Abstract
Axial Age theory posits that there should be major transformations in Greece (as elsewhere) in the middle of the first millennium BCE. One could point to the creation of the world’s first democracy in Athens in the years around 508. Equally important, and not unrelated to the democracy, was a re-conceptualizing of the role of religion and worship in society, for which Athens provides especially striking archeological evidence. The physical setting for religious expression changed markedly around the end of the sixth century, especially at Athens. The Agora was filled with cults, temples, and shrines of gods and heroes, laid out along with the establishment of the democracy and adapted to the changing political and social needs of the community. Conversely, the Acropolis, which had been strictly the domain of the goddess Athena, takes on a more civic character in the late sixth century with a radical change in the nature of votives dedicated to her. Thus, in the Greek version of axial breakthrough, religion is not set aside or diluted, but put in the service of a new political order.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, G. 2003. The Athenian experiment. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Azoulay, V. 2014. Les Tyrannicides d’Athènes. Paris: Seuil.
Brunnsåker, S. 1971. The Tyrant Slayers of Kritios and Nesiotes. Stockholm: Swedish Institute at Athens.
Burn, A.R. 1960. The lyric age of Greece. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Camp, J.M. 2001. The archaeology of Athens. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Camp, J.M. 2010. The Athenian agora. Site guide, 5th ed. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Carpenter, T. 1986. Dionysian imagery in archaic Greek art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Childs, W. A. P. 1994. The date of the old temple on the Athenian acropolis. In Coulson et al., 1994: 1–6.
Connor, W.R. 1990. City Dionysia and Athenian democracy. In Aspects of Athenian democracy, ed. W.R. Connor, et al., 7–32. Copenhagen: Polis Centre.
Coulson, W.D.E., et al. (eds.). 1994. The archaeology of Athens and Attica under the democracy. Oxford: Oxbow.
Eisenstadt, S.N. (ed.). 1986. The origins and diversity of axial age civilizations. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Gadbery, L. 1992. The sanctuary of the twelve gods in the Athenian agora: A revised view. Hesperia 61: 447–489.
Greco, E. 2005. Teseo e Romolo. Le Origini di Atene e Roma a confronto. Athens: Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene.
Hall, E. 1989. Inventing the Barbarian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Harrison, E.B. 1971. The victory of Kallimachos. Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 12: 5–21.
Harrison, E.B. 1972. Preparations for Marathon, the Niobid Painter, and Herodotus. Art Bulletin 54: 390–402.
Hayashi, T. 1992. Bedeutung und Wandel des Triptolemosbildes vom 6. -4. Jh. v. Chr. Würzburg: K. Triltsch.
Hedrick, C. 1988. The temple and cult of Apollo Patroos in Athens. American Journal of Archaeology 92: 185–210.
Hölscher, T. 1998. Images and political identity: The case of Athens. In Democracy, empire, and the arts in fifth-century Athens, ed. D. Boedeker, and K. Raaflaub, 153–183. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hornblower, S. 1992. The religious dimension to the Peloponnesian war, or what Thucydides does not tell us. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 94: 169–197.
Humphreys, S. C. 1986. Dynamics of the Greek breakthrough: The dialogue between philosophy and religion. In Eisenstadt 1986: 92.
Hurwit, J.M. 1999. The Athenian Acropolis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kron, U. 1976. Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen. Berlin: Gebr. Mann.
Lambert, S. 1998. The phratries of Attica. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Long, C.R. 1987. The twelve gods of Greece and Rome. Leiden: Brill.
Mark, I.S. 1993. The sanctuary of Athena nike in Athens. American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Princeton.
Meier, C. 1986. The emergence of an autonomous intelligence among the Greeks. In Eisenstadt 1986: 65–90.
Miles, M.M. 1998. The City Eleusinion. The Athenian Agora, vol. 31. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Mylonas, G.E. 1961. Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Neils, J. 2001. The Parthenon Frieze. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oikonomides, A.N. 1964. The two agoras in ancient Athens. Chicago: Argonaut.
Osborne, R. 1985. The erection and mutilation of the hermai. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 211: 43–73.
Paga, J. 2015. The southeast fountain house in the Athenian agora: A reappraisal of its date and historical context. Hesperia 84: 355–387.
Palagia, O. 2005. Fire from heaven: Pediments and Akroteria of the Parthenon. In The Parthenon from Antiquity to the present, ed. J. Neils, 225–259. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Raubitschek, A.E. 1949. Dedications from the Athenian Acropolis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Raubitschek, A.E. 1969. Die attischen Zwölfgötter. Opus Nobile, Festschrift Ulf Jantzen, 129–130. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.
Robertson, N. 1986. Solon’s Axones and Kurbeis and the sixth-century background. Historia 35: 147–176.
Robinson, E.W. 2011. Democracy beyond Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Said, E. 1979. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
Scheibler, I. 1979. Griechische Künstlervotive der archaischen Zeit. Münchener Jahrbuch für die bildende Kunst 30: 7–30.
Shapiro, H.A. 1989. Art and cult under the Tyrants in Athens. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
Shapiro, H. A. 1994. Religion and politics in democratic Athens. In Coulson et al., 1994: 123–129.
Shapiro, H.A. 1995. Art and cult under the Tyrants in Athens. Supplement. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
Shear, J.L. 2012. The Tyrannicides, their cult, and the Panathenaia. Journal of Hellenic Studies 132: 107–119.
Shear, T.L. 1984. The Athenian agora: Excavations of 1980–1982. Hesperia 53: 1–57.
Shear, T. L. 1994. Isonomous t’Athenas epoiesaten: The agora and the democracy. In Coulson et al., 225–248.
Simon, E. 1970. Aphrodite Pandemos auf attischen Münzen. Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 49: 5–19.
Stroud, R.S. 1998. The Athenian grain-tax Law of 374/3 BC. American School of Classical Studies: Princeton.
Taylor, M. 1991. The Tyrant Slayers: The heroic image in fifth century B.C. art and politics, 2nd ed. Salem, New Hampshire: Ayer Co.
Thöne, C. 1999. Ikonographische Studien zu Nike im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Heidelberg: Verlag Archäologie und Geschichte.
Thompson, H.A. 1978. Tyrants and buildings in archaic Athens. In Athens comes of age: From Solon to Salamis, ed. W. Childs. Princeton: Archaeological Institute of America.
Thompson, H.A., and R. Wycherley. 1972. The agora of Athens. The Athenian Agora, vol. 14. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Travlos, J. 1971. Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens. London: Thames and Hudson.
Zimmermann, B. 1992. Dithyrambos: Geschichte einer Gattung. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.
Acknowledgments
I am most grateful to Prof. Zhang Wei for the invitation to participate in the conference at which this paper was delivered in December 2015. I have retained the text largely as it was presented, with the additional of basic bibliographical references.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shapiro, H.A. Axial Breakthrough in Athens: Religious Topography and Transformation. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 9, 577–588 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-016-0145-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-016-0145-8