In the beginning Greek theater was more than dramatic story telling; it was a religious rite honoring Dionysus. Youngest of the gods, Dionysus was the lord of the good life and giver of wine. In his first manifestations he was the god of revelry. Among his followers were women, called maenads. Intoxicated with wine, the maenads raced through the woods at night in torchlit orgiastic revels. But as the drama grew in his name and took on its various forms, Dionysus became a more serious figure. Perhaps because goats were sacred to Dionysus, perhaps because goats were prizes for the best plays, the highest form of the plays came to be called tragedy, which in Greek means "goat song."
A PRANCING MAENAD wears a snake as headdress and carries a staff and leopard cub. The art of acting, many believe, began in ecstatic dancing of Dionysian rites.
AT THE GRAPE PRESS Dionysian satyrs marked by horses' tails and ears (above) preside over the making of the wine. One brings up more grapes to be pressed beneath the other's dancing feet.
THE INVENTOR OF WINE. Dionysus (left) flaunts two symbols: his grapevine and drinking cup. Other symbols—the ivy crown, the panther-skin cloak—stress his role as god of wild things.
EPIDAURUS'GREAT THEATER confflms a Circular orchestra with a horse - it. The theatron has 34 rows of steeply hanked seats in a lower section
148 shoe-shaped theatron, or viewing area, surrounding more than half of and 21 rows above that. Opposite the theatron are the ruins of the pro-
Skenion (a colonnade that eventually became the stage) and the skene (or scene building), which was both dressing hut and stage backdrop.
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