fire is ever kept burning, and where the presiding Committee of
the Council[*] and certain high officials take their meals, and a
good deal of state business is transacted. The majority of these
buildings upon the Agora, however, are covered promenades, porticoes,
or stoe.

[*]This select committee was known technically as the "Prytanes."

The stoe are combinations of rain shelters, shops, picture galleries,
and public offices. Turn under the pillars of the "Royal Stoa"
upon the west, and you are among the whispering, nudging, intent
crowd of listeners, pushing against the barriers of a low court.
Long rows of jurors are sitting on their benches; the "King Archon"
is on the president's stand, and some poor wight is being arraigned
on a charge of "Impiety"[*]; while on the walls behind stand graved
and ancient laws of Draco and Solon.

[*]The so-called "King Archon" had special cognizance of most cases
involving religious questions; and his court was in this stoa.

Cross the square, and on the opposite side is one of the most
magnificent of the porticoes, the "Painted Porch" ("Stoa Poikile"),
a long covered walk, a delightful refuge alike from sun and rain.
Almost the entire length of the inner walls (for it has columns
only on the side of the Agora) is covered with vivid frescoes. Here
Polygnotus and other master painters have spread out the whole
legendary story of the capture of Troy and of the defeat of the
Amazons; likewise the more historical tale of the battle of Marathon.
Yet another promenade, the "Stoa of Zeus," is sacred to Zeus, Giver
of Freedom. The walls are not frescoed, but hung with the shields