Theatre of Epidaurus (c. 340 BC): Greek Theatre of Perfect Sound

The Theatre of Epidaurus is the best-preserved theatre of ancient Greece and is famous for its harmonious design and remarkable acoustics. Built around 340–300 BC within the sanctuary of Asclepius, the god of healing, in the Argolid region of the Peloponnese, it could seat over 12,000 people. Restored in the 20th century, it is again used for performances of ancient drama every summer.

The sanctuary of Asclepius

Epidaurus was a small city on the Saronic Gulf, but its sanctuary of Asclepius, a few kilometres inland, became one of the most famous healing centres of the Greek world. Pilgrims came to sleep in a special hall, hoping the god would cure them or reveal a remedy in a dream. Inscriptions at the site record the cures claimed by grateful patients.

The sanctuary flourished in the 4th century BC, when its main temple, the round Tholos and other buildings were constructed. A festival in honour of Asclepius included athletic, musical and dramatic contests, and the theatre was built for these and for the crowds of visitors. Healing at Epidaurus was religious, but it existed alongside the more practical medicine taught by followers of Hippocrates of Kos.

Design and construction

The theatre was built into the slope of Mount Kynortion, facing the valley. Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD, praised it above all others for its harmony and beauty and named its architect as Polykleitos, generally taken to be Polykleitos the Younger, who also worked on the Tholos. Some scholars think the theatre was built a little later than his lifetime, so the attribution is uncertain.

Like other Greek theatres, it had three parts. The orchestra, a full circle about 20 metres across where the chorus danced, was surrounded on more than half its circumference by the cavea, the rising tiers of seats. Behind the orchestra stood the skene, a stage building that served as a backdrop and dressing room.

The original theatre had 34 rows of limestone seats. In the 2nd century BC a further 21 rows were added above a walkway, giving 55 rows in all. Estimates of its capacity range from about 12,000 to 14,000. The front rows had seats with backrests for priests and officials. The geometry of the cavea is unusual: the lower and upper sections are drawn from slightly different centres, which may have improved both the view and the sound.

The secret of its acoustics

Visitors have long been amazed that words spoken in the orchestra can be heard far up in the seats. Guides often demonstrate this by dropping a coin or striking a match at the centre.

Several features explain the effect. The steep, curved rows bring the audience close to the performers and reflect sound upward, and the hillside setting cuts out much outside noise. In 2007 researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Nico Declercq and Cindy Dekeyser, published a study suggesting that the corrugated rows of limestone seats act as a natural acoustic filter, damping low-frequency background noise such as the murmur of a crowd while allowing the higher frequencies of the human voice to reach the audience.

Later field measurements found that very quiet sounds, such as a whisper, become difficult to hear in the upper rows, so some popular claims are exaggerated. A trained actor’s projected voice, however, carries clearly throughout the theatre, which is what the ancient builders needed.

Decline and rediscovery

The sanctuary was sacked by the Roman general Sulla in 86 BC and by pirates soon afterwards, but recovered under the Roman Empire. As Christianity spread and pagan cults were suppressed in the late 4th century AD, the sanctuary declined. Earth and vegetation gradually covered the theatre, which helped preserve its seats.

Systematic excavation began in 1881 under the Greek archaeologist Panagiotis Kavvadias, who uncovered the theatre and much of the sanctuary. The seating was largely intact, and restoration work in the 20th century repaired damaged sections. In 1988 the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

A living theatre

Occasional modern performances of ancient Greek drama took place at Epidaurus from 1938, and regular summer performances began in the 1950s. Today the Athens and Epidaurus Festival stages tragedies and comedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes there every year, often in modern Greek. It is one of the few places where audiences can watch these plays in the kind of space for which they were written, like the earlier Theatre of Dionysus in Athens.

Timeline

• 4th century BC: The sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus reaches its height.
• c. 340–300 BC: The theatre’s lower 34 rows are built.
• 2nd century BC: The upper 21 rows are added.
• 86 BC: Sulla plunders the sanctuary.
• 2nd century AD: Pausanias praises the theatre and names Polykleitos as its architect.
• 1881: Panagiotis Kavvadias begins excavating the sanctuary.
• 1988: The sanctuary is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 2007: A Georgia Tech study proposes a scientific explanation for its acoustics.

Why it matters

The Theatre of Epidaurus is the clearest surviving example of how the Greeks designed spaces for drama, combining mathematics, landscape and an understanding of sound. Still in use after more than 2,300 years, it links modern audiences directly with the theatre culture of ancient Greece.