DESCRIPTION
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
INFORMATION
PHOTOGALLERY
 
 
© Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, © 1st  Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities
" Sanctuary of Aglauros " Cave
The largest cave in the city (22m. east-west, mouth 14m.) dominates the East Slope of the Acropolis. The discovery, in 1980 in an area east of the cave, of a stele inscribed in 247/6 or 246/5 B.C. with a decree in which the Athenian Demos honors Timokrite, priestess of the nymph Aglauros, led the excavator G. Dontas to place the sanctuary of Aglauros in this area, while research up to then connected it with a cave on the North Slope. This identification, even if not unanimously accepted by the scientific community, has caused many to reform their views about the topography of ancient Athens, particularly about the location of important shrines and other buildings. According to the Herodotos, it was from here that the Persians invaded the Acropolis in 480 B.C. Aglauros was the daughter of the mythical king Kekrops; it was she who jumped from the Acropolis in order to save Athens from a extended siege; it was to her shrine that Athenian ephebes once they had turned 18, brought their military gear, swearing to protect to the death the ?sacred and the holy?, following the example of the Nymph.