Rhodes (Rodos)

RHODES (Rodos), ancient Asia Minor, modern Greece.

COORDINATES: 36º26’24.41’’N // 28º12’42.54’’E

TIPOLOGY: Hellenistic odeon.

DATE: Between III – I B.C. Not urban.

TRANSFORMATIONS: Hardly restored in modern times.

CAPACITY: 800 spectators.

CAVEA: Facing east. 29 m. diameter. It has been hardly restored. Maenianum: Ima cavea with 10 rows of seats in 5 cunei; Summa cavea with 9 rows of seats in 4 cunei.

ORCHESTRA: 5,55 m. diammeter.

STAGE BUILDING: There´s not remains, maybe the stage building was on wood.

LOCATION: In the ancient acropolis of Rhodes, west of modern town, close to the ancient stadium.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Sear, Frank; “Roman theatres: an architectural study”. Oxford University Press, 2006. // Ciancio Rossetto, Paola; Giuseppina Pisani Sartorio (eds); “Teatri Greci e Romani: alle origini del linguaggio rappresentato”. Rome: SEAT, 1995. // Lange, Judith; Bosnakis, Dimitris; “Ancient theatres”. Athens, Itanos, 1996.

OUT OF PRINT: Baked by the sun, I remembered in Rhode´s odeon one of my favorite poems, i do not know why, maybe because I was in Greece that came to me that lines from Kavafis, maybe because these verses always have been for me pure theater, some material which sometime I would like to work...

“A young man, twenty-eight years of age, Emes arrived
at this little Syrian harbor on a Tenion vessel
with the intention of learning to be a perfume seller.
But during the voyage he fell ill; and as soon
as he disembarked, he died. His burial, the very poorest,
took place here. A few hours before he died,
he murmured something about "home," about "very old parents."
But who they were nobody knew,
nor which his country in the vast panhellenic world.
It is better so. For in this way, though
he lies dead in this little harbor,
his parents will always go on hoping he is alive”

-Konstantin Kavafis-