Seats were arranged in curving (polygonal) tiers so that the people in the rows above could see the action in the orchestra and on stage without their vision being obscured by the people beneath them. (These front rows are sometimes called proedria.) The Roman seats of prestige were a few rows up, but they came later. Some prestigious benches toward the bottom might be covered with marble or otherwise enhanced for priests and officials. Later, the audience sat on benches cut from the rock of the hillside or made of stone. The earliest Greeks who attended performances probably sat on the grass or stood on the hillside to watch the goings-on. The word "audience" refers to the property of hearing. The people up high on the hill could hear the words spoken far below. Theater comes from a Greek word for viewing (the ceremonies).īesides a design to allow crowds to see the performers, Greek theaters excelled in acoustics. The viewing area of a Greek theater is called the theatron, hence our word "theater" (theatre). During the Hellenistic period, Lysimachus, king of Ephesus and one of the successors of Alexander the Great (the diadochs), is believed to have constructed the original theater (at the start of the third century BCE). Some ancient Greek theaters, like the one at Ephesus (diameter 475 feet, height 100 feet), are still used for concerts because of their superior acoustics.
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