Archaeologists have found evidence that Athens has been inhabited since at least the fifth millennium BC. The site would have been attractive to early settlers for several reasons: its location in the midst of productive farmland; its proximity to the coast and the natural safe harbor of Piraeus; the existence of a defensible high ground, the Acropolis (from akron and polis, or ‘city on the high ground’); and the proximity of a natural water source on the northwest side of the Acropolis.
On the Acropolis you can still see the remains of Mycenaean fortifications from the 13th century AD, including some foundations belonging to what must have been a palatial structure. The fortifications, known as the ‘Pelasgian’ walls (after indigenous people are believed to have built them before the arrival of the Greeks around 2000 BC), remained in use until the Persian wars of 490-480 to. C. A section behind the temple of Athena Nike seems to have been deliberately preserved in the classical period.
There was a decline of Mycenaean society throughout the Greek world in the late 12th century BC. Whether this was directly related to the Trojan War (around 1184 BC), or the so-called Dorian Invasion believed to have taken place shortly after this conflict, Athens does not appear to have succumbed to attack. The Mycenaean royal family of Pylos is said to have taken refuge in Athens after their city’s fall to the Dorians. One of its members, Codros, became king of his adopted city.
The collapse of the Mycenaean civilization left Greece in political, economic, and social decline, accompanied by the loss of artistic skills, literacy, and business networks. The Mycenaean form of writing, known as Linear B, was completely forgotten, and the Greek alphabet did not emerge until the late 8th century BC. C. as the new way of writing. At this time city-states began to emerge throughout the Greek world, ruled by oligarchies or aristocratic councils. Thirteen kings ruled in Athens after Codros, until in 753 a. C. were replaced by officials with a ten-year mandate, known as decennial archons, and in 683 a. By eponymous archons appointed annually.
The conflict between the oligarchs and the lower classes, many of whom had been reduced to slavery, led to a series of reforms that paved the way for the emergence of the world’s first true democracy. Around 620 a. C., the legislator Dracon placed wooden tablets on the Acropolis known as axons. These were inscribed with civil laws and punishments so harsh that the death penalty was prescribed even for minor offenses, giving rise to the term “draconian” that is still used today. Dracon’s intervention did little to ensure order, leading to representatives of the nobles and lower classes in 594 BC. A. To name to the statesman and poet Solón like archon.
Solon put an end to aristocratic rule, establishing a representational government where participation was not determined by lineage or lineage, but by wealth. It eliminated debt-based slavery and restored freedom and land to those who had been enslaved. Solon created a “Council of Four Hundred” from an equal number of representatives of the Ionian tribes to which the Athenians claimed to belong, and instituted four classes of citizens.
Peisistratos, Solon’s younger cousin, became a tyrant (tyrannos) of Athens in 545 BC. It ensured that the constitution of Solonia was respected and governed with benevolence. After Peisistratos’ death, however, things took a negative turn and anti-Peisistratid sentiment grew. Around 510 a. C., King Cleómenes de Esparta was asked to help depose Peisistrato’s son, Hipias. Hippias sought refuge in Persia at the court of King Darius.
Soon after, the aristocrat Cleisthenes promised to institute further reforms by giving citizens a more direct role in government. His reforms were approved in 508 BC. C. and democracy was established in Athens. A new “Council of the Five Hundred” (the Boule) replaced the “Council of Four Hundred”, with an equitable representation of the various tribes. Cleisthenes is also credited with instituting the ostracism system, which “voted” an individual deemed dangerous to democracy in exile for ten years.
It is not known when the ancient Mycenaean citadel was transformed into a sacred precinct, but at the end of the 8th century BC. C. a modest temple (or perhaps more than one) was in the plateau. The oldest and most sacred image of worship on the Acropolis was the statue of Athena Polias (Protectress of the city), a crude figure of olive wood, so old that the Athenians of the classical period believed that it had fallen from the sky or had been made by Cecrops or Erichthonios. This sacred image of Athena was ritually ‘dressed’ each year in a peplos, a sacred robe, as part of the Panathenaic festival.
A temple is believed to have been built around 700 BC. To the south of the later classic Erechtheion, to house the statue of Athena Polias. The first important building of which there are important remains on the Acropolis was the so-called ‘Temple of Bluebeard’, built in the Archaic period around 560 BC. Some believe that the “Temple of Bluebeard” was to the south of the later Erechtheion. Ancient texts mention a mysterious building or a contemporary enclosure of the ‘Temple of Bluebeard’, called Hecatompedon or ‘One Hundred Footers’. Whatever this structure or location was, it gave its name to the main hall of the Classical Parthenon, perhaps because the later building occupies the same site.
With the expulsion of Hippias a new temple was built on the Acropolis, its foundations still visible to the south of the later Erechtheion. It is likely that this building, the Archaios Naos, or “ancient temple”, was deliberately commissioned around 506 BC. C. as a replacement for the “Bluebeard Temple”.
The first Persian invasion of 490 BC. C. saw the victory of the Athenians in the battle of Marathon against the forces of King Darius of Persia. The following year, the exalted Athenians leveled an area on the south side of the Acropolis and began construction of the Ancient Parthenon. A new gateway to the Acropolis, known as Old Propylaia, was also started.
This post-marathon building program on the Acropolis came to a violent end in 480 BC. When Xerxes, son of King Darius, led a second Persian invasion of Greece. Athens had to be evacuated and Xerxes razed the city and the buildings of the Acropolis. Under Themistocles, the Athenians destroyed the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis. Victory over the Persians was secured after the Battle of Plataea (479 BC), northwest of Athens, when a combined Greek army annihilated the Persians.
In the wake of the Battle of Plataea, the victors vowed never to rebuild the shrines that were destroyed in the war, keeping them in their place as monuments for later generations.
Pericles, who was a general and statesman, came to power in Athens around 461 BC. C. considered fulfilled the oath of Plataea, since thirty years had passed since the Persian invasion, and proceeded to rebuild the temples of the Acropolis. He brought together the best architects and artists in the city and plans were drawn to erect new buildings that would outshine those brought down by the Persians. Pericles’ building program enhanced the lower city with new monuments, such as the Temple of Hephaestus, also known as Theseion, and the Painted Stoa or Poikile located near the Agora (market).