Fig. 27.—Theater at Megalopolis in Arcadia
Fig. 28.—Theater at Pergamum in Asia Minor
Fig. 29.—Plan of the Acropolis at Athens
A Greek town could hardly be so small or so remote as not to have its own theater and dramatic festival (Figs. [25] and [70 f.]).[128] The Greek theaters were regularly built upon a hillside and often commanded an outlook over a scene of great natural beauty and picturesqueness (Figs. [26-28]).[129] So far as such structures have come down to us, the oldest is the theater of Dionysus Eleuthereus at Athens, and this is also the one of greatest interest to us, for the reason that in it were produced practically all the masterpieces of the greatest Greek dramatists (Figs. [1] and [31-41]).[130] It seems strange that this building should not have remained continuously known to men from ancient times until the present hour, but in fact its very location passed into oblivion for centuries. During mediaeval times and until well into the modern era it was thought that the theater or odeum of Herodes Atticus, a Roman structure of the second century A.D. and situated at the opposite end of the Acropolis, represented the Dionysiac theater of the classical period ([Fig. 29]).[131] The correct site was first pointed out by R. Chandler in 1765, and is clearly indicated by a bronze coin of imperial times which shows the relation subsisting between the theater of Dionysus and the Parthenon (Figs. [30 f.]).[132] Excavations were conducted desultorily from time to time, beginning in 1841, but were not completed until the work under Dörpfeld’s direction in 1886, 1889, and 1895.