Metroon

The remains of the Old Bouleuterion and the adjacent Metroon on the Athenian Agora, just below the Temple of Hephaestus. The Metroon was a sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods - Cybele, sometimes identified with Rhea or Demeter - and from the 5th century BC it also served as the state archive of the Athenian polis, storing the originals of laws, decrees and Delian League tribute lists. Pausanias describes a Cybele statue inside, attributed to Pheidias or Agorakritos. Visitors today walk along the excavated foundations and see little more than low wall lines and Hellenistic column stumps. A small site panel makes clear how tightly religion and administration overlapped in classical Athens.