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Greek Architecture: Theatre Epidaurus and Stadium Olympia

Theatre, Epidaurus

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:07Epidaurus_Theater04.jpg

Most Greek theatres were radically changed in later times: the large theatre at Epidaurus is the best surviving example that retains its original form, though it has been considerably restored in recent times. It was probably built around 300 BC and is ascribed to Polykleitos the Younger, who also designed the Tholos, a rare circular building with a cone-shaped roof, in the same area.

Greek theatres were built in the open on a hillside, exploiting the natural slope to provide clear sight lines for a large audience. The audience sat on benches, first wooden, later of stone, in a semicircle. A central block of seats at the front, originally occupied by the priests of Dionysus, whose rites were the starting point for the development of Greek drama, was reserved for important persons, but otherwise seating arrangements seem to have been democratic. Entrance was at one time free, and even after admission charges were introduced the poor did not have to pay. Tickets in the form of bronze tags have been found. The performance took place in a large circular, later semicircular, space called the orchestra. The altar to Dionysus, once placed in the center, had been removed by the 4th century BC, though its position can still be seen in the theatre at Athens. Behind the orchestra was a permanent structure, the skene, somewhat resembling a temple façade. It contained the actors’s dressing rooms, the few props and stage machinery, the main item of which was a kind of crane enabling an actor impersonating a god to descend from the sky – the original dues ex machine. The theatre at Epidaurus had a raised stage with a ramp connecting with ground level. The orchestra and the seating have been restored, but not the buildings.

The theatre measure about 390 feet across: though large, it was not unique, having a similar audience capacity to the theatre at Syracusa of about 14,000, a figure to make contemporary impresarios blink. Its acoustics are famous, and it is still in use for the annual summer festival of the Greek National Theatre.

Stadium, Olympia

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Olympia_-_Stadium_Entrance.jpg

Olympia was the centre of the biggest religious festival of ancient Greece, and of the associated Olympic Games which, according to tradition, were first held in 776 BC. The Olympia complex is something of a jumble as town planning did not interest the Greeks; but at its heart was the Temple of Zeus, built between 470 and 456 BC and at that time the largest building in Greece. The stadium was originally next to it, but was later moved farther east, out of the sanctuary precincts. Events, in which only men took part, though women’s races were probably held in the Archaic period, included wrestling, boxing and chariot-racing, as well as track and field events, especially foot races.

What was then just a slight depression in the ground became the centre of intensive German archaeological exploration in 1936, inspired by the Olympic Games in Berlin that year, and continued, after a gap imposed by war, until the 1960s. The end result was the virtual restoration of the stadium to the form it had taken in the 4th century BC. Races were not run, as now, on an oval track, but in a straight line, so that the main area of the stadium was a narrow rectangle, measuring about 208 by 33 yards. The athletes began from a starting gate and ran from end to end. The shortest race was the stade, which was one length. There was also a medium distance and a long distance race, the athletes rounding a post at each end. Athletes competed naked, but there was also a race for armed men. The excavations revealed the foundations of other details, including bathhouses with hot-air furnaces to heat the water and provide underfloor heating, the umpires’ box about halfway down one side, hand weights held by long jumpers to gain momentum, and a 4th century BC building that appears to have been something like a luxury hotel for the richer competitors. Access to the arena was through a tunnel passing under the sloping bank where spectators sat, latterly on tiers of stone benches.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidaurus

http://www.greeklandscapes.com/greece/epidaurus.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_at_Olympia

http://archaeology.about.com/od/ancientgreece/ss/olympia_tour_3.htm