Areopăgus
（
Ἄρειος πάγος). The hill of
Ares (q.v.). A rocky eminence lying to the west of the Athenian
Acropolis. To account for the name, various stories were told. Thus, some said that it was so
called from the Amazons, the daughters of Ares, having encamped there when they attacked
Athens; others again, as Aeschylus, from the sacrifices there offered by them to that god;
while the more received opinion connected the name with the legend of Ares having been brought
to trial there by Poseidon for the murder of his son,
Halirrhothius (q.v.).
To no legend, however, did the place owe its fame, but rather to the ancient criminal court
or council (
ἡ ἐν Ἀρείῳ πάγῳ βουλή) which held its
sittings there, and sometimes received the name of
ἡ ἄνω
βουλή, to distinguish it from the Solonian Senate of Four Hundred, or the later
Clisthenian Senate of Five Hundred. Solon's legislation raised the Areopagus into one of the
most powerful bodies by transferring to it the greater part of the jurisdiction of the
Ephetae (q.v.), as well as the supervision of the entire
public administration, the conduct of magistrates, the transactions of the popular assembly,
religion, laws, morals, and discipline, and giving it power to call even private persons to
account for offensive behaviour. See
Solonian Constitution.
