A guided walk tracing the route of the ancient City Dionysia procession - from the
Academy through the agora to the Theater of Dionysus. The five-day festival (late March)
included processions, sacrifices, theatrical competitions, and extensive drinking. Several
tour companies offer historical reconstructions.
What to do there
4 things to do
The ancient City Dionysia procession began outside the city and ended at the theater. This walking tour runs the same route in reverse - starting at the artifacts and walking backward through history to the site where it all began.
You are about to follow the footsteps of a procession that happened every March-April for centuries. In ancient Athens, 25,000 citizens masked their faces, dressed in ornate golds and jewels, and carried a wooden statue of Dionysus through the entire city. They sang dithyrambs and completed a kōmos dance at the Agora, carried phalloi on poles, ended at the sanctuary where bulls were sacrificed and everyone in Athens ate together. Then five days of plays began - the world premieres of tragedies and comedies that still define Western literature. Start at the Acropolis Museum entrance on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street (€15 entry). Find the Papposilenus statue and masks relief in the South Slope section — these are the artifacts carried in spirit on every procession. Exit and walk south along the pedestrianized street to the South Slope entrance of the Acropolis complex (€30 ticket).
Backup:A free self-guided route is available without the museum entry. Start directly at the South Slope entrance and follow the archaeological path.
Three structures on the same hillside, built across 700 years, all serving the same fundamental purpose: a place for humans to transform themselves in front of other humans. Walk through all three in the order the ancients used them.
The sequence is theological: Sanctuary first (the religious act - libations, sacrifice, the statue of Dionysus in its place), Theater second (the dramatic act - 25,000 people watching masked performers invoke the god through story), Odeon third (the musical act - the later Roman addition). Each structure represents a different century's answer to the same question: how do you honor a god who gave humanity wine and drama? From the South Slope entrance: (1) Visit the Sanctuary of Dionysus Eleuthereus first - the low foundation ruins to your left, note the altar area. (2) Move to the Theater of Dionysus - find the priest's throne with grape carvings, stand at the orchestra level if accessible. (3) Continue to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus - closed for renovation but viewable from the walkway. Note the scale difference: Odeon (5,000 seats, enclosed) versus Theater (25,000 seats, open air). The Romans preferred intimacy. The Greeks preferred mass.
Backup:The entire south slope can be walked in 45 minutes if you're moving quickly. Two hours if you're reading the sites carefully. The path is well-marked and there are English-language information panels at each monument.
The Street of Tripods was ancient Athens' hall of fame for winning playwrights. It still exists. And on it stands the best-preserved choragic monument in the world, built in 334 BC by a man named Lysicrates who backed a winning chorus.
In ancient Athens, when a wealthy citizen paid for a winning theatrical chorus at the City Dionysia, he received a bronze tripod cauldron as a prize. Victors then erected monuments along Tripodon Street to display their tripods - creating a permanent record of who had backed winning art. Lysicrates won in 334 BC and built a small but perfectly preserved circular monument to display his tripod. The bronze tripod is long gone, but the monument — 6 meters tall, carved from Pentelic marble — still stands at the corner of Shelley and Lysikratous Streets in Plaka. Walk down Tripodon Street from the theater area and read the inscription if visible. Note the Corinthian column capitals — the earliest confirmed use of Corinthian order on the exterior of a Greek building. Lord Byron stayed in the adjacent monastery and wrote part of 'Childe Harold' there.
Backup:The monument is impossible to miss once you're on Tripodon Street. Google Maps 'Monument of Lysicrates Athens' for exact navigation from the theater.
The City Dionysia ended with a feast for everyone in Athens. Your walk ends in the Plaka district, surrounded by wine bars and restaurants. Raise a glass at sunset with the Acropolis above you - the way every citizen did after five days of drama and wine.
The City Dionysia closed with a public feast - every citizen of Athens, all at once, eating and drinking in honor of Dionysus. The plays were the sacred offering; the feast was the communal celebration. Your walk has followed the procession route, visited the sacrifice site, stood in the orchestra where Thespis invented acting, and touched a 2,360-year-old trophy for winning drama. The god of wine and transformation would approve of ending this with a glass of Greek wine as the sun drops behind the Parthenon. At any rooftop bar or wine cafe in the Plaka district within sight of the south slope, order a wine from Attica (Savvatiano or Assyrtiko) or any Greek wine: Xinomavro from Naoussa, Moschofilero from the Peloponnese, or Agiorgitiko from Nemea. Toast to Thespis, 534 BC, and whoever first thought to mix wine and theater.
Backup:If you prefer non-alcoholic, order fresh pomegranate juice - the pomegranate was as sacred to Greek religion as the grape and is equally local. Still an act of honoring the ground you've spent the day on.