Areopagus Hill

The Areopagus is a jagged, marble-streaked limestone outcrop rising abruptly from the shadows of the Acropolis. In the classical period, it functioned as the high court of Athens, where elders gathered to preside over homicide trials and oversee the city’s religious laws. According to legend, this was the site of the first murder trial in history, where the god Ares stood before the Olympian deities to answer for the death of Poseidon’s son. The judges sat directly on the exposed rock.