2-368-891 - Samuel Magal/Sites & Photos/Heritage Images

The Theatre of Dionysus, The Acropolis, Athens, Greece. The Theatre of Dionysos is the oldest of the three architectural complexes on the southern slopes of the Acropolis (the others being the Odeion of Herodes Atticus and the Stoa of Eumenes). In the sixth century BC, Peisistratos transferred the cult of Dionysos from Eleutherai in the Kithairon hills (on the old road to Thebes) to Athens, where accordingly the god was known as Dionysos Eleuthereus, and a temple was built to house the old cult image from Eleutherai. In association with the cult of Dionysos - the god of drunkenness, of transformation, of ecstasy and the mask - the Theatre of Dionysos was built in a natural hollow on the slopes of the Acropolis.