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The Theatre of Dionysos.
The Theatre of Dionysos lies within the sanctuary precinct of Dionysos Eleutherios, which dates from the Archaic period. It was first established under the Peisistratids, and it's this area that was at the heart of the celebrations of the Greater or City Dionysia, which took place around March or April yearly. During this festival, it hosted the dramatic competition. Each drama's chorus and production was sponsored by wealthy citizens or occasionally very wealthy and respected metics, resident foreigners. On the first day of the festival, there was a procession in which citizens and metics and so on carried a statue of Dionysos to the Theatre. Large wooden or phalloi were also carried on poles, and a cart pulled an even larger representation of the male genitalia. The bulls for the sacrifice were led along, and the chorus-sponsors, dressed in the richest materials. The choruses then competed in the dithyrambic competitions, and the bulls were sacrificed. After the sacrifice - meat! - a feast. Then there was another procession, most likely involving drunken revelry.
Then, the next day, the judges for the dramatic competition were chosen by lot, and the names of the plays read out. We don't know where this happened in the earliest times, but after the mid-5th-century BC, this happened in the Odeion of Perikles. Which I'm not talking about, but guess what? I wanted a volunteer to look it up and tell us about it tomorrow!
I promise, Athens is the only place where I will make you look stuff up. And I'll buy you icecream for doing so, so I think you're getting the best of this deal.
At least three days of the festival were set aside for tragic competition. Each of the three playwrights permitted to compete put on his three tragedies and one satyr-play on the successive days. Most of our extant Greek tragedies had their first performance here. Women, with the exception of a handful of priestesses, probably didn't form much of the audience - which is something to consider. After 486 BC, comic playwrights were allowed to compete - five of them were allowed to compete, but they only put on one play each. After the high point of Classical tragedy, new plays were written and performed on down to the 2nd century BC, but with frequent restagings of our surviving Classical greats. New plays, it seems, stopped being performed from the 2nd century on. Although the dramas were still produced after this, the prizes went to the sponsors and the actors instead.
The last procession and celebration was held on the final day, when the winners were crowned with ivy. Drinking, dancing, sacred revelry etc: the whole thing lasted about a week. And it had ties to the Eleusinian mysteries. Any volunteers to look up what those ties were? No? Well, we'll talk about it if we get to Eleusis, because I need to say something about the actual archaeology.
Excavations on this site started in 1836, six years after the treaty in which the Ottoman state recognised the newly independent Greek nation, and continued throughout the 19th century. The early theatre was very simple, merely a flat orchestra surrounded by a few rows of wooden benches stretching up the acropolis slope. The skene, or stage-building, was also made of wood. There was also a Peistratid-era temple.
In its present form, the theatre largely dates from the 4th century BC, although some of the wooden structures were replaced by stone before the end of the 5th century. In the 4th century, the politician Lykurgos, who had wrangled himself a job in charge of the city's finances, saw to its monumentalisation. At this time a larger, finer temple of Dionysos was also constructed to house the chryselephantine statue of the god, by the sculptor Alkamenes. This sculpture in fact predated the 4th century temple construction.
I'm not going to give you dimensions and shit like that. If you really want to know how many metres the 4th century theatre measured, you'll go look it up, or, well - look around you. The skene here is the earliest which has standing remains. The skene had projecting wings that probably helped with stage-setting, and look at the seating! Three sections!
Some minor alterations took place in the Hellenistic period, with 67 marble thrones added around the periphery of the orchestra, inscribed with dignitaries' names. It was damaged by the Sullan sack, but repaired. By the 1st century CE, the floor of the orchestra was paved with marble slabs, and an entirely new skene, stage frontage, dedicated to Dionysos and the emperor Nero, was added. Hadrian embellished it with more reliefs. It sometimes housed meetings of the Athenian assembly. In the late 2nd century, a high bema was erected around the (by now semi-circular) orchestra, and after this it was known to play host to Roman amusements like gladiatorial fights and beast-fighting. By the 7th century, it had fallen out of use and been destroyed.
Up on the sope of the acropolis above us, before we stagger onwards towards the shade, is the choregic monument of Thrasyllos, erected in 320/319BC. It enclosed a cave mouth in the natural rock of the acropolis. In Christian times, this place was host to a chapel of the Panaghia of the Cave.
And off over there is the Odeion of Perikles. Behind it, you can follow the road around to the Street of the Tripods, where the choregic and dramatic victors set up dedications to commemorate their success.
You now have five minutes to bugger off and take photographs, before we continue on down to the Acropolis Museum.
We will continue this series tomorrow, in Study tour notes for the Kerameikos.
The Theatre of Dionysos lies within the sanctuary precinct of Dionysos Eleutherios, which dates from the Archaic period. It was first established under the Peisistratids, and it's this area that was at the heart of the celebrations of the Greater or City Dionysia, which took place around March or April yearly. During this festival, it hosted the dramatic competition. Each drama's chorus and production was sponsored by wealthy citizens or occasionally very wealthy and respected metics, resident foreigners. On the first day of the festival, there was a procession in which citizens and metics and so on carried a statue of Dionysos to the Theatre. Large wooden or phalloi were also carried on poles, and a cart pulled an even larger representation of the male genitalia. The bulls for the sacrifice were led along, and the chorus-sponsors, dressed in the richest materials. The choruses then competed in the dithyrambic competitions, and the bulls were sacrificed. After the sacrifice - meat! - a feast. Then there was another procession, most likely involving drunken revelry.
Then, the next day, the judges for the dramatic competition were chosen by lot, and the names of the plays read out. We don't know where this happened in the earliest times, but after the mid-5th-century BC, this happened in the Odeion of Perikles. Which I'm not talking about, but guess what? I wanted a volunteer to look it up and tell us about it tomorrow!
I promise, Athens is the only place where I will make you look stuff up. And I'll buy you icecream for doing so, so I think you're getting the best of this deal.
At least three days of the festival were set aside for tragic competition. Each of the three playwrights permitted to compete put on his three tragedies and one satyr-play on the successive days. Most of our extant Greek tragedies had their first performance here. Women, with the exception of a handful of priestesses, probably didn't form much of the audience - which is something to consider. After 486 BC, comic playwrights were allowed to compete - five of them were allowed to compete, but they only put on one play each. After the high point of Classical tragedy, new plays were written and performed on down to the 2nd century BC, but with frequent restagings of our surviving Classical greats. New plays, it seems, stopped being performed from the 2nd century on. Although the dramas were still produced after this, the prizes went to the sponsors and the actors instead.
The last procession and celebration was held on the final day, when the winners were crowned with ivy. Drinking, dancing, sacred revelry etc: the whole thing lasted about a week. And it had ties to the Eleusinian mysteries. Any volunteers to look up what those ties were? No? Well, we'll talk about it if we get to Eleusis, because I need to say something about the actual archaeology.
Excavations on this site started in 1836, six years after the treaty in which the Ottoman state recognised the newly independent Greek nation, and continued throughout the 19th century. The early theatre was very simple, merely a flat orchestra surrounded by a few rows of wooden benches stretching up the acropolis slope. The skene, or stage-building, was also made of wood. There was also a Peistratid-era temple.
In its present form, the theatre largely dates from the 4th century BC, although some of the wooden structures were replaced by stone before the end of the 5th century. In the 4th century, the politician Lykurgos, who had wrangled himself a job in charge of the city's finances, saw to its monumentalisation. At this time a larger, finer temple of Dionysos was also constructed to house the chryselephantine statue of the god, by the sculptor Alkamenes. This sculpture in fact predated the 4th century temple construction.
I'm not going to give you dimensions and shit like that. If you really want to know how many metres the 4th century theatre measured, you'll go look it up, or, well - look around you. The skene here is the earliest which has standing remains. The skene had projecting wings that probably helped with stage-setting, and look at the seating! Three sections!
Some minor alterations took place in the Hellenistic period, with 67 marble thrones added around the periphery of the orchestra, inscribed with dignitaries' names. It was damaged by the Sullan sack, but repaired. By the 1st century CE, the floor of the orchestra was paved with marble slabs, and an entirely new skene, stage frontage, dedicated to Dionysos and the emperor Nero, was added. Hadrian embellished it with more reliefs. It sometimes housed meetings of the Athenian assembly. In the late 2nd century, a high bema was erected around the (by now semi-circular) orchestra, and after this it was known to play host to Roman amusements like gladiatorial fights and beast-fighting. By the 7th century, it had fallen out of use and been destroyed.
Up on the sope of the acropolis above us, before we stagger onwards towards the shade, is the choregic monument of Thrasyllos, erected in 320/319BC. It enclosed a cave mouth in the natural rock of the acropolis. In Christian times, this place was host to a chapel of the Panaghia of the Cave.
And off over there is the Odeion of Perikles. Behind it, you can follow the road around to the Street of the Tripods, where the choregic and dramatic victors set up dedications to commemorate their success.
You now have five minutes to bugger off and take photographs, before we continue on down to the Acropolis Museum.
We will continue this series tomorrow, in Study tour notes for the Kerameikos.
