Altar of the Twelve Gods

The Altar of the Twelve Gods (also called the Sanctuary of the Twelve Gods), was an altar and sanctuary at Athens, located in the northwest corner of the Agora. The altar was set up by Pisistratus (son of Hippias and grandson of Pisistratus the tyrant), during his archonship, in 522/1 BC. It marked the central point from which distances from Athens were measured and was a place of supplication and refuge.

The exact identities of the twelve gods to whom the altar was dedicated is uncertain, but they were most likely substantially the same as the twelve Olympian gods represented on the east frieze of the Parthenon: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Dionysus, though there are reasons to suppose that Hestia may have been one of the twelve.

The altar became the zero point from which distances to Athens were calculated. A milestone, c. 400 BC, found near the gate to the Acropolis reads: "The city set me up, a truthful monument to show all mortals the measure of their journeying: the distance to the altar of the twelve gods from the harbor is forty-five stades". The fifth century BC historian Herodotus tells us that the distance from Heliopolis to the sea is similar to the distance "from the altar of the twelve gods at Athens to the temple of Olympian Zeus at Pisa."

Pindar may have been referring to the Altar of the Twelve Gods and its central status, as is supposed by many scholars, when he wrote:

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