Stoa Poikile

The Stoa Poikile or Painted Portico was a Doric stoa erected around 460 BC on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens [1]. It was one of the most famous sites in ancient Athens, owing its fame to the paintings and war-booty displayed within it and to its association with ancient Greek philosophy, especially Stoicism [1]. The stoa is frequently mentioned in literary and epigraphical sources [1]. It was built by one Peisianax in the 460s BC, and it was therefore originally known as the "Peisianactean Stoa" [1]. Inside the stoa, there were a set of paintings on tablets, by Polygnotus, Micon, and perhaps Panaenus [1]. Bronze shields captured from the Spartans at the Battle of Sphacteria in 425 BC and from the siege of Scione in 421 BC were set up in the stoa, where they could still be seen in the 2nd century AD [1]. The stoa was uncovered as part of the Agora excavations undertaken by the American School of Classical Studies [1].