01Highlight
The koilon
Eighty-nine rows of seating carved into the hillside, divided into three tiers by radiating staircases.
History
The theatre that surpassed Epidaurus
01
Hellenistic grandeur
Built around 320 BC at the height of the Hellenistic age, the ancient theatre of Argos was carved directly into the limestone of the Larissa hill. Its eighty-nine rows of seating - divided into three diazomata - held more than twenty thousand spectators, making it the largest theatre in ancient Greece, greater than Epidaurus or the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens.
02
The Nemean and Heraean games
The theatre was tied to the religious and athletic life of the city. It hosted the musical contests of the Nemean and Heraean games, the dramatic competitions, and the political assemblies of Argos. Pausanias, in the 2nd century AD, describes it as one of the finest monuments of the Peloponnese.
03
Roman transformation
In the Roman period (2nd century AD) the orchestra was made watertight to host mock naval battles and animal spectacles, and the stage building was rebuilt into a lavish frons scaenae with three tiers of columns. A short distance to the north, the Romans added an Odeon and a monumental bath complex, creating a public quarter unique in the Peloponnese.
04
A living monument today
After systematic excavations by the French School of Athens from 1952, the theatre returned to the life of the city. Every summer it hosts performances of ancient drama and concerts as part of the Argeia and the Argos Festival - a rare chance to experience the acoustics and the atmosphere of a 2,300-year-old space.
