(Ἔλεος), the personification of pity or mercy, had an altar in the agora at Athens. "The Athenians," says Pausanias (1.17.1), "are the only ones among the Hellenes that worship this divine being, and among all the gods this is the most useful to human life in all its vicissitudes." Those who implored the assistance of the Athenians, such as Adrastus and the Heracleidae, approached as suppliants the altar of Eleos. (Apollod. 2.8.1, 3.7.1; Schol. ad Soph. Oed. Col. 258 )