the Athenian democratic assembly (Ancient Greek: ekklesia). In the earliest days of Athenian democracy (after the reforms of Kleisthenes in 508 BCE), the ekklesia met in the Agora. Sometime in the early 5th century, the meeting place was moved to a hill south and west of the Acropolis. This new meeting place came to be called "Pnyx" (from the Greek word meaning "tightly packed together".

In the early history of the Pnyx, three phases can be distinguished:

Pnyx I: Probably constructed in the early 5th century. The people apparently sat on the hillside facing a speaker's platform on the north. The seating capacity may have been anywhere from 6000 to 13,000 people. This phase is represented archaeologically only by a few cuttings in the bedrock and a boundary stone (not found in situ), so that it is impossible to determine the date and size with any precision.

Pnyx II: Probably late 5th century BCE In this phase the orientation of the auditorium was apparently reversed (a reconstruction that is based more upon ancient literary sources than from the actual archaeological record). A stepped terrace wall was created on the north to support an artificial terrace, and the people sat facing a speaker's platform on the south. Some sources stated that this retaining wall was constructed around 500 BC for the purpose of holding the soil that was brought in to form the level space for the bema. Part of the stepped terrace wall is preserved, as well as a staircase with rock-cut steps leading up to it from the direction of the Agora. The size of the auditorium (as it is restored by the excavators) is not that much larger than Pnyx I.

Pnyx III: The Pnyx was rebuilt and expanded in the 3rd quarter of the 4th century BCE, probably around 345-335 BCE A massive, curved, retaining wall was built (or at least begun) on the north. The southern side of the auditorium and speaker's platform (bema) were quarried out of the natural bedrock. (Traces of the quarrying process can still be seen at the eastern side of the great rock-cut scarp). On a terrace above (south of) the speaker's platform, the foundations were begun for 2 long stoas (but these seem never to have been finished). It is unknown for how many years Pnyx III was used as the meeting place of the ekklesia, and certainly by the 1st century BCE the assembly held their meetings in the Theater of Dionysos on the South Slope of the Acropolis.

Finally, in the Roman period, part of the Pnyx was used as a sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos. Evidence for the sanctuary consist of c. 50 niches for votive plaques cut into the bedrock scarp east of the speaker's platform. Many of the votive plaques are carved with representations of human body parts (eyes, breasts, etc.), suggesting that this Zeus Hypsistos was a healing divinity.

Athens. Pnyx

EDWARD LEAR (1 of 2)

Athens: Three Views of the Acropolis (with Frankish tower still standing), and the Temple of Zeus (with later brickwork still on top).

Mostly know for his nonsense poems (The Owl and the Pussycat), Lear was a prolific and talented watercolourist. He visited Greece in 1848-9, and, both during and after his trip, created numerous sketches and watercolours. These show some views of Athens, around 15yrs after it was instated as the capital of Greece. 

The marble statue of a cow, found in the Horti Tauriani on the Esquiline Hill and now in the Capitoline Museum, is a Roman copy of the Cow of Myron. Admired for the austere, cerebral classicism of works like the Discobolus, and for his bronze centaurs, Myron cast the first bronze depiction in Greek art of an animal other than a horse around 480 BC. Displayed on the Pnyx in Athens, the bovine statue was hailed in antiquity as a masterpiece of mimesis (viewers attempted to pet it, etc). Myron’s cow was still attracting tourists in Athens in the 1st century BC.

Vespasian seems to have acquired the statue on his return journey to Rome from Judea. He placed the Cow on public view in the precinct of the Templum Pacis around A.D. 70. A vigorous promoter of Roman agriculture, Vespasian left the forecourt of the temple unpaved and allowed innoxious animals to graze among the shrubbery planted there. The real cows mingling with the famous brazen beast conferred prestige on the new dynasty’s agricultural initiatives.

The heifer served other political purposes as well. Vespasian had constructed the Templum Pacis on the site of Nero’s razed Domus Aurea, which had been built on illegally confiscated public land. Along with the Cow, he displayed equally famous sculptures from Nero’s vast personal collection, many of which had been acquired by coersion or theft. By donating both land and art to the public in the form of a gallery, Vespasian sought to distance himself from Nero and earn the approval of the Roman people.

Vespasian and Titus after him also bought the acquiescence of the less-cultured citizens by building the great amphitheatre. These benevolent acts of restitution helped to legitimate his place on the throne and the Flavian dynasty. The importance of the Cow at this critical moment in the history of Rome is confirmed by its appearance on the reverse of gold denarii minted under Vespasian.