ANCIENT EPIDAVROS A BRIEF HISTORY.

The small plain of Epidauros, centre of the Epidauros municipality, is one of the most picturesque places in the Argolid and is identified with the Ancient City of Epidauros.
The scenery around the city has remained quite unspoilt throughout the centuries and, as the visitors face the wooded areas, they cannot help wondering if time has stood still here, in the age that Homer describes in his writings.
Before the time of Christ, Epidauros was a glittering religious centre.  The principal and epicentre of this religion was the worship of Asklepios, but we can also find evidence of the religious nature of the people inside the city of Ancient Epidauros.   So we find sacred places dedicated to gods such as Apollo (on the ‘Island’), Hera (at the ‘Cultural Centre’), Artemis (at the top of the hill in the village) and Dimitra (at ‘St Marina’).
Ancient Epidauros was one of the most important among the cities that were situated in the same strategic position, and was already prospering in the early years of ancient Greece.  Surrounded by mountains and hills with quite difficult communication routes, Epidauros found an easy way out through the Saronic Sea, which lies to its east and northeast. 
Being the most important port of the Peloponnese in the Saronic Gulf, as well as having a strategic position between Korinth, Aegina, Piraeus, Trizina, Nauplion and Argos, Epidauros has always preserved a double existence; on the land and on the sea.  Its residents were farmers and sailors but at the same time they had increasing responsibilities regarding the function, maintenance and promotion of the two Epidauros sanctuaries, which were well known throughout Greece, i.e. the sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas and the sanctuary of Asklepios.   Among the duties of these people were the welcoming of the pilgrims, patients and their escorts, the building and maintenance of the sanctuaries and the necessary assistance they had to provide for the application of medicine by the ‘Asklepiades’.
Historically the destiny of Epidauros was common with that of other coastal cities of the northeastern Peloponnese.  Special bonds connected Epidauros with Aegina and Korinth.  Epidauros was a significant naval force and participated in the Persian wars, providing eight ships in the Battle of Salamis and eight hundred soldiers at Platea.  Its friendly relations with Aegina and the alliance often offered to Sparta repeatedly placed it in conflict with the Athenians.    
Within the city of Epidauros, Pausanias mentions that there were: - the temple of Asklepios with marble statues of the god and his wife Ipionis, temples to Diana and Dionysus, a sanctuary of Aphrodite and the sanctuary of Hera on the peninsula near the port.  None of the above has been traced, as there have not been any archaeological excavations of significance at the site of the Acropolis.
 In the small valley of the area of Epidauros, where the temple of Asklepios was founded, there stands the ‘great’ theatre, built, according to Pausanias, by the Argeian architect Polyklitus the Younger.  Polyklitus adorned the area with other important buildings such as the temple of Asklepios with its gold and ivory statue, the Tholos and the Stadium.  The theatre plays a significant and prominent role in the area, since it is the most famous and best preserved in the whole world, unique for its acoustics.
Long before that, however, the city of Epidauros needed a theatre of its own, particularly for its religious as well as public needs.  On the west side of the peninsula which the local people call the ‘island’, and where, from above, the acropolis dominated the city among the buildings of the ancient market place, appears the little theatre of the ancient city ‘like a shell placed on the wooded slope’ as it has been successfully described.  With a view towards the blue sea it contrasts with the ‘great’ theatre at the sanctuary of Asklepios. 
Mrs Evangelia Deilaki, the chief archaeologist of the excavations, calls it ‘Laloun’, which means ‘the one who speaks’, which is a vivid description, as almost all of the seats bear inscriptions which prove that officers of the ancient city of Epidauros (notables, officials, etc), offered them as dedication probably to the god Dionysus. The original form of the theatre dates back to the 4th century BC (about 350-330BC).
And while the ‘great’ theatre was situated at the sanctuary of the god Asklepios, in this one the people worshipped the other god, Dionysus, as a protector and preserver of the many vineyards grown in the plain of Epidauros – let us not forget that Homer called Epidauros ‘vine clad’.  Also there was a temple to Dionysus on the hill of the ancient Acropolis.  Apart from the religious festivities, however, there were some other public ones in the city, which had taken place for at least eight centuries.  It is also possible that this theatre welcomed performances of comedy and/or tragedy.
Today we can see only the ‘kilon’ and the ‘orchestra’.  Fortunately, after many centuries of silence, the theatre has once more acquired spirit and voice through time, because, since 1995, it has extended hospitality to a series of musical shows and performances known as ‘Musical July in Ancient Epidauros’.  The reviving of this archaeological site in such a way, we believe, offers a great service to our area and to culture in general. 
Parts of the ancient walls that surrounded the city are preserved in Epidauros today and the visitor can observe some of the buildings that have sunk in the sea.  Ancient Epidauros is a city full of legends and history since antiquity has left its mark indelibly on it.  The city of Ancient Epidauros today attracts the interest of people who look forward to meeting the place where Greeks chose to show to advantage their art, spirit and civilization.

THE HISTORY OF GREEK SHIPPING LINK.