DIONYSUS THEATRE
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Site of the ancient theater hosting gladiators and water games.
As you cross the entrance to the site of the Dionysus Theatre, you enter the cradle of the ancient theatre, on the south-eastern slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It obviously owes its name to Dionysus, god of wine. The great Dionysian feasts were held there every year in his honour (ritual songs, dances and sacrifices and other theatrical performances). The greatest tragedians and comedians began there. At the origin of dramatic art, festivals were organized in the theatre in honour of the god Dionysus (god of wine and drunkenness) and gave rise to scenes mimed, sung and spoken.
The first theatre built on the site had to be rough and simply supported by a few earth embankments. It was only in the 5th century that the theatre took on the appearance it still has today. Authors such as Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes have been on the stage of this theatre. Completed around 330, it later hosted the Roman games, which significantly modified the monument: it is from this period that the bas-reliefs that adorn the back of the stage, representing the birth of Dionysus, date back to this period. The theatre hosted gladiators and even water games, with a stage transformed into a basin for the occasion. It could accommodate between 14,000 and 17,000 spectators, the front row back seats were reserved by right for the theatre's notables and patrons. The most important place, the middle seat in the first row, was reserved for the priest of Dionysus.
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