Pompeion

Remains of the Pompeion from the southwest

The Pompeion (Πομπεῖον) was a multifunctional architectural complex in the ancient Kerameikos of Athens .

history

The Pompeion was within the city wall between the Dipylon and the Holy Gate. The rectangular courtyard surrounded by columned halls served on the one hand as a palaestra , i.e. as a sports facility, on the other hand as a space for preparing the Panathenaic procession , which is where the name comes from: The pompe ( Greek  πομπή pompē “escort, accompaniment”) is the ancient Greek name for a festival parade . Here the annual small Panathenaic procession to the Acropolis was prepared and started. On the occasion of the great panathenaic events every four years, the Athenians judged the peplos in Pompeion for the cult statue of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis, which was raised as a sail on a replica ship with wheels and then pulled in procession to the Acropolis.

A first building was built in 400 BC. Built on Poros foundations. The courtyard, measuring 45 × 17 m, was probably surrounded by 6 × 14 wooden columns. Even before the completion of this first building, the plan was drawn up shortly after 400 BC. Chr. Changed and expanded. On the larger floor plan, the columns of the halls were now made of poros with Ionic marble capitals. The facility could be entered through a monumental gate ( propylon ) made of marble with four Ionic columns. The middle of the three passages had a ramp with grooves for cars.

Pompeion in the Kerameikos of Athens

On the north-west and north-east side, banquet and utility rooms are connected, which are probably due to the function as an official state building for the orientation of the panathenaic mountains. Parts of the floors have been provided with pebble mosaics, and there were clines along the walls . Only the prytans and archons were allowed to dine here with invited state guests, up to 66 people in total.

Later reconstructions between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC Chr. Replaced the clay brick walls with limestone, in which again barred windows were inserted. Inscriptions and sources suggest that the walls of the porticoed halls bore paintings of poets and orators. In addition, there is evidence of a bronze statue of Socrates by the sculptor Lysipp . The young Ephebe , who received their sporting training here, were shown exemplary Athenians through such pictorial monuments.

swell

• Diogenes Laertios 2.43
• Pausanias 1,2,4
• Pliny , Naturalis historia 35,140
• Plutarch , Moralia 839 c

literature

• Burkhard Emme: Peristyle and Polis. Development and functions of public Greek courtyards (= Urban Spaces. Volume 1). De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-028065-4 , pp. 68–71, catalog no. 8th.
• Wolfram Hoepfner : The Pompeion and its successors (= Kerameikos. Volume 10). De Gruyter, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-11-005906-1 .
• Jutta Stroszeck : The Kerameikos of Athens. History, buildings and monuments in the archaeological park. Bibliopolis, Möhnesee 2014, ISBN 978-3-943741-04-9 , pp. 88-93.
• John Travlos : Image dictionary on the topography of ancient Athens. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1971, p. 477 ff.

Web links

Commons : Pompeion  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the archaeological image database Arachne of the University of Cologne
• Project sketch of the Kerameikos excavation of the German Archaeological Institute

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pausanias 1, 2, 4.
2. ↑ Painting by the speaker Isokrates : Plutarch , Moralia 839 c; Pliny , Naturalis historia 35,140.
3. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 2.43.

Coordinates: 37 ° 58 ′ 41 ″  N , 23 ° 43 ′ 8 ″  E