Temple of Apollo Patroos
identified as the Temple of Zeus Phratrios and Athena Phratria; it may originally have been built to house Euphranor's cult statue.
[2] The first temple on the site is attested by trenches cut into the bedrock, which held foundations made of fieldstones in clay.
On the central axis of this apse was a grey poros block which probably supported a cult statue or perhaps a column.
[3] Pottery found in the foundation trenches indicate construction around the middle of the sixth century BC.
[7] After this, the area was left empty, as indicated by a set of benches built behind the temple in the mid-fifth century BC, looking east over the Agora.
[11] In the mid-fourth century a bothros (pit for perishable offerings) was dug in the north part of the area.
[12][10] The tiny temple of Zeus Phratrios and Athena Phratria was built over the top of this bothros in the second half of the fourth century.
It is believed to have been built in the Ionic order on the basis of four architectural fragments that seem to fit the temple's dimensions.
[8] The tiny temple of Zeus Phratrios and Athena Phratria is tucked into the space in front of this back room.
[17] The foundations of the temple consisted of a packing of unworked limestone blocks resting on top of the bedrock.
[18][14][notes 1] Andrew Stewart proposes that the construction of the temple was part of an effort to emphasise Athens ties to the Ionian cities of western Asia Minor, which it considered to be its colonies, after it became part of Antigonus Monophthalmus and Demetrius Poliorcetes' realm, which was based in Asia Minor, in 306 BC.
[24] There are traces of a socket in the left armpit probably used to support a kithara which the statue held.
[14] Imitations of it are known, including a contemporary votive statuette from the Agora and Roman period statues.
Arguments in support of the identification are the fact that it stood against a wall, is a very high-quality work, was probably found near the temple, is very large, and was frequently copied.
[35] One of them is the lower part of a female figure in a chiton and himation sitting on a rock and looking to her left (inv.
[37] The other is the lower part of an male figure in a long chiton and himation, seated on a throne, possibly with his arms raised (inv.
[38] They are on the same scale and appear to be by the same sculptors who carved the altar of the Asclepieium on Kos (probably the sons of Praxiteles).
[2][47] Some gene (another kind of cult associations) and phratries, like the Gephyraei, Therrhicleidae, and Elasidae, had their own sanctuaries and priests of Apollo Patroos; others, like the Salaminii, did not sn therefore probably sacrificed to him at this temple.
[2] Athenians selected as archon were required to prove that they had their own cult of Apollo Patroos and indicate where it was located before they could assume office.
[52][8] Hedrick questions the identification, preferring to place the altar in front of the north end of the Stoa of Attalos, where it was found.
He notes that a boundary stone inscribed "sacred to Zeus Phratrios and Athena" was also found in this area.
[53] Lippolis and Greco propose that the temple was instead dedicated to Zeus Eleutherios, Lawall that it was for Apollo Patroos.
[54] The temple was first excavated by Wilhelm Dörpfeld for the German Archaeological Institute in 1895 and 1896, who identified it as the Stoa Basileios.
[57][56] Fuller investigation was undertaken as part of the excavations of the Agora by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens from 1931 to 1935.
