The open-air Sanctuary of Aphrodite and Eros was identified in 1931 by its excavator the American archaeologist Oscar Bronner, on the basis of two rock-cut inscriptions. One refers to the festival of Eros on ?the fourth day of the month of Mounichion, near the end of spring and the second names the goddess Aphrodite. The excavation of the Sanctuary brought to light various finds: fragments of marble statuary and dedicatory carvi gs, which had been set into niches hollowed out from the rock, as well as clay vases and figurines. Characteristic are the carved plaques that show male and female genitals. The worship of Aphrodite in common with Eros, as goddess of reproduction and fertility, would have taken place in an open-air area(on the terrace), in front of the niches, where a ramp led from the ?Peripatos?. Certain scolars connect the sanctuary with the festival of the Arrephoria, of which the ancient traveler Pausanias (2nd cent. A.D.) gives us a description. During this Festival young Athenian girls brought the arrheta (unspeakable, secret) offerings from the Acropolis to the goddess Athena, passing at night through a hidden underground passage-way in order to reach the Sanctuary.

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