Theatron
More appropriate surroundings became necessary with the
development of dramatic performances organized at the civic level in Athens. In
addition to a performance area (the orchestra), seating for the audience became
necessary. Early spectators sat on wooden stands surrounding the orchestra. In
Athens, a semi-permanent structure such as this collapsed in 498 BC. Another was
later built on the slope of the Acropolis, near the Temple of Dionysos. In Athens,
as elsewhere, the theater building retained its intimate connection with the center
of Dionysiac worship, a connection that persisted even with the growing secularization
of the drama and elaboration of theatre architecture: in Pergamon, in Asia Minor,
the fourth-century theater was still conceived as part of the temple complex.
«Orchestra
Skene»
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