for leisure, for conversation, for
business, and for news. Standing in the Agora, and looking towards the
south, is the _Museum,_ so called because it was believed that _Musaeus_,
the father of poetry, was buried there. Towards the north-west is the
_Pnyx,_ a sloping hill, partially levelled into an open area for
political assemblies. To the north is seen the craggy eminence of the
_Areopagus_, and on the north-east is the _Acropolis_ towering high
above the scene, "the crown and glory of the whole."

The most important buildings of the Agora are the Porticoes or
cloisters, the most remarkable of which are the Stoa Basileios, or
Portico of the king; the Stoa Eleutherius, or Portico of the Jupiter of
Freedom; and the Stoa Poecile, or Painted Porch. These Porticoes were
covered walks, the roof being supported by columns, at least on one
side, and by solid masonry on the other. Such shaded walks are almost
indispensable in the south of Europe, where the people live much in the
open air, and they afford a grateful protection from the heat of the
sun, as well as a shelter from the rain. Seats were also provided where
the loungers might rest, and the philosophers and rhetoricians sit down
for intellectual conversation. The "Stoic" school of philosophy derived
its name from the circumstance that its founder, Zeno, used to meet and
converse with his disciples under one of these porticoes,--the Stoa
Poecile. These porticoes were not only built in the most magnificent
style of architecture, but adorned with paintings and statuary by the
best masters. On the roof of the Stoa Basileios were statues of Theseus
and the Day. In front of the Stoa Eleutherius was placed the divinity to
whom it was dedicated; and within were allegorical paintings,
celebrating the rise of "the fierce democracy." The Stoa Poecile derived
its name from the celebrated paintings which adorned its walls, and
which were almost exclusively devoted to the representation of national
subjects, as the contest of Theseus with the Amazons, the more glorious
struggle at Marathon, and the other achievements of the Athenians; here
also were suspended the shields of the Scionaeans of Thrace, together
with those of the Lacedemonians, taken at the island of Sphacteria.

It is beyond our purpose to describe all the public edifices,--the
temples, gymnasia, and theatres which crowd the Ceramic area, and that
portion of the city lying to the west and south of the Acropolis. Our