Learn about the various forms of entertainment that existed in Alexandria.
Like most Greek cities, Alexandria offered multiple forms of entertainment. Most were related to cults, religious practices and the festivities surrounding those practices.
Among those festivities, the most important ones were the dynastic celebrations instituted in honor of the deified Ptolemaic kings and queens.
These celebrations could go on for many days and included sacrifices, offerings, processions and public banquets.
Games and competitions were organized whenever possible in Locations such as the stadium, the hippodreme and the gymnasium.
The residents of Alexandria favored such events, where athletes, poets and musicians from Egypt and other cities of the Greek world competed.
(Behind the Scenes)
Like all good Greek cities, Alexandria had a theater.
The architecture of this structure is Roman in style. This is because the team duplicated a theater from Cyrene.
Roman theaters were usually semicircular and built from scratch on a flat area with structures designed to enhance oration.
Greek theaters were more oblong in shape, similar to a horseshoe and favored the slopes of natural hills to support their acoustics.
At the theater, one could witness the plays of contemporary, comic and tragic authors.
The play you are witnessing below is Menander's Dyskolos, more commonly known as The Grouch, a late and popular entry in the Greek comedies.