As Paul entered the gate-way of the Piræus at Athens, he was met immediately with the proofs of the intense devotion of the Athenians to their worship. Before him stood Minerva’s temple and the image of Neptune, her rival, seated on horseback, holding his trident. Passing on he came, after a little, to the temple of Ceres with the images sculptured by the far-famed Praxiteles. A little further on his eyes must have fell upon Bacchus’s temple and the images of Zeus, Minerva, Apollo, Mercury and the Muses. All around him are temples, statues, altars and shrines, and the news-seeking Athenians gather about him. Every public place and building was accounted sacred. The market-place (the Agora) and the Acropolis were crowded with temples and altars to the gods, and even to deified virtues. There were altars to Fame, to Modesty, to Persuasion and to Pity. And, lest they should by any chance leave out any god or being who might help or injure them, they built an altar to _An Unknown God_. With all their worship they had not found the true God. The magnificent Parthenon--the Virgin’s House--was the glorious temple erected to Minerva’s honor. Within it was the colossal statue of ivory and gold, made by the famous Phidias, rivaled only by the same artist’s statue of Jupiter. In the midst of all this idolatry, what thought was in the mind of Paul? “His spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city crowded with idols.” It was said in those days that it was easier to find an idol in Athens than a man.