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Modern Description: This and the Casa Romana are the most conspicuous standing remains of the ancient town—as well as the most substantially modified and reconstructed by the Italian archaeologists of the 1930s. They are both on Grigoríou V Street, across from the point at which you entered the Western Archaeological area. The ancient city's main theatre lay to the south of here, and this small Odeion, of the 2nd century BC, had a different purpose. It served for small musical gatherings, poetry readings, and political meetings. It was always an intimate space—originally roofed, decorated inside with statuary, and embellished with a polychrome marble floor in opus sectile. The original marble seating of the cavea has been extensively restored with modern additions in similar stone. The building had a compact rectangular exterior, and the spacious and well-constructed undercrofts, or tabernae, beneath the seating area were also exploited in a practical use of valuable space in a crowded city centre. Not far from here (left side, 500m along the road to Ambavrís, which heads south from the junction 200m east of the Odeion) and considerably overgrown, are the meagre remains of the city's theatre proper, built originally in the 2nd century BC and restored in the 3rd century AD: the site has never been properly examined or cleared and remains difficult of access.
Wikidata ID: Q38281770
Trismegistos Geo: 2796

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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