AREOPAGUS, an Anglicized form of the original words (6 'Apetos rthyos), signifying in reference to place, Mars Hill, but in reference to persons, the Council which was held on the hill. The Council was also termed by 'Apety rd-yco povX1 (or hpouX7)ii 'A pfly irdw), the Council on Mars Hill ; sometimes it tutu potAh, the Upper Council, from the elevated position where it was held; and sometimes simply, but emphatically, (oval), the Council; but it retained till a late period, the original designation of Mars Hill, being called by the Latins Scopulus Martis, Curia Martis ( Juvenal, Sat. ix. Toll, and still more literally, Areum Judicium (Tacit. Anna. ii. 55). The place and the Council are topics of interest to the Biblical student, chiefly from their being the scene of the interesting narrative and sublime dis course found in Acts xvii., where it appears that the apostle Paul, feeling himself moved, by the evidences of idolatry with which the city of Athens was crowded, to preach Jesus and the resurrection, both in the Jewish synagogues and in the market place, was set upon by certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and led to the Areopagus, in order that they might learn from him the meaning and design of his new doctrine. Whether or not the Apostle was criminally arraigned, as a setter forth of strange gods, before the tribunal which held its sittings on the hill, may be considered as undeter mined, though the balance of evidence seems to incline to the affirmative. Whichever view on this point is adopted, the dignified, temperate, and high-minded bearing of Paul under the peculiar circumstances in which he was placed is worthy of high admiration, and will appear the more striking the more the associations are known and weighed which covered and surrounded the spot where he stood. Nor does his eloquent discourse appear to have been without good effect; for though some mocked, and some procrastinated, yet others be lieved, among whom was a member of the Council, Dionysius, the Areopagite,' who has been repre sented as the first bishop of Athens, and is said to have written books on the Celestial Hierarchy ;' but their authenticity is questioned.
The accompanying plan will enable the reader to form an idea of the locality in which the Apostle stood, and to conceive in some measure the impressive and venerable objects with which he was environed. Nothing, however, but a minute description of the city in the days of its pride, com prising some details of the several temples, porti coes, and schools of learning which crowded on his sight, and which, whilst they taught him that the city was wholly given to idolatry,' impressed him also with the feeling that he was standing in the midst of the highest civilization, both of his own age and of the ages that had elapsed, can give an adequate conception of the position in which Paul was placed, or of the lofty and prudent manner in which he acted. The history in the Acts of the Apostles (xvii. 22) states that the speaker stood in the midst of Mars Hill. Having come up from the level parts of the city, where the markets (there were two, the old and the new) were, he would probably stand with his face towards the north, and would then have immediately behind him the long walls which ran down to the sea, affording protection against a foreign enemy. Near the sea, on one side, was the harbour of Peiricus, on the other that desig nated Phalerum, with their crowded arsenals, their busy workmen, and their gallant ships. Not far off in the ocean lay the island of Salamis, ennobled for ever in history as the spot near which Athenian valour chastised Asiatic pride, and achieved the liberty of Greece. The apostle had only to turn towards his right hand to catch a view of a small but celebrated hill rising within the city near that on which he stood, called the Pnyx, where, standing on a block of bare stone, Demosthenes and other distinguished orators had addressed the assembled people of Athens, swaying that arrogant and fickle democracy, and thereby making Philip of Macedon tremble, or working good or ill for the entire civilized world. Immediately before him lay the
crowded city, studded in every part with memorials Wingless Victory ; on the northern, a Pinacotheca, or picture gallery. On the highest part of the plat form of the Acropolis, not more than 30o feet from the entrance-buildings just described, stood (and yet stands, though shattered and mutilated) the Parthenon, justly celebrated throughout the world, erected of white Pentelican marble, under the direction of Callicrates, Ictinus, and Carpion, and adorned with the finest sculptures from the hand of Phidias. Northward from the Parthenon was the Erechtheum, a compound building, which contained the temple of Minerva Polias, the proper Erech theum (called also the Cecropium), and the Pan droseum. This sanctuary contained the holy sacred to religion or patriotism, and exhibiting the highest achievements of art. On his left, somewhat beyond the walls, was beheld the Academy, with its groves of plane and olive-trees, its retired walks and cooling fountains, its altar to the Muses, its statues of the Graces, its temple of Minerva, and its altars to Prometheus, to Love, and to Hercules, near which Plato had his country-seat, and in the midst of which he had taught, as well as his followers after him. But the most impressive spectacle lay on his right hand, for there, on the small and precipitous hill named the Acropolis, were clustered together monuments of the highest art, and memorials of the national religion, such as no other equal spot of ground has ever borne. The Apostle's eyes, in turning to the right, would fall on the north-west side of the eminence, which was here (and all round) covered and protected by a wall, parts of which were so ancient as to be of Cyclopean origin. The western side, which alone gave access to what, from its original destination, may be termed the fort, was, during the adminis tration of Pericles, adorned with a splendid flight of steps, and the beautiful Propylma, with its five entrances and two flanking temples, con structed by Mnesicles of Pentelican marble, at a cost of 2012 talents. In the times of the Roman emperors there stood before the Propylma equestrian statues of Augustus and Agrippa. On the southern wing of the Propylxa was a temple of olive-tree sacred to Minerva, the holy salt-spring, the ancient wooden image of Pallas, etc., and was the scene of the oldest and most venerated cere monies and recollections of the Athenians. Be tween the propylma and the Erechtheum was placed the colossal bronze statue of Pallas Proma chos, the work of Phidias, which towered so high above the other buildings, that the plume of her helmet and the point of her spear were visible on the sea between Sunium and Athens. Moreover, the Acropolis was occupied by so great a crowd of statues and monuments, that the account, as found in Pausanias, excites the reader's wonder, and makes it difficult for him to understand how so much could have been crowded into a space which extended from the south-east corner to the south west only tr5o feet, whilst its greatest breadth did not exceed Soo feet. On the hill itself where Paul had his station, was, at the eastern end, the temple of the Furies, and other national and commemo rative edifices. The court-house of the council, which was also here, was, according to the sim plicity of ancient customs, built of clay. There was an altar consecrated by Orestes to A thene Areia. In the same place were seen two silver stones, on one of which stood the accuser, on the other, the accused. Near them stood two altars erected by Epimenides, one to Insult CT(pEcos, Cic. Contumelice), the other to Shamelessness (Avan5Etas, Cic. Inpadentia).