Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
don - representing a reconciliation of the two deities after their contest. In Athena's cella
stood an olive-wood statue of Athena Polias holding a shield adorned with a gorgon's
head. It was this statue on which the sacred peplos was placed at the culmination of the
Great Panathenaic Festival.
The northern porch consists of six Ionic columns; on the floor are the fissures sup-
posedly left by the thunderbolt sent by Zeus to kill Erechtheus. To the south of here was
the Cecropion - King Cecrops' burial place.
Except for a small temple of Rome and Augustus, which is no longer in existence, the
Erechtheion was the last public building erected on the Acropolis in antiquity.
ACROPOLIS PASS & ENTRY HOURS
The Acropolis admission includes entry to Athens' main ancient sites: the Theatre
of Dionysos, Ancient Agora, Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, Keramikos and the
Temple of Olympian Zeus. The ticket is valid for four days; otherwise individual site
fees apply. With the changes in government budgets, it will pay to double-check
hours as they fluctuate from year to year. Check
http://odysseus.culture.gr
for
free-admission holidays.
TOP OF CHAPTER
South Slope of the Acropolis & Makrygianni
Theatre of Dionysos
HISTORIC SITE
( 210 322 4625; Dionysiou Areopagitou; adult/child €2/free, free with Acropolis pass;
8am-8pm, reduced low season; Akropoli)
The tyrant Peisistratos introduced the annual
Festival of the Great Dionysia during the 6th century BC, and held it in the world's first
theatre on the south slope of the Acropolis. The original theatre on this site was a timber
structure, and masses of people attended the contests, where men clad in goatskins sang
and danced, followed by feasting and revelry.
Drama as we know it dates back to these contests. At one of them, Thespis left the en-
semble and took centre stage for a solo performance, an act considered to be the first true
dramatic performance - hence the term 'thespian'.
