The great bald rock that is the Areopagus sits high on a ridge that leads to the Acropolis.
Legend has it that the war God Ares was tried here by the Olympian Gods for the murder of his cousin, a son of Poseidon, God of the sea, of earthquakes, and of horses.
Most certainly, the stony, uneven platform once served as the open-air (what wonderful weather!) The Senate and the Supreme Court hear appeals in both civil and criminal cases. If not a House of Lords, then a House of Elders. Without the House, of course.
At the foot of the Areopagus once stood the Temple of the Erinyes (in Latin called the Furies), where condemned murderers could seek sanctuary as they sought to escape their punishment.
Article and Photo © Carla Ottersen