Il culto di Zeus Agoraios nel mondo greco : quadro d’insieme, contesti e funzioni

The contribution aims to consolidate our knowledge about the cult of one of the most important divine figures in the Greek world, Zeus Agoraios, the god of the agora and of urban public spaces. The work will be based on large evidence – be it literary, epigraphic, numismatic, or archaeological – collected from different poleis, starting from the island of Crete and mainland and insular Greece, to reach the West, with the examination of the case studies located in Magna Graecia and Sicily. Firstly, the history of the studies on Zeus Agoraios will be retraced, highlighting the importance of R. Martin’s work as starting point of the debate; and secondly, as conclusion, there will be an overall assessment of the figure of Zeus Agoraios, analyzing the architectural and topographical aspects, the formation of this cult in the world of the Greek poleis, the little knowledge we have about its iconographic representation, the roles played by the divinity and the diffusion of its veneration from what is possible to deduce today thanks to the sources collected. Finally, at the end of the article, the reader will find two tables representing, in a systematic and summarized way, all the different testimonies collected on the cult of Zeus Agoraios and on the worship of the “Others Gods of the agora”, useful both as a tool for knowledge than quick reference.