After the fall of the Mycenaean fortresses a new era started, till far in the seventh century B.C. of which we know very little. During Pissistratos' leadership (between 561 and 527 B.C.) Athens started to flourish again. On the place where once the Mycenaean palace could be found stood now a sanctuary. This is characteristic for this period as the Acropolis lost more and more political meaning as it slowly turned into one of the major religious centers of Hellas. The political centre of the city had moved from the Acropolis to the Aeropagos.

The Panathenaea.

The change of Athens from a settlement into one huge sanctuary most likely took place during the leadership of the tyrant Pisistratus as a result of his reformations of the Panathenaea in 566 BC. The Atheneans now organised huge festivities with as apotheose a religious ceremony in name of Athena instead of the traditional and very old local feast to honour Athens. These festivities included a contest in music, a dance to symbolize the defeat of the giants by the gods, a race for four-in-hands, and finally a gymnastic tournament. The winners recieved so-called Panathenatic amphoras filled with sacred olive-oil. They were decorated with a picture of Athena who stood between two columns on one side, and on the other side the sport in which the reciever of the amphora had achieved a victory.

A religious procession went over the sacred road to the top of the Acropolis to give the goddess a expensive new robe on the 28th day of the month Hekatombaion (july-august), the birthday of Pallas Athena. This peplos was weaved by arheporio, children between six and eleven years old, while the embrodery was made by ergastinai who were aristocratic women. This whole procession is magnificently displayed on the frieze of the Parthenon.

The Panathenaea were not the only festivity in the name of Athena and her sacred wooden statue. In the month Thargelion (may-june) the statue was washed in the harbour of Phaleron during the Plyntherien feast. The same statue was clothed and decorated during the Kallynteria feast. The Scirophorien procession started on the Acropolis. The huge white parasol which protected the priests of Athena and Poseidon against the sun was the symbol of this festivity. It is said that Athena was the inventor of the parasol.

The Acropolis changes.

In the seventh century B.C. there was already a temple for this goddess. Most likely it stood on the fundaments which archaeologists found between the Erechteum and the Parthenon. The political meaning of the Acropolis became even less when Solon decided that the meetings of Athens should take place in the Agora. Slowly the Acropolis had changed into a purely religious centre, which also could be used as a last line of defence in times of need.