The Panathenaic Stadium and Theater of Lykourgos: A Re-Examination of the Facilities on the Pnyx Hill

Abstract

Among the public building projects of Lykourgos was the Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the athletic contests of the Panathenaic games. It has long been assumed that this stadium was located on the site of the later Roman Panathenaic stadium built by Herodes Atticus near the Ilissos River in the mid-2nd c. A. C. In the 19th c., Ziller excavated the site of the Roman stadium but found no trace of an earlier stadium. In the absence of any archaeological evidence at the site of the Roman stadium and of any topographical indication in the written evidence, the location of the original structure remains undetermined. Archaeological evidence at another Athenian site, the Pnyx, suggests its use as a stadium, and its history and character conform well with the literary and epigraphical sources for the Lykourgan facility. During the third building period, dated to 330-326 B. C. by the excavators and associated with the building program of Lykourgos, the theatrical assembly area was substantially enlarged. To the south and west lie two long rectangular foundations which were identified as the foundations for two unfinished stoas. Directly to the northeast of the longer west foundation is a flat and artificially levelled terrace, 15.80 m. wide and 148 m. long. I suggest that the long terrace served as a racecourse and that the long foundations were built as support for artificial earth embankments on which spectators could sit or stand. The essential requirements of a stadium and theater are met by the facilities on the Pnyx; the date is right and the location would be ideal for the staging of the athletic and musical contests of the Panathenaic games.