Odeon of Pericles

It was first built in 435 BC by Pericles for the musical contests that formed part of the Panathenaea,[1] for audiences from the theatre to shelter in case of bad weather and for chorus rehearsals.

[2] Few remains of it now survive, but it seems to have been "adorned with stone pillars" (according to Vitruvius and Plutarch) and square instead of the usual circular shape for an odeon.

It was covered with timber made from captured Persian ships, culminating in a square pyramid-like roof resembling a tent.

Modern excavation work has revealed its foundations as 62.40 by 68.60 m (204.7 by 225.1 ft), and it is now known that the roof was supported by 90 internal pillars, in nine rows of ten.

For example, Vitruvius writes[4] that, in the small theatre at Tralleis (which was doubtless an odeon), Apaturius of Alabanda painted the scaena with a composition so fantastic that he was compelled to remove it, and to correct it according to the truth of natural objects.