The Ruins of Athens (Die Ruinen von Athen), Op. 113, is a set of incidental music pieces written in 1811 by Ludwig van Beethoven. The music was written to accompany the play of the same name by August von Kotzebue, for the dedication of the new in Pest, Hungary.
Perhaps the best-known music from The Ruins of Athens is the Turkish March. Beethoven had used this material before in his Six Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 76 (1809).
In 1822 the play was revived for the reopening of Vienna's Theater in der Josefstadt with a revised libretto by Carl Meisl, for which Beethoven wrote a new overture, now known as The Consecration of the House, Op. 124, and added a chorus "Wo sich die Pulse" (WoO 98).
The music for The Ruins of Athens was reworked in 1924 by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Another revival with a revision of the text by Johannes Urzidil was conducted by Alexander von Zemlinsky at Prague's Neues Deutsches Theater in 1926.
The incidental music is scored for these instruments:
The goddess Athena, awakening from a thousand-year sleep (No. 2), overhears two Greek slaves lamenting foreign occupation (Duet, No. 3). She is deeply distressed at the ruined state of her city, a part of the Ottoman Empire (Nos. 4 & 5). Led by the herald Hermes, Athena joins Emperor Franz I at the opening of the theatre in Pest, where they assist at a triumph of the muses Thalia and Melpomene. Between their two busts, Zeus erects another of Franz, and Athena crowns it. The ' ends with a chorus pledging renewed ancient Hungarian loyalty.
The work consists of an overture and eight movements.
In 1846 Franz Liszt composed a Capriccio alla turca sur des motifs de Beethoven (Caprice in the Turkish style on motifs of Beethoven), S.388, based on themes from The Ruins of Athens, mostly the Turkish March. In 1852 he also composed a Fantasie über Motiven aus Beethovens Ruinen von Athen (Fantasia on themes from Beethoven's 'Ruins of Athens'), for piano and orchestra (S.122), and also made versions for piano solo (S.389) and two pianos (S.649).