Bema or speaker's platform at the Pnyx

The Bema, from the Greek: bema, “step” means a raised platform. In antiquity it was probably made of stone, but in modern times it is usually a rectangular wooden platform approached by steps.

The original use of the bema in Athens was as a tribunal from which orators addressed the citizens as well as the courts of law (see Pnyx). In Greek law courts the two parties to a dispute presented their arguments each from separate bemas