Areopagus, Council of

In ancient Athens, the aristocratic council, composed of former magistrates, which took its name from the rocky outcrop where it met, immediately west of the Acropolis. A sanctuary to the avenging Furies was located beneath the meeting place, in reference to the council's guardianship of the laws.

In the 6th century BC the council was also important as an advisory body to the archons. Its power gradually diminished from the 5th century BC, though it remained a homicide court, a function sanctified by the mythical traditions that Orestes and the god Ares had been tried for murder on the hill.