Areopagus

English

Phryne revealed before the Areopagus (1861) by Jean-Léon Gérôme. The painting depicts Phryne, a famous hetaera of Ancient Greece, on trial before the Areopagus.

Areopagus seen from the Acropolis

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Ἄρειος Πάγος (Áreios Págos, literally “Rock of Ares”), which in classical times functioned as the high Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æɹiˈɒpəɡəs/

Proper noun

Areopagus

1. (Ancient Greece) The supreme judicial and legislative council of ancient Athens.
   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter X, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC:

     When the great emergencies of the state required his presence and attention, he was engaged in conversation with the philosopher Plotinus, wasting his time in trifling or licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to the Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Areopagus of Athens.

2. A prominent rock outcropping located northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
   • 1869, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXII, in The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company. […], →OCLC:

     All hands were on deck, all the afternoon, with books and maps and glasses, trying to determine which “narrow rocky ridge” was the Areopagus, which sloping hill the Pnyx, which elevation the Museum Hill, and so on.

Translations

supreme council in Athens

• Catalan: areòpag m
• Finnish: areiopagi (fi)
• Greek: Άρειος Πάγος (el) m (Áreios Págos)

  Ancient: Ἄρειος Πάγος m (Áreios Págos)

• Irish: Cnoc Airéis m
• Italian: areopago (it) m
• Polish: areopag (pl) m
• Portuguese: areópago (pt) m
• Romanian: areopag (ro) n
• Russian: ареопа́г (ru) m (areopág)
• Spanish: areópago m

Further reading

• Areopagus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia