The Heliaea was a name used for individual law courts or for all the courts taken together.  The location of a large court building in the southern part or the Agora between the South Stoa and the Southwest Fountainhouse is only tentative.  There may have been another courtroom in the northeast corner of the Agora.
 

The only court whose location we can identify with certainty is that of the Areopagus, which got its name from the hill (Areopagus = 'hill of Ares') on which it met.  This court tried cases of intentional homicide and wounding of citizens (also poisoning and arson).  The Areopagus seems to have been the only court that was held in the open air, perhaps to allow the religious pollution of these crimes to be dissipated.  The danger of religious pollution also required that a man accused of murder keep away from temples and the Agora

There was another court, the Palladium, which tried cases of unintentional homicide.  This court also tried defendants accused of killing non-citizens like metic, slaves, and foreigners, an indication that these crimes were considered less serious than killing a citizen.  Homicides which defendants claimed were lawful, like killing an adulterer caught in the act, were tried in the Delphinium.

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