In 2023, I returned to Athens, one of my favourite cities, for a look at some of the lesser-known ancient sites, a number of which I failed to notice on earlier visits.
These included of caves, caverns and grottos, all of which have mythic/legendary associations and in one particular case, is deemed one of the most haunted places in the world.
One evening I was dining in the appropriately named Cave of The Acropolis tavern when my eyes were drawn to the caverns that pepper the prominence that to this day, still dominate Athens. Probably the most well-known is the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos; first created circa 320 BC by Thrasyllos, a judge at the Great Dionysia, the ancient theatrical Athenian festival.
The marble fronting provided the ornamental entrance to a large natural cave; the monument survived for almost two thousand years but was severely damaged during the 1827 siege of the Acropolis by the Ottoman Turks. People are rarely allowed to visit the cave, due to health and safety concerns whilst lengthy restoration work grinds on; the stairs to the entrance are also less than safe.
The architect-restorer of the monument, Konstantinos Boletis (a former president of the Scientific Committee for the Preservation of the Acropolis Southern Slope Monuments) took a lucky blogger inside to view partially restored post-Byzantine frescos (now under plexiglass to prevent water damage) and a marble icon depicting the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. During the Roman era, a statue of Dionysus once stood in the cavern; the famously light-fingered Lord Elgin (of course) removed it, and the sculpture is now on display in the British Museum.
And supposedly this earlier statue of the god, also pilfered by Elgin and housed at the British Museum:
One would assume such a place would be home to many mysterious unexplained sights, lights and sounds; and in a general ‘historical flashback’ way it is, as is the rest of the Acropolis, with reports of strange echoing voices and people in ancient garb glimpsed after dark.
But the Monument of Thrasyllos has perhaps surprisingly little; the cave was visited by Athenians who would pray for the health of their sick children and was also where adulteresses would be publicly shamed. Perhaps the sobbing of the unchaste women and the cruel mockery of their accusers can still be heard.
Maybe by customers at the Cave of the Acropolis, distracted during mouthfuls of their delicious meze:
The monument seen from the Theatre of Dionysus:
The Temple of Asklepios
The Asclepieion of Athens was built in honour of the gods Asclepius and Hygieia, on the southern escarpment of the Acropolis. When Christian worship eventually quashed the ancient pantheons, the monuments of Asclepius were smashed and the resultant spoila used for a spacious, three-aisled Early Christian basilica. However, chiming with an increase in native Greek belief in the old Hellenic Pantheon, partial restorations have been undertaken to Doric Stoa façade, the room of the Sacred Cave and the temple of Asclepius itself.
Inside the cave, there was the Sacred Spring of Asclepius, with its water revered for its healing powers, supplicants would go there to heal and worship the god of medicine.
Will those seeking the healing hands of the deities ever return to the Sacred Cave? Maybe they already have...
Sanctuary of Aglauros
Only in 1980* was the cave identified as the one dedicated to Aglauros, the daughter of legendary King Cecrops, who sacrificed herself to protect the city from invasion.
* archaeologists found nearby, an honorary stele for Aglauros, dating to the 3rd century BC.
The Cave of Apollo Hypoakraios
The Cave of Apollo was a shrine on the north slope of the Acropolis, dedicated to Apollo Hypakraios, ‘Apollo under the High Rocks / Under the Long Rocks’. According to the playwright Euripides, it was the birthplace of Ion, the product of a liaison between Apollo and King Erechtheus' daughter Kreousa. Ion became the progenitor of all the Ionians. Impressive.
The Klepsydra
The Klepsydra (formerly called Empedo) is a natural spring on the north-west slope of the Acropolis hill; Empedo was the name of the tutelary deity of the spring, an Attic nymph. Does the nymph still linger there?
https://www.jstor.org/stable/146770
The Cave of Pan
Furry-legged and cloven-hooved, the pipe-playing god Pan earned his place on the Acropolis by causing panic and fear amongst the Persians, helping mightily the victory of the Greeks in the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The sound of pipes and hoarse laughter have often been heard nearby, but that may just be emanating from the lively Plaka below or the delightful Anafiotika Cycaldic village, which nestles on the slopes of the Acropolis itself.
A story of Pan from 1980s England:
And his appearance in the 1964 fantasy/morality tale The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao
The Shrine of Pan on Apostolou Pavlou Street
Archaeological research in the old City’s Apostolou Pavlou St revealed man-made carvings in a rocky outcrop that led to a mysterious underground chamber. Further excavation uncovered a relief chiselled on the bedrock, representing Pan, a naked Nymph and a dog.
The cult of Pan in caves is well documented in the countryside of Attica as well as inside the ancient city during the 5th c. BC. Further excavation on the chamber’s exterior unearthed wall paintings and a mosaic, dating to late antiquity, when paganism became officially frowned on, and later proscribed.
The Cave of Zeus Olympios or Zeus Keraunios
The largest of three caves (the others dedicated to Apollo and Pan), naturally enough housing the sanctuary of Zeus - King of the Gods.
Athens Sanctuary of Eros and Aprhrodite
The open-air Sanctuary of Aphrodite and Eros was identified in 1931 by archaeologist Oscar Bronner, on the basis of two rock-cut inscriptions; one refers to the festival of Eros and the second names the goddess Aphrodite. The excavation of the Sanctuary revealed fragments of marble statuary and dedicatory carvings, clay vases, figurines and carved plaques that displaying male and female genitals. The worship of the two love-themed deities would have taken place in front of the shrine. During the ‘Festival of Arrephoria’ young Athenian girls brought secret offerings to the goddess Athena, passing at night through the hidden underground passage located in the Sanctuary of Aphrodite and Eros.
The Nymphe Sanctuary
In front of the partially restored Odeon of Herodes Atticus there lies the Nymphe Sanctuary, where numerous dedicative inscriptions were found, offerings of the virgins of Athens desiring the support of the nymph for happiness in their forthcoming marriages. “Good luck with that”, as the saying goes.
Interestingly, the walls of the Acropolis are bolstered by archaic-appearing Doric columns from an abandoned (due to the Persian sack of Athens) version of the Parthenon, called the Pre-Parthenon I.
Athens’ Prison of Socrates
Nearby to both the Acropolis and Athenian Agora, on the Hill of the Nymphs is a cave-like structure said to be Prison of Socrates - or an ancient bath. With eight rooms acting as prisoner's cells it could indeed be a State Prison; it would be the place where Socrates was incarcerated on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of the city before his execution in 399 BC.
The jury convicted him by a vote of 280 to 221. Athenian law allowed a convicted citizen to propose an alternative punishment to the one called for by the prosecution and the jury would decide. Instead of proposing he be exiled, Socrates suggested he be honored by the city for his contribution to their enlightenment and be paid for his services. The jury sentenced him to death by drinking poison hemlock. Before the execution, friends offered to bribe the guards and rescue him so he could flee into exile. He declined.
During WWII, the building was used to hide antiquities of the Acropolis and the National Archaeological Museum, sealed up behind a thick concrete wall, in order to protect them from the thieving Nazis.
An alternative theory is the prison was near the agora, in the ruins where small cups were found in the drains, believed to be used for administering hemlock.
No word of Socrates’ ghost haunting the site; but his teachings are very much still with us. As no doubt he would have wanted.
Athens Develis Cave, Mount Penteli - the ‘Most Haunted Cave in the World’
Mount Penteli near Athens, Greece is the location of the ancient quarry from which marble was cut to build the Parthenon and other great structures in the city during its brief golden age.
The cave is 60 meters (197 feet) long and 20 meters (66 feet) and boasts a network of tunnels, one of which leads to an underground pond, another to Hell...
Nineteenth-century brigand named Davelis and his outlaws used this cave as a hideout, hence the name. Inside the cave is a double Byzantine church built directly into the rock; one half is dedicated to St. Spyridon, the other to St. Nicolas. Deeper into the cave, an older god was worshipped—our friend Pan. Artifacts excavated from the Pendeli cave depict Pan and his nymphettes. A peculiar finding from the cave was a naturally mummified body of a woman, now at the Museum of Criminology in Athens.
To visit the cave, there is no public means of getting past neo-Penteli village. The cave has no guards or gates, so it is unprotected. Locals and nature enthusiasts are wary of some who visit, due to vandalism and accounts of apparent occult satanic sacrifices...
The cave has long been associated with stories of paranormal phenomena, including peculiar sightings (ghostly figures, two-legged ‘Cat People’), alien visitors, ‘unnatural’ music, mysterious voices, electronics going berserk and water rolling upwards!
In the 1960s and 1970s, paranormal investigators began their exploration, with UFO sightings also added to the stories associated with the cavern. Investigations were hindered by malfunctions in technological devices, such as cameras and flashlights, and peculiar behaviour from some self-proclaimed experts.
In 1977, reports supposedly claimed a group of workers and technicians from an unnamed, but well-funded organisation put up barbed wire around the cave and began using dynamite and bulldozers; guards turned away curious members of the public. People bandied around theories that NATO, the U.S. government or mysterious international cabals were constructing a nuclear bunker/missile hub, or even extradimensional portals, possibly including a magnetic channel connecting the cave to the CIA HQ in Langley, West Virginia.
Oddly enough though, after a while, the guards ceased zealously restricting access to the cave, allowing holes to be cut through the wire fences blocking the entrance.
The stories began again: a couple going on a hike discovered a car perched dangerously on a ledge close to the cave in a location which seemed physically impossible for it to be in; the wife looked into some nearby bushes around and began screaming uncontrollably.
She claimed to have seen a creepy small oval shaped creature with two bulbous glowing eyes staring at her. Her husband saw bushes shake as if an animal had just scuttled by, and a few days later, was unhinged by what he told his spouse was a floating black sphere spinning wildly outside his car window.
In 1983, the work crews terminated their efforts, but left behind some of the equipment used in their strange labors. The ancient church and natural cave networks had been severely damaged, artificial concrete corridors had been dug, some only half completed. Finally in 1990, the Greek ministry of culture finally stepped in to prevent any more damage to the important archaeological (and other?) remains in the cave.
Explanations for the unusual phenomena in the cave centre on disturbances in the local electromagnetic fields. The work done by the clandestine organisation in the 1970s may have been driven by interest in this; neuroscientists, such as Michael Persinger (Laurentian University), posit pulsed electromagnetic fields influence human perception, making one feel there’s an unearthly invisible presence in a room.
Places that are supposedly haunted usually exhibit unusual electromagnetic activity; cameras, flashlights and other equipment tended to break down in the cave, very possibly due to electromagnetic interference.
Link to The Penteli Cave Enigma – A Place of Unexplained Phenomena Since Ancient Times (Ancient Origins)
https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/penteli-cave-0011268
Stephen Arnell’s novel THE GREAT ONE, is available to purchase on Amazon Kindle. A new book on the dictator Sulla entitled THE FORTUNATE ONE, will be published later in 2026.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-One-Secret-Memoirs-Pompey-ebook/dp/B0BNLTB2G7
