Temple of Ares
[4] The southwest and northwest corners of the building are lost and much of the western side of the temple has remained unexcavated because it is under a residential dwelling.
[7][8][9] The deme had also been the site of Theseus' victory over his cousins, the Pallantidae, which formed the first step in his legendary unification of Attica.
[10] The sanctuary was a key religious site for the four neighbouring demes of Pallene, Acharnae, Gargettus, and Paeania, which together formed a league.
[3] Based on features of the superstructure found in the Agora, William Bell Dinsmoor dated the Classical temple to ca.
[13] The mason's marks carved on the blocks to facilitate reassembly of the temple use letter forms which are characteristic of the Augustan age.
This is probably connected in some way with the transfer of the temple to the Agora, since Acharnae was the location of Athens' main cult for Ares from the fourth century BC through the Hellenistic period.
[19][20] A statue base found in the Agora inscribed with a dedication to Gaius Caesar "the New Ares" (IG II2 3250) may have been associated with the temple.
[24] As the temple at Pallene was demolished, a mason's mark was carved on each block, consisting of two or three letters, which would allow it to be placed in its proper location on the new site.
[15] An inscription from 99/100 AD mentions in passing that Titus Coponius Maximus was the priest of Ares Enyalius and Enyo (IG II2 1072), which is generally assumed to be the cult based in this temple.
[26] The foundations consist of a packing of broken stone lying on the bedrock, five layers of poros blocks, and a marble euthynteria.
[28] The poros blocks seem to have been spoliated from the Hellenistic Arsenal which was located on the Agora hill and presumably destroyed after the Sack of Athens in 86 BC.
[38] A marble block with an iron ring on the top, used as a hitching post for sacrifices was located to the north of the altar, but it was probably related to some earlier structure.
[11] Mason's marks and dowel holes of Augustan date indicate that the temple originally stood elsewhere and was dismantled, moved, and reconstructed on the Roman foundations.
The pronaos at the eastern end of the temple contained two columns between the antae and a door to the cella and was unusually deep (4.65 metres).
Relief sculptures were often carved in a summary fashion on surfaces that would not be visible from the ground and had attachment points for connecting them to the structure.
[73] The pair are symmetrical, stood 1.10 metres high and date to the 390s BC, which makes them significantly smaller and later than the other sculptures on the temple.
[75] She originally stood 1.38 metres high and was depicted running to the right, with her arms raised and her head turned to look left.
[77] Scholars initially attributed her to the nearby Stoa of Zeus, but she is too big for this setting and shows traces of Augustan period restorations similar to other sculptures from the temple.
The fragments from the east pediment consist of a head of Athena in a triple-crested Attic helmet, the torso and upper legs of a nude man in a contraposto pose, and the thighs of a seated or reclining woman in drapery.
[85] This is probably a scene of Athena "in her most formal "official" role as city goddess of Athens"[86] meeting with a male figure, who is probably Theseus, about to set out to confront the invading Pallantidae.
[92][notes 6] The fragments of the east face consist of five nude male torsos, in poses which suggest that they were engaged in battle.
[94] The high-relief frieze, consists of 49 sculptural fragments of Pentelic marble at half life-size, which were found scattered throughout the Agora.
[114][115] This statue of a beardless young man is naked and stands contraposto with his weight on his left foot, his right arm by his side.
The statue's pseudo-Attic helmet is an Augustan-period feature, perhaps added during the move due to damage to the original or for stylistic reasons.
Her aegis was a band running across her chest from her right shoulder to her left hip, with the gorgoneion in the centre and metal snakes erupting from its edges (the surviving torse has holes into which these were inserted).
[129] The former is a classical statue from around 420 BC, probably made by "Master A", one of the sculptors who worked on the parapet of the Temple of Athena Nike.
[138] At some point in the sixth century AD, the remains of the temple were demolished, the sculptures were removed, their heads were chopped off, and many of them were burnt in lime kilns.
The original one runs east-west, terminating in a small door 0.80 metres wide at southwest corner of the burial chamber.
[142] The temple of Ares was uncovered as part of the Agora excavations, which the American School of Classical Studies initiated in 1931 under the leadership of Homer Thompson.
[104] The original foundations of the temple at Pallenis were uncovered during rescue excavations at Stavros in 1994, carried out by the 2nd ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, under the leadership of Manolis Korres.
