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After centuries of study, an untold number of scholars have agreed that the City Dionysia of fifth-century Athens involved an animal sacrifice to the god Dionysos, and that this event took place in the theatre before the beginning of the play competition. The usual assumption has been that this sacrifice was offered upon an altar situated at the exact center of a circular orchestra.
This placement fits well with the theory that tragedy grew from a dithyrambic chorus dancing in a circle around the altar of Dionysos. But now that the dogma of the originally circular orchestra has been questioned, some attention must also be given to the location of the altar, a supposedly standard piece of theatre furniture. The following pages will (1) discuss the origin of the concept of a centrally located altar; (2) examine the literary, artistic, and architectural evidence which relate to altar placement; and (3) suggest a possible alternative to the central location.
1 See Ashby, Clifford, “The Case for the Trapezoidal/Rectangular Orchestra,” Theatre Research International, 13 (Spring, 1988): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Buckham, Phillip Wentworth, The Theatre of the Greeks, 2nd ed., altered and much enlarged by Donaldson, John William (Cambridge: W. P. Grant, 1827), 216.Google Scholar
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4 Curiously, Pickard-Cambridge echoes this error in The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens (London: Oxford University Press, 1946). On 131, n. 3, he states that “Holes for the reception of altars are found in the centre of the orchestra in Athens and in Epidaurus;” while on 147, n. 1, he writes, “The round stone in the centre of the orchestra at Epidaurus must also have been set for an altar.”
5 Dôrpfeld, W. and Reisch, E., Dos Griechische Theatre (Athens: n.p., 1896; reprint, Darmstadt: Scientia Verlag Aalen. 1966).Google Scholar
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8 The following papers, listed chronologically, are of interest in tracing this dispute: Robert, Carl, “Zur Theaterfrage,” Hermes 32 (1897): 421–453.Google Scholar Wilhelm Dörpfeld, review of de certaminibus thymelicis by Frei, Johannes, Deutsche Litteraturzeitung Nr. 29 (20 July, 1901): cols. 1816–1818.Google ScholarBethe, E[rich], “Thymeliker und Skeniker.” Hermes 36 (1901): 597–601.Google ScholarDörpfeld, Wilhelm, “Thymele und Skene,” Hermes 37 (1902): 249–257.Google ScholarBethe, Erich, “Der Spielplatz des Aischylos,” Hermes 59 (1924): 108–117.Google Scholar Of interest also is Bethe, Erich, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters im Altermm (Leipzig: Von S. Hirzel, 1896).Google Scholar Although dedicated to Dörpfeld and Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, the author states that the book “is full of polemic against W. Dörpfeld and U. v. Wilamowitz” (p. vi). Unlocated but relevant is the dissertation by Frei, Johannes, “de certaminibus thymilicis,” Baseler Inaug.-Dissert. (Leipzig: G. Fock, 1900).Google Scholar
9 Bethe, Eric, ed., Pollucis Onomasticon (Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1967; orig. pub.1900), 237.Google Scholar Translation supplied by Jon Cole.
10 Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. Pollux.
11 Suidae Lexicon, ed. Ada Adler (Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1971; orig. pub. 1928), 4, 375–76. Translation supplied by John Thorburn.
12 OCD, s.v. Suda.
13 Vitruvius on Architecture, ed. and trans, by Frank Granger (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955–56; orig. pub. 1934), 1, 283–291.
14 Classical Antiquity 8 (April, 1989): 116–39.
15 Ibid., 137.
16 Altars are pictured in Trendall, A. D. and Webster, T. B. L., Illustrations of Greek Drama (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1971)Google Scholar, chap. III: sec. 1, figs. 3,12, 13,15; sec. 3, figs. 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 20, 21, 28, 29, 30(a), 30(b), 41, 47; chap. IV: fig. 29.
17 Bieber, Margarete, The History of the Greek and Roman Theatre, 2nd ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), 105.Google Scholar
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21 Andronikos, Manolis, Vergina: The Royal Tombs (Athens: Ekdotike Athenon SA., 1984), 46.Google Scholar In another publication the excavator pictures an irregularly rectangular stone with only one finished vertical side and a square hole in the middle of the exposed surface. Maximum dimensions are 18” × 28” (0,44m × 0,70m). Andronikos, Manolis, “Anaskafi Verginas,” Praktika (1983-A)Google Scholar: Plate B.
22 Collait, Paul, “Le Théâtre de Philippes,” Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 53 (1928): 96.Google Scholar
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24 Mussche, H. F., Thorikos, a Guide to the Excavations (Bruxelles: Comité des Fouilles Belge en Grèce, 1974), 421.Google Scholar An earlier report notes that, “The excavations of 1885 around the altar have made chronological interpretation of that element extremely difficult.” Mussche, H. F. and others, Thorikos 1965, Rapport Préliminaire (Bruxelles: Comité des Fouilles Belges en Grèce, 1967), 93.Google Scholar
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27 The present altar dates from the beginning of the second century, presumably replacing one installed when the theatre was first constructed in the late fourth or early third century. Akurgal, Ekrem, Ancient Gvilizations and Ruins of Turkey, 5th ed. (Istanbul, 1983), 197–98.Google Scholar
28 Translation supplied by Peder Christiansen. A further inscription on a water clock in the theatre indicates that the priesthood may have been hereditary: “Athenopolis [listed on the altar as father of Pythotimos], son of Kydimoy, priest of Dionysos.”
29 Stainhaouer, Georgios, “Diamorphosis arkaiologjkou horou Orchomenou,” Deltion, 29 (1973–1974): 301.Google Scholar
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31 Blum, G. and Plassart, A., “Orchomène d'Arcadie: Fouilles de 1913,” Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 38 (1914): 71–81.Google Scholar
32 Laurenzi, Luciano, “Nuovi contributi alla topografia storico-archeologico di Coo,” Historia V (4): 625.Google Scholar See also Modona, Aldo Neppi, L'Isola di Coo nell'Antichita Classica (n.p.: Instituto Storico-Archeologia di Rodi, 1933–1941), 167.Google Scholar
33 “Albanian im Altertum,” Antike Welt (1983): 11–65.
34 See Ashby, Clifford, “The Theatre' Altar at Corinth,” Theatre Southwest, 13 (May, 1986): 28.Google Scholar
35 Robinson, Alice M., “The Cult of Asklepius and the Theatre,” Educational Theatre Journal, 30 (December, 1978): 530–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36 Andocides, , On the Mysteries, in Minor Attic Orators (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953), 1, 371.Google Scholar
37 Bieber, p. 59. Logistical problems are encountered when considering the entrance of an entire audience through the parodoi. Assuming 14,000 spectators and an assembly time of one hour, over nineteen people a second would have had to pass through passageways only 8.2' (2,5m) in width. Even doubling the assembly time, an unlikely prospect in terms of the length of the performances, does not eliminate the difficulty, which is further exacerbated by the possibility of ticket-taking. While the parodoi were undoubtedly used for some audience ingress, the entrances on the sides of the theatron must also have been opened to accommodate the arriving throng.
38 Drafts of this paper have been read by the following: Sylvia Ashby, Helen Bacon, Oscar G. Brockett, John W. Brokaw, Peder Christiansen, Gordon Kirkwood, David Larmour, and Edith Notman. Their very helpful comments and suggestions are gratefully acknowledged.
