Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Roman odeon of about AD 161 below the Acropolis, chief summer stage of the Athens Epidaurus Festival.
The odeon was raised on the south slope of the Acropolis between about AD 160 and 174 by the wealthy Athenian rhetorician Herodes Atticus, in memory of his wife Regilla. Its auditorium, cut slightly deeper than a semicircle and about eighty metres across, held roughly 4,800 people on marble seating, and the stage building rose three storeys, faced in coloured marbles and set with statues. A cedar roof is thought to have covered the seating, an unusual feature for a building of this size.
Fire during the Herulian invasion of AD 267 ruined the odeon, and by the middle of the nineteenth century it lay under some twelve metres of soil. Excavation and successive campaigns of repair followed, the most thorough carried out between 1947 and 1952 under the architect Dimitris Pikionis, leaving about 4,680 seats. Since 1957 it has been the principal open-air stage of what is now the Athens Epidaurus Festival, used for orchestral concerts, opera, dance and ancient drama.
Highlights
- Built about AD 161 by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife Regilla
- Steep marble cavea seating some 4,700 beneath the Acropolis rock
- Restored between 1947 and 1952 under the architect Dimitris Pikionis
- Principal open-air stage of the Athens Epidaurus Festival since 1957
