Prytaneion

In general in ancient Greece, each state, city or village possessed its own central hearth and sacred fire, the prytaneion, representing the unity and vitality of the community.

The prytaneion was regarded as the religious and political center of the community and was thus the nucleus of all government, and the official "home" of the whole people.

The prytaneion, mentioned by Pausanias, and probably the original center of the ancient city, was situated somewhere east of the northern cliff of the Acropolis.

From Aristotle's Constitution of Athens[3] we know that the prytaneion was the official residence of the Archons but, when the New Agora was constructed by Pisistratus, they took their meals in the Thesmotheteion for the sake of convenience.

[4] Following the unearthing of an inscription mentioning the Prytaneion, George Kavvadias and Angelos Matthaiou argued in 2014 that it was somewhat to the north and west of the location suggested by Schmalz.

[10] Athenaeus, in the Deipnosophistae, writes that in Naucratis the people dined in the Prytaneion on the natal day of the Hestia Prytanitis (Ancient Greek: Ἑστίας Πρυτανίτιδος).