Ancient and Modern

Abstract

All over Greece, and on the coast of Asia Minor and in Sicily where once the great Greek colonies flourished, may be found ruins of ancient theatres, a happy hunting-ground for historian and archaeologist. Besides the important centres, Athens, Corinth, Epidauros, Delphi, Delos, there are the remains of many small theatres built for local festivities. These are especially plentiful in the country round Athens — Oropus and Thoricos, for example, and the Piraeus. Some of them, auditorium and all, could almost fit comfortably into the orchestra at Athens. They all followed the same basic pattern, though each was modified to suit local needs and conditions. At Thoricos, as we have seen, the rock formation made a rectangular orchestra easier to build than the normal round one. At Corinth the natural rise and fall of the ground was utilized in setting out the skene, which may have been displaced to one side instead of keeping the normal symmetrical arrangement. At Oropus the theatre was hollowed out of a hillside, which backed on to a row of shops, and had to be approached by a steep flight of steps.