Second Ancient Theatre, Larissa, Ancient Greek theatre in Larissa, Greece.

The Second Ancient Theatre of Larissa was built into the southwestern slopes of Pefkakia hill. Only the stage building and the orchestra, a circle 29.7 metres across of two layers of stamped earth mixed with gravel, were finished; the semicircular seating and the side entrances were left incomplete, apparently for lack of funding. The seating that exists is cut by 14 stairways into thirteen tiers, each with two rows of low grey-white marble seats.

The Second Ancient Theatre was built in the second half of the 1st century BC on the southwestern slopes of Pefkakia hill, probably because the city's original theatre had been turned into a gladiatorial arena after the Roman conquest. The excavator Athanasios Tziafalias linked it to the festival of Eleutheria. In the Middle Ages a Byzantine church, later the mosque of Hasan Bey, stood on the site; the hill was levelled in the 1950s and the theatre rediscovered in 1978.

The excavator Athanasios Tziafalias linked the theatre to the festival of Eleutheria, which combined athletic and equestrian contests with theatrical, musical and poetry performances. An inscription found on the site records a temple of Demeter and the Kore, the thesmophorion, so the grounds served cult as well as spectacle.

The theatre lies on the southwestern slope of Pefkakia hill, in the area levelled in the 1950s for apartment blocks; the orchestra and stage are the parts to look for. The semicircular seating and side entrances were never finished, so the ground is uneven and partly stepped. The site has been used only occasionally for performances, so check locally before planning a visit around one.

The marble blocks were not newly quarried but reused from an older building, probably circular; some carry inscriptions from freedmen of the late 3rd century BC. The thymele, a small white-marble altar with Lesbian-style kymatia, stood on a three-step pedestal of which the two lower steps survive.