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Amphitheatre

Ancient Greek theatres were built in a semicircle, with tiered seating above a performance area

Structure of the Greek Theatre

Ancient Greek theaters were very large, open-air structures that took advantage of
sloping hillsides for their terraced seating. Because of drama's close connection
with religion, theaters were often located in or near sanctuaries.
The theater pictured here, for example, is set on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus above
the famous temple of Apollo at Delphi (home of the Delphic oracle that figures so
prominently in the myth of Oedipus). Similarly, the Theater of Dionysus in Athens
was situated in the sacred precinct of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis. See
also the theater on Apollo's sacred island of Delos. The theater in Epidaurus,
discussed below, was near the sanctuary of Asklepios, god of healing. Many of
these theaters were built in relatively open areas with lovely vistas, and the view
from the Delphi theater is truly breathtaking.
The core of any Greek theater is the orchestra, the dancing place of the chorus
and the chief performance space. Almost nothing remains from the fifth-century
structure of the Theater of Dionysus in Athens, but later theaters suggest that the
original orchestras were full circles; see, for example, this aerial view of the theater
at Epidaurus. This is the best-preserved of all extant Greek theaters; the ancient
plays are still being performed here, and this computer animation will help you to
recreate the experience. Although this theater was built at the end of the fourth
century BCE and rebuilt and enlarged in the second century, it does enable us to
visualize what the ancient theaters must have been like. The orchestra is
approximately 66 feet in diameter; this photo shows the orchestra at Epidaurus

with a modern set for a production of Aeschylus Prometheus Bound. An altar of


Dionysus was usually located in the center of the orchestra.
The audience sat in the theatron, the seeing place, on semi-circular terraced
rows of benches (in the earliest theaters these were wooden; they were later built of
stone). The Greeks often built these in a natural hollow (a koilon), though the sides
were increasingly reinforced with stone, as can be seen in this overhead view
of Epidaurus. Scholars often use the Latin word for hollow, cavea, to designate the
seating in an ancient theater. Stairs mounting to the highest levels divide the
sections of seats into wedges; at Epidaurus there are 55 semi-circular rows,
providing an estimated seating capacity of 12,000-14,000. Although the
name theatron suggests an emphasis on sight, in reality actors and chorus would
look rather small even from seats only part-way up, and from the top rows one
would see mostly colors and patterns of movement rather any details of costuming
or masks. The acoustics in this theater, however, are magnificent, and words
spoken very softly in the orchestra can be heard in the top rows (as long as your
neighbors are quiet).

On the far side of the orchestra was the stage building, or skene (meaning tent).
This was a covered structure, originally a temporary wooden building, where the
actors stored their masks and costumes and performed quick changes out of the
sight of the audience. We know very little about the skene in the fifth century;
however, there seems to have been some type of stage building by the time
AeschylusOresteia was first produced (458 BCE), since these plays require
central doors and an upper platform (the roof on which the watchman appears).
The wooden stage buildings of the fifth century were replaced by more permanent
stone structures in the fourth century; stone foundations reveal the outline of the
stage building at the theater of Epidaurus. It is thought that the original stage

buildings were relatively low, rectangular structures with large central doors,
possibly two other doors flanking the central one, a flat roof on which actors could
appear, and possibly a higher platform above this roof. There may have been
projecting wings on either side of the stage building (the paraskenia, beside
the skene), and between these two wings there may have been a low platform or
stage, connected to the orchestra by only a few steps (the proskenion, in front of
the skene). This reconstruction drawing of the Theater of Dionysus as remodeled
in 330 BCE shows a stage building with three doors and two levels, paraskenia,
but no proskenion.
On either side of the stage building were long ramps, called eisodoi or parodoi,
that led into or away from the orchestra. These were used for the entrances and
exits of the chorus, and the word parodos was also used to designate the choral
entrance song. It was conventional for the chorus to remain in the orchestra for the
duration of the play. Actors, however, might have several entrances and exits, and
these could involve either the central doors or these ramps. The actors
performance space was usually in front of the stage building (whether or not there
was a very low platform there), but in either case they could and frequently did
move outward into the orchestra and interact with the chorus.
The extant remains of the Theater of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis date
from the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian, second century CE, and give little
idea of the structure of the theater in the fifth century BCE. However, one can see
from this theater the preferential seating given to the priest, magistrates, other
dignitaries, andfront row centerto the high priest of Dionysus Eleuthereos,
including elaborate carving and a clearly marked inscription.

There was also a special block of seats reserved for members of the boul, the 500member Executive Council of the Assembly. Ordinary citizens might have been
assigned seats on the basis of the ten Attic tribes; theater tickets were often
stamped with a Greek letter that apparently referred to a specific wedge of seats.
The price of theater attendance was apparently two obols, equal to the wages an
unskilled man might earn for a day's work. Athens had established a special fund,

the Theoric Fund, to which any male citizen enrolled in a deme might apply to
obtain the money for a theater ticketa clear indication that attendance at the
theatrical performances in the City Dionysia was considered a civic duty. Simon
Goldhill describes how the seating in the Theater of Dionysus reflected the nature
of Athenian society:
In democratic Athens, there was a marked tension between on the one hand
collective endeavour, the ideology of citizen equality, and the pre-eminence of the
state over the individual, and, on the other, the desire for individual honour,
conspicuous personal display and familial pride. The spatial dynamics of the
audience with blocks of citizens, and certain authoritative or representative
groups or individuals distinguished by honorific seats dramatises the central
dynamic of Athenian social life. (The Audience of Athenian Tragedy. The
Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy. Ed. P. E. Easterling. Cambridge
University Press, 1997. 60)
Goldhill argues that audience at the City Dionysiaboth the intended and the
actual audiencewere primarily adult male citizens of Athens, with perhaps a
sprinkling of resident foreigners (metics); he expresses strong doubts that women
were present, though it is impossible to prove either way. Another thoughtprovoking article, however, takes a less pessimistic view of this question: Jeffrey
Henderson. Women and the Athenian Dramatic Festivals. Transactions of the
American Philological Association 121 (1991): 133-47.

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