The Theater of Dionysis came to life only on festival occasions and otherwise was an empty shell.

The Theater of Dionysis on the southern slope of the Acropolis had room for some fourteen thousand people. At the anual five-day spring festival called the Great Dionysia, in which choral odes and comedies had their place as well as tragedies, more than a thousand men and boys took part in the choruses, acting and music makeing.