Athens - Theatre of Dionysos

The Theatre of Dionysos is the oldest of the three architectural complexes on the southern slopes of the Acropolis (the others being the Odeion of Herodes Atticus and the Stoa of Eumenes).

In the sixth century B.C. Peisistratos transferred the cult of Dionysos from Eleutherai in the Kithairon hills (on the old road to Thebes) to Athens, where accordingly the god was known as Dionysos Eleuthereus, and a temple was built to house the old cult image from Eleutherai. In association with the cult of Dionysos - the god of drunkenness, of transformation, of ecstasy and the mask - the Theater of Dionysos was built in a natural hollow on the slopes of the Acropolis. Nine building phases have been distinguished by Travlos, the first two dating from the sixth and fifth century. The theater and the temple precinct were separated about 420 B.C., when a pillared hall facing south was built, involving the removal of the old temple, built of limestone. The brown breccia foundations of this later temple can be seen to the south of the remains of the hall.

About 330 B.C. the theater's present stone tiers of seating were built. The 64 tiers (of which 25 survive in part), which could accommodate some 17,000 spectators, are divided into three sections by transverse gangways, and the lowest section is divided vertically into 13 wedges separated by stairways. In the front row are seats of honor inscribed with the names of the occupants; in the center is the seat reserved for the priest of Dionysos Eleuthereus, decorated with reliefs and with post-holes in the ground pointing to the existence of a canopy. Behind the priest's seat, on a higher level, is a throne for the Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138). The tiers of seating rise up to a point directly below the Acropolis rock, where the cuttings for the top rows can be seen. In the rock face is a cave, once sacred to Dionysos, which was given an architectural facade by Thrasyllos in 320-319 B.C.; it has a tripod above it symbolizing his victory as choregos. The two columns above the cave are tripod bases dating from the Roman period. The cave is now occupied by a small chapel of the Panayía Spiliótissa (Mother of God of the Cave). The orchestra is paved with marble slabs and is surrounded by a marble barrier to provide protection from the wild beasts which took part in shows in Roman times. The stage buildings to the south, like the rest of the theater, were much rebuilt in later periods. Here there are striking reliefs of Dionysiac scenes, dating from the Roman period; according to the most recent theory they were re-used in an orators' platform of the A.D. fifth century.

The importance of the Theater of Dionysos - of which there is a good general view from the south wall of the Acropolis - lies in the fact that it was built when tragedy was first being introduced, and indeed created, in Athens. This first drama was performed in 534 B.C., probably in the Agora, by Thespis, a native of Ikaria (now Dionysius), who traveled about in a wagon with his company. This early dramatic form, in which a single actor performed with a chorus, was the beginning of a development which led in the fifth C. - the period of pride and confidence after the Persian wars - to the brilliant flowering of Greek tragedy. The works of the three great Attic tragedians were first performed in the Theater of Dionysos in celebration of the Dionysiac cult; and here Aeschylus - who had fought at Marathon as a hoplite and was proud to have this recorded on his tombstone - as well as Sophocles and Euripides appeared in person. Thus the Theater of Dionysos became the birthplace and origin of the European theater.