TheStoa Poikile (Ancient Greek:ἡ ποικίλη στοά,hē poikílē stoá) orPainted Portico was aDoricstoa (a covered walkway or portico) erected around 460 BC on the north side of theAncient Agora of Athens. It was one of the most famous sites in ancient Athens, owing its fame to the paintings and war-booty displayed within it and to its association with ancient Greek philosophy, especiallyStoicism.
The stoa is frequently mentioned in literary and epigraphical sources.[1] It was built by one Peisianax, a brother-in-law ofKimon, in the 460s BC,[2] and it was therefore originally known as the "Peisianactean Stoa" (ἡ Πεισιανάκτειος στοά,hē Peisianákteios stoá).[3] Inside the stoa, there were a set of paintings on tablets, byPolygnotus (who painted his portion for free),Micon, and perhapsPanaenus (a younger relative ofPhidias). The sources disagree on which painter produced which painting.[4][5]Demosthenes,Aeschines, and other authors point to the painting of theBattle of Marathon as a key memorial of Athens' ancestral valour.[6] Bronze shields captured from the Spartans at theBattle of Sphacteria in 425 BC and from the siege ofScione in 421 BC were set up in the stoa, where they could still be seen in the 2nd century AD.[7]
According toDiogenes Laertius, was the site where the oligarchic government of theThirty Tyrants "made away with" 1400 Athenian citizens in 403 BC. It is unclear whether this means that the stoa was where they sentenced them to death or where they were actually executed.[8]
At the beginning of theEleusinian Mysteries, thehierophant and thedadouch made an announcement that all non-initiates must keep out of the way.[9] Sources from the mid-fourth century BC mention its use as a law court and as the venue for official arbitrations.[10]
From the fourth century BC onwards,philosophers often taught in the stoa. The homelessCynic philosopherCrates spent his time there.[11] His student,Zeno of Citium, was particularly closely associated with the stoa, where he taught from around 300 BC until his deathc. 262 BC. The philosophical school that he founded was namedStoicism as a result.[8] The late third-century BC comedianTheognetus refers to "trifling arguments from the Poikile Stoa" in a joke about philosophers.[12] Some philosophers spoke to their followers while walking up and down the stoa,[13] but there were benches where people could sit and listen to lectures. There was also an area - probably the steps - where beggars customarily sat.[8] The second century AD epistolographerAlciphron refers to "the unshod, cadaverous people who spend their time in the Poikile" and to "chattering philosophers making trouble there."[14]Lucian presents philosophers teaching and debating there in several works.[15] In the Imperial period, it was also a site of street entertainment; the second-century AD novelistApuleius reports watchingsword swallowers and gymnasts there.[11]
A gate over the street to the west was added in the Hellenistic period, which was joined to the west side of the stoa. The stoa apparently survived theHerulian Sack of 267 AD intact. In a letter of 396 AD,Synesius mentions that the paintings had been removed by a Roman governor, apparently not long before.[16][17] The building was still standing in the fifth century AD when the "late Roman stoa" was built to the west; this building rested against the Stoa Poikile's west wall.[18] Debris over the remains suggest that it went out of use and was quarried for building material in the sixth century AD.[19]
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The stoa was located at the northwest corner of the Agora, on the left (north) side of thePanathenaic Way as one entered the Agora. To the west was a narrow north–south street.[20] On the other side of that street wasan altar and (in the Roman period) a temple, probably dedicated toAphrodite Urania. To the north was aClassical Commercial Building.[21] To the south was the drain that conveyed theEridanus. To the southwest, on the other side of the Panathenaic Way, were theStoa Basileios, theLeokorion, and theAltar of the Twelve Gods.[22] Another north–south street probably bounded the eastern edge of the stoa and somewhere further east was theStoa of the Herms.[23]
The stoa was oriented so that it extended from south-west to north-east.[24] The northern (back) wall is 1.40 metres wide and has been uncovered for a length of 10.40 metres. The total length of the stoa is unknown,[25] but at least 46 metres would be proportionate with the stoa's depth. It probably extended all or most of the way to the next north–south street, which enters the agora about 55 metres to the east.[26] The west side-wall was 12.6 metres long and (at the level of the foundations) 2.68 metres thick. The foundation consisted of three steps of hard, fine-grainedporos of very fine workmanship, joined very precisely with iron double-T clamps sealed in place with lead.[20] The steps show substantial wear from use as seating.[27] An upside-downkalos graffito indicates that the blocks were reused from some earlier context.[28] The southern side of the stoa was the main façade. There were four steps and a Doric colonnade,[29] with anintercolumniation of 1.998 metres.[30] Above this was atriglyph frieze of poros, which was 0.718 metres high. The triglyphs were 0.384 metres wide; themetopes, which consisted of marble panels that slotted in between the triglyphs, were 0.615 metres wide. This frieze continued around the west and east sides of the stoa.[30] Inside, there was an interior colonnade of narrowIonic columns with poros shafts and marble capitals, which supported the ridge of the roof.[31][notes 1] This makes it the earliest known building at Athens to combine the Doric and Ionic orders.[32] A set of rough poros blocks running along the inside of the back wall probably supported a bench running along the back wall.[33]
The packing of the foundation consisted of poros chips and red earth which contained numerous sherds of pottery that date almost exclusively to the 460s BC, indicating that this was the date of construction.[2]
By the second century AD, bronze statues ofHermes Agoraeus,Solon,Seleucus, and others stood in front of the stoa.[34]
The stoa contained four famous paintings, which have not survived, but are mentioned by many authors, particularly the 2nd-century AD travel writerPausanias. These paintings were probably on wooden boards on the back wall of the stoa and depicted:[35]
Ascholiast states that the stoa contained "many paintings", and other paintings are mentioned by various authors, including a painting byApollodorus orPamphilus of theHeracleidae andAlcmene supplicating the Athenians for protection fromEurystheus,[9] a picture of the tragedianSophocles playing the lyre,[38] and a battle atPhlius.[1]
The set of paintings sharply juxtaposes mythical and historical events, so that the mythical victories ofTheseus over the Amazons and of the Greeks overTroy contrast with the (presumably) historic battle of Oenoe, apparently the first important Athenian victory overSparta, and the Athenian victory over thePersians at Marathon. This contrast is a theme in the art and literature of Athens from the fifth century BC onwards.[39]
The painting of the Battle of Marathon displayed the confidence and identity of the Athenians in the wake of thePersian Wars. Of this painting Pausanias says:
At the end of the painting are those who fought at Marathon; the Boeotians of Plataea and the Attic contingent are coming to blows with the foreigners. In this place neither side has the better, but the center of the fighting shows the foreigners in flight and pushing one another into the morass, while at the end of the painting are the Phoenician ships, and the Greeks killing the foreigners who are scrambling into them. Here is also a portrait of the hero Marathon, after whom the plain is named, of Theseus represented as coming up from the under-world, of Athena and of Heracles. The Marathonians, according to their own account, were the first to regard Heracles as a god. Of the fighters the most conspicuous figures in the painting are Callimachus, who had been elected commander-in-chief by the Athenians, Miltiades, one of the generals, and a hero called Echetlus, of whom I shall make mention later.
— Pausanias 1.15.3.[40]
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In theHellenistic period a gate was built over the north–south street, which abutted on the stoa's west wall and aligned perfectly with its frontanta.[41] The foundations of this gate are formed of poros blocks and consist of two large piers, with a 2.5 metre gap of hard-packed gravel for traffic.[41] Only two blocks from the superstructure (a higher quality poros) survive.[41] It is not possible to reconstruct its appearance, but it must have been a large and "imposing" structure.[42] Pottery found in the packing of the road ranges from 325 BC to a little after 300 BC, indicating that it was constructed around 300 BC.[43] Theconglomerate foundations of a monument base stand in front of the west pier.[44]
This gate is mentioned by Pausanias, who says that it had a trophy on top commemorating the Athenian cavalry victory overPleistarchus.[45]
The structure was demolished before or during the construction of the Late Roman Stoa in the 5th century AD. The west pier was then used as the base for a columnar monument; the Ionic base is still in situ on top of it.[44]
The stoa was uncovered as part of the Agora excavations undertaken by theAmerican School of Classical Studies. In 1949,Homer A. Thompson found a set of architectural fragments of a stoa that had been reused in a Late Antique wall to the west of theStoa of Attalos. These consisted of a Doric entablature and Oinic interior columns of mid-fifth century BC date.[46] In 1970Lucy Shoe Meritt identified these as fragments of the Stoa Poikile.[47] The foundations of the stoa were discovered during new American excavations in the northwestern corner of the Agora at 13 Hadrianou Street, which took place between 1980 and 1982 under the leadership ofT. Leslie Shear, Jr. [de].[48] The excavation of the stoa was supervised byIone Mylonas Shear and Margaret Miles in 1981 and byJohn McK. Camp [de] in 1982.[49] Only the western corner of the stoa was excavated. This discovery disproved Shoe Meritt's theory, since the measurements of the foundations do not match the architectural fragments from the Late Antique wall.[50] Architectural fragments that do fit the foundations were found scattered around the northwest corner of the Agora.[27]
Media related toStoa Poikile at Wikimedia Commons
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37°58′35″N23°43′23″E / 37.9763°N 23.7230°E /37.9763; 23.7230
