Acropolis - Sacred Caves

The most easterly of the sacred caves at Acropolis, lying below the House of the Arrhephoroi, is the Cave of Aglauros, in which sacred festivals were celebrated with music and dancing. Here, too, the ephebes swore their oath. The cave is named after Aglauros, one of the three daughters of Kekrops. She and her sister Herse opened a casket which had been entrusted to them by Athena, although they had been forbidden to tamper with it: whereupon they lost their reason and sprang to their deaths from the summit of the Acropolis. The third of the sisters, Pandrosos, escaped this fate and has a sanctuary dedicated to her on the Acropolis.

The most westerly of the sacred caves at Acropolis was dedicated to Apollo Hypoakraios. The site of the altar was found outside the entrance, and in the walls of the cave are small niches with votive inscriptions. A little way east is another cave which was also dedicated to Apollo. Here he seduced Kreousa, who later abandoned her son Ion in the cave. In the eastern part of this cave a chapel dedicated to St Athanasius was installed in Christian times.

The largest cave at Acropolis was sacred to the old shepherd god Pan, who was particularly honored in Athens after the Persian wars, since the Athenian victory of Marathon (490 B.C.) was attributed to his aid.