Building with the Ear: Acoustics in Ancient Greek Theater Architecture

Emmanual Aprilakis (Rutgers University, New Brunswick)

This paper argues that ancient Greek theater-builders built with their ears, perhaps even more so than with their eyes. These theaters, the performance venues of the ancient tragedies and comedies still read today, first appeared in the sixth century BCE and proliferated with the explosion of dramatic festivals across the Mediterranean that followed the celebrity of the City Dionysia festival in Athens, the birthplace of drama. The theater was a major social, civic, and religious institution, such that every respectable city in Greco-Roman antiquity had one of its own. This paper synthesizes three strands of scholarship to offer a deeper understanding of the architectural sensoriality of these renowned structures—Classical scholarship on Greek theater and performance (e.g. Wiles 2000; Powers 2014); recent scientific scholarship on ancient theater acoustics (e.g. Girón et al. 2020); and non-Classical scholarship offering phenomenological approaches to contemporary architecture (e.g. Holl et al. 2006; Zumthor et al. 2006). Building on personal autopsy and research at over a hundred Greek and Roman theater sites from Spain to Turkey, this paper posits a new evolutionary model for the ancient theater. As drama grew in popularity and performance venues grew to accommodate larger audiences, theater architects exhibit greater attunement to the acoustical features of these spaces. Case studies of three renowned theaters are offered—the oldest surviving, Thorikos (6th-century BCE), the most famous, Athens (5th-century), and the most acoustically perfect, Epidauros (4th-century). By analyzing the architecture of these theaters, this paper shows that by the fourth century BCE, when Greek theater-building reached its zenith, ancient architects were paying remarkably special attention to all three components of the structure—orchestra, cavea, and stage-building—and developed exceedingly sophisticated techniques (with respect to shape, slope, fabric, sonic diffraction, and artificial amplifiers) to ensure the best aural experience for visitors to these spaces.

Select Bibliography

Girón, S., Á. Álvarez-Corbacho, and T. Zamarreño (2020) “Exploring the Acoustics of Ancient    Open-Air Theatres,” Archives of Acoustics 45.2: 181-208. 

Holl, S., J. Pallasmaa, and A. Pérez-Gomez. (2006) Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of    Architecture. San Francisco.

Powers, M. (2014) Athenian Tragedy in Performance: A Guide to Contemporary Studies and    Historical Debates. Iowa City.  

Wiles, D. (2000) Greek Theatre Performance. Cambridge.  Zumthor, P., M. Overli-Turner, and C. Schelbert. (2006) Thinking Architecture. Basel.