A metroon (, or ) was an

ancient Greek temple Greek temples (, semantically distinct from Latin language, Latin , "temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, since the Ancien ...

dedicated to a

mother goddess A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmological role of a creator- and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, ...

. They were often devoted to

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya, Kubeleya'' "Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian: ''Kuvava''; ''Kybélē'', ''Kybēbē'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest ...

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over cro ...

, or Rhea.

Athens

Coordinates In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine and standardize the Position (geometry), position of the Point (geometry), points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as ...

The

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Metroon was located on the west side of the city's

Agora The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...

, in the Old Bouleuterion, which formerly housed the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

. At the end of the 5th century BC, the

New Bouleuterion The New Bouleuterion is an ancient building in the city of Athens in Attica, Greece. It was located on the western side of the Ancient Athenian Agora. It is a theater with 12 rows of seats, with a seating capacity of greater than 500. A bouleuteri ...

was built and the council's former home converted into a temple to

. According to legend, the Athenians had killed one of her wandering priests when he attempted to introduce her cult; the plague which then visited the city was dealt with by honoring her. (The account may, however, have been a later invention, as the earliest source is from the 4th century AD.) The Metroon served other public functions, such as housing the official archives of the city. For instance, the

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Epicurus Epicurus (, ; ; 341–270 BC) was an Greek philosophy, ancient Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy that asserted that philosophy's purpose is to attain as well as to help others attain tranqui ...

filed a

donatio mortis causa A gift, in the law of property, is the voluntary and immediate transfer of property from one person (the donor or grantor) to another (the donee or grantee) without consideration. There are several type of gifts in property law, most notably '' ...

there.

Olympia

The Olympian Metroon was erected in the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, immediately below the terrace which housed the Treasuries.

References

External links

Ancient Greek buildings and structures Greek temples Temples in ancient Athens Temples of Demeter Temples of Cybele {{religious-struct-stub

Athens

Olympia

See also

References

External links