PRYTANEUM AND PRYTANIS. 1. In ancient Greece, each State, city or village possessed its own central hearth and sacred fire; the fire (cf. at Rome the fire in the temple of Vesta) was kept alight continuously, tended by the king or members of his family. The building in which this fire was kept was the Prytaneum (Hx/rave/0v), and the chieftain (the king or prytanis) probably made it his residence. The word prytanis is applied to those who, after the abolition of monarchy, held the chief office in the State. Rulers of this name are found at Rhodes as late as the 1st century B.C. The Prytaneum was regarded as the re ligious and political centre of the community. When colonists went out they took with them a brand from the Prytaneum altar to kindle the new fire in the colony; the fatherless daughters of Aristeides, regarded as children of the State at Athens, were married from the Prytaneum as from their home ; foreign am bassadors and citizens who had deserved especially well of the State were entertained in the Prytaneum as public guests. In Achaea, this central hall was called the Lefton (town-hall), and a similar building is known to have existed at Elis. The site of
the Prytaneum at Athens cannot be definitely fixed. The Pry taneum mentioned by Pausanias, probably the original centre of the ancient city, was situated somewhere east of the northern cliff of the Acropolis. Curtius places the original Prytaneum south of the Acropolis in the old Agora, and regards that of Pausanias as a building of Roman times (Stadtgeschichte, p. 302). Many authorities hold that the original Prytaneum of the Cecropian city must have been on the Acropolis. From Aristotle's Constitution of Athens (ch. 3) we know that the Prytaneum was the official residence of the archons, but, when the new Agora was constructed they took their meals in the Thesmotheteion for the sake of convenience. There was also a court of justice called the court of the Prytaneum; it tried murderers who could not be found, and inanimate objects which had been the means of causing death.
2. For the PRYTANEIS of the Boule see BOULE.