Taormina is now a classic seaside tourist town, and of all the towns in Sicily, it is the least "Sicilian" – clean and orderly, a very European city.
Taormina
Taormina is best known for its Greco-Roman theater.
In Sicily, there are also Greek theaters in Segesta and Syracuse.
The Segesta Theater is located on the slopes of Mount Barbaro in a scenic area with views of Castellammare Bay and Mount Inezi.
The ancient Greek theater of Syracuse, surrounded by stepped limestone, was built on the coastal plain opposite Ortigia Island.
Greco-Roman theater in Taormina
Segesta Theater
Theatre of Syracuse
The theater in Taormina was built in the Roman period, it may have been built on top of the previous ancient Greek theater, and the notches left on the stepped seats and the ruins of a small temple destroyed by the ancient Romans to expand the audience seats confirm its ancient Greek roots.
The exterior and interior structure of these three theaters are quite similar, but the theaters in Segesta and Taormina are all set against the backdrop of mountains and seas, and the style is different. In particular, the Taormina Theater, facing the Galabrian Coast, the Ionian Sea in Sicily and Mount Etna, should be the first theater in Sicily and worth lingering here for a long time.
But Syracuse is a big city, and its theater is even more famous. The great Greek tragic writer Aeschylus wrote his first highly successful tragedy, Atenes, here, and his Persian was first performed in Syracuse.
Aeschylus of Athens came to Sicily several times, and finally died in the southern Sicily city of Gera and was buried there. It is said that an eagle caught a turtle that day, and the turtle shrank its head in the sky, and the eagle could not make a mouth. The eagle saw that there was something dangling in the ground, thought it was a rock, and threw the turtle down, smashed it to death, and ate it.
Ruins of the Greco-Roman theater
This is, of course, a made-up story, presumably ridiculing Aeschylus's bald head.
Ancient Greek drama was closely related to the worship of Dionysus. In Greek mythology, Dionysus was not only the god of dionysus, but also the god of ecstasy and drama, and he was worshipped with carnival rituals.
The Greek Olympus originally had 12 main gods, half brothers and sisters of Zeus, the king of the gods, and half his children. They were Zeus the Emperor, Poseidon the God of the Sea, Hades the King of Hades, Hestia the Vesta, Hera the Queen of Heaven, Ares, The Goddess of Wisdom and Courage, Apollo the Sun God, Aphrodite, the God of Love, Hermes the Messenger, Artemis the Moon God, and Hephaestus, the God of Fire.
Dionysus was the last god to enter Olympus, and he is absent from homer's list of gods.
Zeus fell in love with Thebes Princess Semele, and the jealous queen Hera dressed up as a white-haired and kind old woman to stir Up Semerer's curiosity and ask her to see Zeus's true face. Zeus loved Semerle, so much so that he fell in love, and vowed to grant any of the conditions she had proposed. When Seymele offered to see Zeus's true face, Zeus could only watch her die in her own flames. Know that Zeus is thunder and lightning, and thunderbolt fire.
The only thing Zeus could do was rescue Dionysus, Semele's soon-to-be-born fetus, and cut a hole in his leg to raise the child like a kangaroo. When the child was born, Zeus ordered the messenger Hermes to send him to the valley of Nisha, where he would be cared for by a fairy.
When he grew up, Dionysus went out and wandered, and everywhere he went, he taught people to grow wine, teach mysterious Dionysian rituals, and people everywhere also treated him as a god.
These Sicilian theatres are still open in the summer and perform a variety of plays.
Taormina,Sicily
#Sicily #Theatre # #罗马 #