PORTAL OF THE ERECTHEUM.
Almost as interesting as a visit to the summit of the Acropolis is a walk around its base. A part of it is lined with ruins, many of them being demolished theatres. Upon the hill the drama of the gods went on: below it were performed the tragedy and comedy of man. One of these theatres, called the Odeon, was of Roman origin, built by the conquerors of Greece when they were masters of the world. Its rows of massive arches, climbing one above another up the cliff, remind us of the Colosseum. Above them was the classic Parthenon, which Phidias had built five hundred years before. This theatre could accommodate eight thousand people, and doubtless was magnificent and imposing; but amid such surroundings it must have seemed to the Athenians like an interloper and intruder,—a gilded fetter on a lovely slave.
THE STAGE OF THE THEATRE OF BACCHUS.
Vastly more interesting, however, than the Odeon is the edifice which adjoins it,—the ancient theatre of Bacchus,—built by the Greeks two thousand four hundred years ago. It was excavated from the side of the Acropolis, just below the Parthenon. Its rows of seats were partly sculptured from the solid rock and partly built up of Pentelic marble, and thirty thousand people could be seated here. Its form was a perfect amphitheatre, a model for all others in the world. How grand was its simplicity! Its light was furnished by the sun. God was the painter of its drop-curtain, which was the sunset sky; the scenery was that of mountains and the sea; its only roof was the blue dome of heaven.
ATHENE.