In November 1991, some of the professors who are now part of the Section of Classical Studies and were at the time classmates, staged, at the commemorative ceremony of the consecration of the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, an original text, entitled “Old Cathedral – Living Stones”, authored by Delfim Leão. This first initiative would know an important advance in March 1992, when students of the 4th year of graduation organized a conference on "Love since classical antiquity", where part of Plautus’s “The swaggering soldier”, staged by C. A. Louro Fonseca, also author of the portuguese version of the comedy, was presented. The project was resumed only in 1996 with the shooting in Conimbriga of the video version of Aristophanes's comedy "Women in parliament", under the direction of Delfim Leão, and with the purpose of taking advantage of that privileged archaeological site. The next step was the staging of Gil Vicente’s "Act of the soul" (1997), by José Luís Brandão, which integrated the program of the international congress "The latin greek rhetoric and its perpetuity", organized by the Institute of Classical Studies. Following these activities, the existence of the group was formalized. Since then, Thíasos presented Plautus's “Epidicus" (1998), staged by Paulo Sérgio Ferreira, “The Heraclidae" of Euripides (2001), by Delfim Leão, “The Host" of Plautus (2002), by Victor Torres and, to commemorate the 2500 years of the birth of Sophocles, his “Trachiniae" (2003), staged by Delfim Leão, "Martial in scene costumes" (2004), based on Sophocles’s epigrams and adapted by Carlos de Jesus and Carla Brás, as well as “Theocritus and Virgil" (2005). Also, "Women in parliament" by Aristophanes (2005), staged by José Luís Brandão, "The suppliants" of Euripides (2006), by Carlos de Jesus and Carla Brás, Aeschylus’s "Agamemnon" (2007), by Lia Nunes, Aristophanes’s “The wasps" (2008), by Carlos de Jesus, Plautus’s "The little carthaginian" (2009), by José Luís Brandão, “Hippolytus" of Euripides (2010), by Carlos de Jesus , Terentius’s "The mother-in-law” (2011), by José Luís Brandão, Aeschylus’s “The supliants” (2012), by Lia Nunes, “Lysistrata" of Aristophanes (2013), by Elizabete Cação, Euripides’s “Andromache" (2014), by João Baptista, Aristophanes’s “The frogs" (2015), by Ricardo Acácio, Aeschylus’s "Prometheus bound" (2016), by António Gil Cucu, Plautus’s “The casket comedy” (2017), by Cátia Alves Coelho and Diogo Ribeirinha, Euripides’s “Hecuba" (2018), by Cátia Alves Coelho and lara Paz, and “Medea” (2018), by Cláudio Castro Filho, and Plautus’s “The swaggering soldier" (2019), by José Luís Brandão.
Simultaneously, Thíasos has staged one of Horatius’s satires - “The poet and the bore” (2001) - adapted by Rui Henriques, and Gil Vicente’s “Monologue of the cowherd” (2001), by Nuno Gertrudes.
With the emergence of the Association for Promoting Classical Theatre FESTEA, operating since 1998 but only formalized in 2003 (and of which Thíasos is a promotting member), begins the periodic participation in two annual festivals: the School Festival of Classical Theatre and the International Summer Festival of Classical Theatre. Touring the country with its productions, Thíasos also had the possibility to present its work to foreign audiences, having visited Segobriga (XVII European Youth Greek-Roman Festival of Segobriga) in 2000, returning in 2001 (XVIII European Youth Greek-Roman Festival of Segobriga), Italy (XVI Rassegna Internazionale del Teatro Classico Antico - 2001), Mérida (2002), Puerto de Santa Maria (2004) and Tours (2004), Nantes (2005), Malaga (2008), Madrid (2012), Sagunto (Ludi Saguntini 2014, 2015 and 2016) and Millau (Ludi Condatomagi 2015).
At the same time, the group collaborated in cultural events with the presentation of poetry recitals (not exclusively of classical theme). This was a winning strategy. The three shows on portuguese poetry throughout the ages, presented at the Joanine Library (2004), the recital honouring Sophia de Mello Breyner (2005) and the recital of Christmas poems (2005) are some of those examples, to which can be added the more recent recitals The wine is the mirror of the soul, held at the Wine Museum, Anadia (2012) and The Mondego river in Coimbra (2014).
With over 25 years of work, and having faced some difficulties along the way, typical of a university group, Thíasos stands firm in its mission to introduce to a wider audience what classical theatre can still teach us today.