Did you know? The art of theatre was born in Ancient Greece. People used to rush to theatres, theatrical authors (named poets) were enjoying great respect and it was a great honour to be nominated as a sponsor for a theatrical performance!

It was long long ago when people used to present theatrical acts, in form of rituals in honour to Dionysus, the God of passion, which acts later got the form of Ancient Drama. These acts always had a religious, mystic and sacred character, and that way followed the Ancient Drama too: each performance never aimed to solely amusing or  entertaining the audience, rather was it a sophisticated tribute to human and divine virtues and values: Gods and mortals, heroes and mythical figures met together in the context of a known myth or a story, victims of fate or passion, bearing the consequences of trespassing the boundaries of ethics, punished for being arrogant or unjust, seeking for redemption... Ancient drama was a form of mass education, and thats why the theatrical performances were called 'didaskaliae' (meaning teaching).

In classical times, drama festivals and contests were held all over Greece during the celebrations in honour of Dionysus. Open air theatres were built to accommodate these festivals, and great authors like Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes presented their plays there. In the medieval times, theatre was banned  as a devilish act and the once full of spectators theatres were abandoned and ruined, but, surprisingly, a large number of ancient drama scripts were rescued till today.