THEATER OF EPIDAURUS

FAMOUS FOR ITS ACOUSTICS -- AND ITS BEAUTY

Circular Orchestra

Apollo's son, Asclepius, was said to have been born in Epidaurus. Asclepius was revered in the Greek world as a healer, and thus, Epidaurus became the "most celebrated healing center in the Classical world, the place where ill people went in the hope of being cured. To find out the right cure for their ailments, they spent a night in the enkoimeteria, a big sleeping hall. In their dreams, the god himself would advise them what they had to do to regain their health." (source)

The theater was built, in part, as a place to entertain these travelers, as well as the priests and rulers and citizens of the region.

Audience Position

In part due to its extraordinary acoustics, the theater is still in use today.

This image is of a comedy -- and it is very useful to our considerations of how comedy can be played in such a theater.

Pages by Mrs. D

"One of the most admirable things about history is, that almost as a rule, we get as much information out of what it does not say as we get out of what it does say. . . . History is a frog; half of it is submerged, but he knows it is there, and he knows the shape of it."

"The Secret History of Eddypus", Mark Twain