New deities arriving at Athens from Greek regions were, from Arcadia, Pan (at the start of the fifth century, after the battle of Marathon); from Epidaurus, Asclepius (late fifth century B.C.); and 'panhellenic' deities worshipped under a particular aspect in other Hellenic city-states - for instance Zeus Eleutherius, a stoa to whom was built in the Agora at Athens. The worship of these deities was frequently 'worn with a difference' in Attica. Thus Pan started to be worshipped in company with the Nymphs, and caves were institutionalized as the right places to worship him in.

The "foreigner" gods of Athens (as they were nicknamed) really did have a foreign origin; and they came to Athens via Hellenic regions. The Phrygian Mother of the Gods Cybele and her crew (Corybants, Adonis, Sabazius), to take but one instance, arrived from Ionia. Moreover, groups of metics living in Athens could take out a permit from the city to install their own cults. The existence of numerous gods of foreign provenance is attested by inscriptions found at Athens and dating from the late fourth century.

Besides the institutionalization of new gods, further changes to the structure of traditional religion were going on. One of these was the particular importance now placed on secondary cults of deities and heroes - for instance Athena Nike, Artemis Agrotera, Nemesis, or Theseus. Moreover, established gods either were given new appellations - Artemis became 'Aristobule' and 'Euclea' - or were worshipped under new aspects (fourth century), - for instance Hermes 'Hegemonius', Aphrodite 'Euploia', Athena 'Sotera', or Zeus 'Philius'.

The worship of personifications of abstract ideas and situations was institutionalized at Athens in the fourth century B.C. Some of these had already made their debut by the end of the fifth century - for instance Democratia, Peace, Good Luck, or the Good Fairy. The Athenians honoured all these with sacrifices and offerings. Information about their worship is almost nil. Pausanias mentions an altar of Euclea built from the proceeds of the spoils of the Persian wars. Not that there was anything revolutionary about the worship of an abstract idea: traditional worship embraced personifications of ideas, since these were found among the Olympian gods - Peitho (Persuasion), for instance, Plutus (Wealth), Eros, or Themis (Lawfulness). Often they were closely coupled with a god - Peitho with Aphrodite, for instance. What was new was the freeing up of the specific cult from the Olympian pantheon, and the proliferation of such cults.