Mount Hymettos, Athens

A Holy Place For Writing

Abstract

This paper looks at Mount Hymettos, Athens, as a place of writing. We begin with a description of the mountain, and its prominent place in the lives of Athenians, followed by a survey of the kinds of writing performed there over more than 2,000 years. An important asset to the city and yet set apart from its bustling centre, Hymettos has been home to particular kinds of writing that welcome or necessitate removal from the everyday human gaze: particularly religious inscriptions and graffiti. Finally we consider what the performance of writing may have meant to the earliest known writers on the mountain, the worshippers at the 7th century BCE sanctuary of Zeus Semios, “Zeus of the Sign”.