On entering the city, the first
building which arrested the attention of Pausanias was the Pompeium, so
called because it was the depository of the sacred vessels, and also of
the garments used in the annual procession in honor of Athena (Minerva),
the tutelary deity of Athens, from whom the city derived its name. Near
this edifice stood a temple of Demeter (Ceres), containing statues of
that goddess, of her daughter Persephone, and of Iacchus, all executed
by Praxiteles; and beyond were several porticoes leading from the city
gates to the outer Ceramicus, while the intervening space was occupied
by various temples, the Gymnasium of Hermes, and the house of Polytion,
the most magnificent private residence in Athens.

[Footnote 13: The account here given of the topography of Athens is
derived mainly from the article on "Athens" in the _Encyc. Brit._]

There were two places in Athens known by the name of Ceramicus, one
without the walls, forming part of the suburbs; and the other within the
walls, embracing a very important section of the city. The outer
Ceramicus was covered with the sepulchres of the Athenians who had been
slain in battle, and buried at the public expense; it communicated with
the inner Ceramicus by the gate Dipylum. The Ceramicus within the city
probably included the Agora, the Stoa Basileios, and the Stoa Poecile,
besides various other temples and public buildings.

Having fairly passed the city gates, a long street is before us with a
colonnade or cloister on either hand; and at the end of this street, by
turning to the left, we might go through the whole Ceramicus to the open
country, and the groves of the Academy. But we turn to the right, and
enter the Agora,--the market-place, as it is called in the English
translation of the sacred narrative.

We are not, however, to conceive of the market-place at Athens as
bearing any resemblance to the bare, undecorated spaces appropriated to
business in our modern towns; but rather as a magnificent public square,
closed in by grand historic buildings, of the highest style of
architecture; planted with palm-trees in graceful distribution, and
adorned with statues of the great men of Athens and the deified heroes
of her mythology, from the hands of the immortal masters of the plastic
art. This "market-place" was the great centre of the public life of the
Athenians,--the meeting-place of poets, orators, statesmen, warriors,
and philosophers,--a grand resort