Theatre of Dionysus

The Theatre of Dionysus was the most important theaters in ancient Greece and is regarded as the birthplace of the theater of ancient Greece and the drama at all. It lies on the southern slope of the Acropolis in Athens. It was named after Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy. To him, the festival of Dionysia were celebrated in honor in Athens every year. These included originally from cultic singing, dancing and sacrificial rites emerged theatrical performances that took place in the Theatre of Dionysos. The famous classical tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were first performed at the Dionysia.

History

The Theatre of Dionysus was part of the south of the Acropolis nearby sanctuary of Dionysus, to which also belonged to a temple. Originally, the theater was built in the 5th century BC as a religious building. At first it consisted of a walk Orchestra and a simple wooden Skene. The audience had to sit at this time on a natural slope. 410 BC wooden seats were built. The stone building, which one can see today was built in the period around 330 BC. The wooden seats were replaced by stone. There was also a stone building stage and the orchestra was made in marble.

In the period around 1863, the theater was excavated by the Archaeological Society of Athens and received and recorded by the acting locally architect Ernst Ziller.

Until about 2015, the theater for several million euros to be restored after previous backup work, lack of money were advanced only slowly.

Architecture

The theater of Dionysus had 78 rows of seats and could seat 17,000 spectators. The first row consisted of 67 marble seats that were special dignitaries. The auditorium, the cavea, encamped in a semicircle around the orchestra, which occurred on the chorus. In the middle of the orchestra was an altar on which sacrifices were offered Dionysus. On stage, the proskenion, the actor appeared. Behind it was the stage building, the Skene. On the sides of the Paraskenien Skene carried on the front six Doric.