Dictionary:

odeum

  (ō-dē'əm, ō'dē-)

1. A small building of ancient Greece and Rome used for public performances of music and poetry.
2. A contemporary theater or concert hall.

[Latin ōdēum, from Greek ōideion, from aoidē, ōidē, song. See ode.]

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A small ancient Greek or Roman theater, usually roofed, for musical performances.

odeum, Athens

ōdēum (Gk. ōdeion, Eng. odeon), in Greece, a theatre built for musical performances and, unlike other Greek theatres, provided with a roof. An odeum was built by Periclēs east of and near to the theatre of Dionysus at Athens c.444 BC for concerts and the musical contests of the Panathenaea. The proagon also took place here. The Athenians themselves set fire to this odeum before the invasion of Sulla in 86 BC so that the enemy would not find in it a ready supply of wood for the siege of the Acropolis. Another odeum was built in the agora c.15 BC by M. Vipsanius Agrippa, but by AD 150 it had ceased to serve its original purpose and a third was built between 160 and 174 by Herodēs Atticus.

A small roofed theater in ancient antiquity devoted to the presentation of musical and poetic works to the public in competition for prizes.