Temple of Hephaestus (Hephaisteion)
About
Athens' best-preserved temple stands on the low hill of Kolonos Agoraios, looking down over the Agora. It went up from about 449 BCE in Pentelic marble, six columns across the front and thirteen down each side, and it honours Hephaestus alongside Athena Ergane — the right pair for a district packed with bronze foundries and potters' workshops on the slope below. Carved panels across the east front show the labours of Herakles and the deeds of Theseus. In 117 CE it is close to six centuries old and entirely intact, one of the few Greek temples Rome found no reason to touch.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
In ancient writing
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.14.6
The temple above the Kerameikos holding Hephaestus and, beside him, Athena — placed together, he says, because of the story of Erichthonius.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →