Agorá (Greek agorá) 

Agorá (Greek agorá) - in Greece: a collection of full citizens, who are dealing with important affairs of city life (shopping, judicial, military). Over time, the agora was called and the very place of assembly (the area). Very often, the agora was the administrative and economic center of the city.

Ancient Greek Agora at the foot of the Acropolis metro station Fision (Tezeyon). Currently, she serves overseas shopping streets of Monastiraki, where each week is Sunday Bazaar. Since the word agora in Greek means "bazaar", one could say that the purpose of this district of Athens in ancient and modern times has changed little. The essential difference lies in the fact that in ancient times, the Agora was not only a market area of ​​the city, but also its political, cultural and religious center. Here were built office buildings and churches, here is the public service and legal institutions. Thus, the ancient Athenians gathered here on a daily basis not only in order to buy or sell their goods, but also to inquire about the news, to criticize the government, exchange opinions or just gossip. The history of this area dates back to Neolithic times, and the monuments discovered in the Agora, belong to very different periods: from the classical age to the XI century. BC, represented the Church of the Holy Apostles.Athena is a very ancient deity. The cult of Athena existed long before the invasion of Greece Dorian tribes in the 11th century BC In the Mycenaean era of Athena, in all probability, was the patroness of the Acropolis and palaces. This theory is supported by archaeological excavations of Archaic Mycenae, in which were found traces of worship a female deity of war with a shield in his hand.
Another important feature was the patronage of Athens crafts and arts. Athena is often shared a temple (the temple was usually dwelling of God in ancient Greece) with other artisan god - Hephaestus. For example, a joint temple to Athena and Hephaestus in the territory of the Athenian Agora. Athena dealt mainly with homemade crafts - wool carding, weaving, etc. In Homer she teaches young women to weave, and according to myth, was furious competition in the craft.Athena also helped the goldsmiths and potters. So Athena particularly attracted the lower strata of society, and embodied the main occupations of the inhabitants of Greek city-states.Here were the main city market (delivshiysya in "circles" for different types of products) and often pravitelstvennnye institutions. Agora, usually surrounded by covered galleries of the handicraft workshops (Athens), the temples and sometimes on the perimeter of the square erected statues of gods, public buildings. The ruins of Agora in Sparta, Corinth. The later type of the agora - a fully isolated, with regular planning - communicating with the city only through the gate (the largest number of examples of this type Agor can be found in Asia Minor).