of valiant Athenian warriors.

In the open spaces of the plaza itself are various alters, e.g. to
the "Twelve Gods," and innumerable statues of local worthies, as
of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the tyrant-slayers; while across the
center, cutting the Market Place from east to west, runs a line of
stone posts, each surmounted with a rude bearded head of Hermes,
the trader's god; and each with its base plastered many times over
with all kinds of official and private placards and notices.


14. The Life in the Agora.--So much for the physical setting of
the Agora: of far greater interest surely are the people. The
whole square is abounding with noisy activity. If an Athenian has
no actual business to transact, he will at least go to the Agora
to get the morning news. Two turns under the "Painted Porch" will
tell him the last rumor as to the foreign policy of Thebes; whether
it is true that old King Agesilaus has died at Sparta; whether corn
is likely to be high, owning to a failure of crops in the Euxine
(Black Sea) region; whether the "Great King" of Persia is prospering
in his campaign against Egypt. The crowd is mostly clad in white,
though often the cloaks of the humbler visitors are dirty, but there
is a sprinkling of gay colors,--blue, orange, and pink. Everybody
is talking at once in melodious Attic; everybody (since they are
all true children of the south) is gesticulating at once. To the
babel of human voices is added the wheezing whistle of donkeys,
the squealing of pigs, the cackle of poultry. Besides, from many
of the little factories and workshops on or near the Agora a great
din is rising. The clamor is prodigious. Criers are stalking
up and down the square, one bawling out that Andocides has lost a