We set sail for the port of Katakolon on the west side of
the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Doesn’t
ring a bell? Well, this is the closest
port to ancient Olympia, the site of the original Olympic Games. Again dashing to make an early morning
assembly call, we left the ship and met our tour guide Giorgio at the tour bus,
and were soon on the road for the 30-minute drive to Olympia.
On the way, Giorgio gave us some background information. The early history of Greece is really the
story of the oldest human civilizations in Europe, the Minoan on the island of Crete
and the Mycenaean on the Greek mainland.
These Bronze Age cultures flourished from about 2000 BC, producing art,
architecture, and writing in the form of Linear A, thus far un-deciphered, and
Linear B, an early form of Greek. Around
1200 BC these cultures collapsed for reasons not completely understood,
ushering in a period of discord and disunity, as evidenced by archaeological
finds of grave goods of the period which indicated a reduced standard of
living. By the beginning of the 8th
century BC, conditions had improved, trade resumed, and the buildings of the
great city-states began. With the
economic recovery, good civic leadership decreed a series of religious
festivals as a means of furthering the interaction and cooperation among the
communities. The two most important of
these festivals were the Delphic Games and the Olympic Games. The Delphic Games were held every two years
in honor of Apollo, at Delphi in central Greece north of the Gulf of
Corinth. In addition to hosting the
Games, Delphi was one of the most important shrines of the ancient world, home
of the famous Delphic Oracle.
The games at Olympia were held every four years in honor of
Zeus, on the site of a much more ancient sanctuary. The first settlers in this region left
evidence of their habitation at the foot of the Hill of Kronos dating back to
3000 BC, including pottery, tools and foundations of houses. By the end of the 8th century BC,
called the Archaic Period, a building in this sanctuary was dedicated to Zeus
and Hera, and the first stadium was laid out.
In this venue, the first games were held, announced by special
messengers who were sent out to the far corners of the Greek world three months
in advance of the scheduled festivities.
The games were conducted over five days and were held in July or August
at the full moon. A “Sacred Truce” lasting for the entire month allowed people
to travel safely from home to the shrine without risk. Cult ceremonies in honor of Zeus and a great
fair attracted many thousands of visitors, as well as the athletes.
The athletic events were running, jumping, boxing,
wrestling, discus and javelin throwing – all the skills a warrior needed, and
horse racing and chariot racing were added later when the Hippodrome was
built. The winner of each event was
crowned with a branch of olive leaves cut from a sacred tree with a golden
sickle. The victor attended a great
banquet and was celebrated by poets and singers. Those victorious Olympic athletes were as
honored as war heroes, and the more wealthy city-states built small treasuries
at Olympia to house votive offerings to honor their Olympic champions.
Over the next 1100 years the games continued, and their
success can be judged by the grandiose elegance and size of the temples in the
Olympic sanctuary. The grandest of these
was the great Temple of Zeus, built in the 5th century BC, in the
Doric style, of a size large enough to house the statue of the Olympian
Zeus. Nothing remains today, but thanks
to the writings of Pausanias, and some coins with an image of the statue
stamped on them, we have a description. The
statue of Zeus, enthroned, was over 12 meters (44 feet) high, covered with gold
and ivory and other precious materials fixed on a wooden core, a technique
called “chryselephantine.” He is wearing
a “himation” an ancient Greek style cloak that left his chest bare and covered
his knees, and an olive wreath on his head.
In his left hand he held a scepter topped with an eagle and in his right
hand he held a small Nike statue. His
throne was decorated with mythological scenes, carved and painted. From Pausanias we know the sculptor was
Pheidias, and this statue was included among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World.
During the Roman era in Greece, when the Olympic tradition
was centuries old, the games were expanded by the Emperor Nero to include music
and poetry competitions, so he could participate. Nero, who regarded himself as
a brilliant musician and poet, won seven prizes. Astonishing. Eventually the popularity of the games
declined as the religious aspect lost importance, and in the Christian era,
they were stopped altogether after 393 AD by the Roman Emperor Theodosius. The site of Olympus was abandoned and fell
into ruin, and a massive earthquake in the 6th century AD completed
the destruction. Fortunately for
antiquarians, over the years the nearby river Alpheios flooded and covered the
site with mud and silt, up to five meters deep in places, preserving what was
left. In 1766 the English traveler
Richard Chandler identified ancient Olympia by correlating the location as given
in ancient texts with what scant remains were visible above ground at the
time. The systematic archaeological
excavations began in 1874 by the German Archaeological Institute at
Athens. After many years of work,
research, and restoration, we have a view of ancient Olympia as it looked in the
final phase of the sanctuary’s history.
We began our tour of the Archaeological Site of Olympia at
the visitor’s entrance, walking past the Palaestra and Gymnasium with Giorgio
explaining how the athletes trained, lived and worked in these facilities. There were running tracks, both outdoor and
indoor. Walking through a long path
lined with Doric style columns, we came to the ruins of the Great Temple of
Zeus, now just a heap of stones. One of
the fluted columns has been restored to give the visitor an idea of the
scale. Giorgio told us this temple was
almost as large as the Parthenon in Athens.
He guided us over to the Terrace with Treasuries that had held ex-voto memorials to the champion
athletes, and pointed out a section of covered passageway. This passageway had been used in the opening
ceremonies of the games, when 20,000 naked athletes would march into the
Stadium through this passage. What a
mental image!
Emerging from the passageway, we were in the Stadium, the
scene of the competitions. The Stadium
track was 213 meters long and almost 35 meters wide, a long, level rectangle of
packed dirt with grassy slopes on the sides that could hold up to 45,000
spectators. Both the starting line and
finishing line were marked by a row of marble slabs, and the distance between
is 192.27 meters, or one Olympic stade
(equal to 600 feet). Honored visitors
and judges sat in the exedra located
half-way on the south side, and the north side had a stone altar for the
priestess of Demeter, the only woman allowed to attend the games. There were women’s games, called the Heraia,
a festival in honor of Hera, also held every fourth year in Olympia, which were
celebrated separately from the men.
Giorgio showed us the smaller temple of Hera, and the altar
of Hestia who was the Goddess of the Hearth and whose altar kept an eternal
flame. To the south of the altar of Hestia
was a circular building that had been erected by Philip II the Macedonian to
give thanks to Zeus for his victory at Chaironeia in 338 BC. This building (see photo), with three columns
standing and a section of the entablature still in place, is called the
Philippeion, but was completed by his son, Alexander the Great.
After a short rest break, we toured the Archaeological Museum,
which had on exhibit many priceless artifacts found during the years of
excavation. Presented in chronological
order, the various rooms hold glass cases of the prehistoric finds, then Helladic,
Mycenaean, and Classic. One room held
the famous statue of Winged Nike from 470 BC, which was the figure inscribed on
all the 2004 Olympic medals. The best
displays, and which filled the whole room, include the sculptures from the
Temple of Zeus that had been installed in the east and west pediments. The east pediment sculptures represented a
chariot race, and the west pediment told the story of the Battle of the Lapiths
and the Centaurs (see photo). Giorgio
made remarks about how we were fortunate in that we did not have to visit the
British Museum in London to see these -- a reference to the on-going
controversy between Greece and the UK regarding the Elgin Marbles from the
Parthenon. One of the most perfect
sculptures of antiquity is the Hermes of Praxiteles, displayed in a room
dedicated to this one gorgeous statue (see photo). The virtually intact original marble of
Hermes holding the infant Dionysus by the 4th century BC Athenian
sculptor Praxiteles was found in the ruins of the Temple of Hera in 1877. This is both a masterpiece and a milestone in
the history of Greek sculpture, and one can only imagine the influence on
Donatello and Michelangelo.
The tour over, we returned to the bus, foot-sore and head-spinning. It was amazing to think how the celebrations and
traditions of this ancient site inspired the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin
to reinstate the modern Olympics in 1896, held appropriately in Athens. The role and significance of the ancient
Olympiads is also enshrined in the ancient Greek method of reckoning dates: the
common calendar event all the Greek city-states could agree on was the
Olympiad, and was in use into the Christian era. The contribution of the Olympic Games in the
course of civilization was diverse and enduring indeed.
If you are interested in visiting Olympia:
Archaeological Museum of Olympus
Dytiki Ellada, Greece
Phone: +30 2624
022517
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