Ancient Olympia

Olympia (Greek: Ολυμπία Olympí'a or Ολύμπια Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. Both games were held every olympiad (i.e. every four years), the Olympic Games dating back possibly further than 776 B.C.E. In 394 Emperor Theodosius I, or possibly his grandson Theodosius II in 435, abolished them because they were reminiscent of paganism.

The sanctuary itself consists of an unordered arrangement of various buildings. To the north of the sanctuary can be found the prytaneion and the Philippeion, as well as the array of treasuries representing the various city states. The metroon lies to the south of these treasuries, with the Echo Stoa to the East. To the south of the sanctuary is the South Stoa and the Bouleuterion, whereas the West side houses the palaestra, the workshop of Pheidias, the Gymnasion and the Leonidaion. Enclosed within the temenos are the temples of Hera and Zeus, the Pelopion and the area of the altar, where the sacrifices were made. The hippodrome and later stadium were also to the East.

Discovery

The excavation of Olympia was attributed to German-born archaeologist Ernst Curtius. Curtius was extremely systematic in his work. In the period from 1875 to 1881, almost the whole of Olympia was unearthed, revealing some of the most beautiful artistic pieces of Ancient Greece. Besides numerous coins and inscriptions, Curtius also found the well-preserved statue of Hermes carrying the infant Dionysus by Praxiteles. Curtius also found the temple of Hera, the altar of Zeus, the former site of the enormous statue of Zeus (one of the Seven Wonders of the World), and the original location of the Olympic stadium, where the Olympic Games took place in Ancient Greece.

Ernst Curtius was 24 years old when he first visited Olympia in 1838, working at the time with the German scholar of Greek literature and art, Karl Otfried Muller. But it wasn't until 37 years later that he began the enormous task of completely excavating the entire sanctuary at Olympia. Of course, Curtius wasn't the first person interested in Olympia. Written records about the athletic festivals included a report by the Greek traveller Pausanias, who attended the games about the year 174 C.E. Antiquarian interest in the site started in 1723, when the French scholar Bernard de Montfaucon [1655-1741] failed to get enough funding to take it on. The German archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann [1717-1768] was also interested in it around 1768, but his funding also fell through. A small French expedition was undertaken in 1829, but it wasn't until 1875 that all of the pieces were in place.

The scientific expedition—the largest of its kind at the time, and one of the largest ever carried out—was funded by the German government under the direction of Curtius and with the assistance and support of the best archaeologists of the period, including Friedrich Adler and Wilhelm Dorpfeld. Six years later, most of the buildings reported by Pausanias had been cleared and identified, including the Heraion, the Temple of Zeus, the Metroon, the Philippeion, the precinct of Pelops, and the Echo Colonnade. Artifacts from the expedition were to remain in Greece, according to the contracts drawn up between the Greek and German governments; but most of the largest statuary had been looted in antiquity, by the Romans for the most part.

History

In contrast to most Greek sites, Olympia is green and lush, amidst groves of trees. Here was the great Sanctuary of Zeus, the Altis, and the setting for the Olympic Games. For over a thousand years, in peace and war, the Greeks assembled here to celebrate this great festival. The name Altis came from a corruption of the Elean word for grove, alsos . Sanctuaries were centers of religious worship where the Greeks built temples, treasuries, altars, statues, and other structures.

The simple crown of wild olive was sufficient to immortalize the victor, his family, and his city. The crowns made of olive leaves came from a wild olive tree in the Altis, which was called the olive of the Beautiful Crown. Olive trees, which supplied the Greeks with olive oil, olives, a cleaning agent for bathing, and a base for perfumes, were an important resource in the rocky and dry Greek environment. A Greek legend credited the hero Herakles (Hercules) with introducing the olive tree to Greece.

The earliest building remains at Olympia are a cluster of Bronze Age houses at the base of the Kronos hill. The ruins of one of these houses were preserved by the Greeks as the megaron of Oinomaos, the legendary king. Nearby was established the tumulus of Pelops, who defeated Oinomaos in a chariot race to Isthmia, and, in the same area, the Altar to Zeus was established.

During the 7th century B.C.E., one of the very earliest monumental Greek temples was built here, originally a temple to both Zeus and Hera. But later, after the establishment of the great Temple of Zeus, it served Hera alone. The temple was made of wood, but gradually was replaced in stone. The surviving capitals date to every period, from the late 7th century B.C.E. to Roman times. At the west end of the cella stood the archaic sculptures of Zeus and Hera, and the head of Hera has been recovered in the excavations. Here also was found the famous Hermes, sculpted by Praxiteles.

Although the first Olympiad is thought to have been in 776 B.C.E., bronze votive figures of the Geometric period (10th-8th century B.C.E.) reveal that the sanctuary was in use before that date. The festival took place every four years over a five-day period in the late summer during a sacred truce, observed by all Greek cities. The first recorded ancient Olympic Game was the one held in the year 776 B.C.E., when Koroibos, a cook from the nearby city of Elis, won the stadion race, a foot race 600 feet long. According to some literary traditions, this was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 Olympic festivals or until 724 B.C.E. From 776 B.C.E., the Games were held in Olympia every four years for almost 12 centuries. Contrary evidence, both literary and archaeological, suggests that the games may have existed at Olympia much earlier than this date, perhaps as early as the 10th or 9th century B.C.E.

The celebration of the Olympic Games in antiquity was an occasion for citizens of scattered Greek city-states to assemble. At the Games they discussed important political issues, celebrated common military victories and even formed political and military alliances. But the Games were not only a forum in which to discuss political events; they were also the cause of political conflict.

Control of the Sanctuary and the Games brought with it prestige, economic advantages and, most importantly, political influence. As early as the 7th century B.C.E. we hear of disputes over the control of the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia between the city of Elis (30 miles to the north) and the small neighboring town of Pisa.

The games carried on, even as Greece's power declined Rome's rose. Although the Olympics continued to enjoy a measure of prestige, the varying political and economic changes of the Hellenistic and Roman periods affected both the site and the games. Eventually, earthquakes decimated Olympia's architecture, and repeated floodings of the Alpheus and Kladeus Rivers buried the site. This vast site went missing for almost a millenium before its rediscovery and excavation under 16 ft. of yellow silt.

Archaeological Findings

The Palaestra

The palaestra at Olympia is part of the gymnasium at the sanctuary. This sixty-six meter square building dates to the end of the third or beginning of the second century B.C.E.

File:Palestra at Olympia.jpg

palaestra at Olympia

The palaestra is oriented precisely to the cardinal points and is very symmetrical in plan. Like all palaestra, the palaestra at Olympia is centered around a large courtyard covered with sand for use as a boxing or wrestling surface. Along all four sides of the palaestra are rooms that opened onto the porticoes.

The building is entered through the south side through two separate doorways, each with Corinthian columns distyle in antis, thus immediately establishing symmetry within the plan of the structure. The doorways open into bench-lined vestibules leading to anterooms that open directly onto the southern portico. Between the two anterooms is a long, shallow hall lined with benches and faced with Ionic columns. This room is identified as the apodyterion, or undressing room, a space that would need to be close to the main entrance and have room for athletes and friends to meet. Directly across from the apodyterion, along the north side of the palaestra is the ephebion, or clubroom. This large, colonnaded hall is deeper than the apodyterion but does not run the entire length of the courtyard. The entire north side of the palaestra has deep rooms, a feature mentioned by Vitruvius, which offered shelter from the sun. Also in the north side of the building is a doorway that leads directly into the rest of the adjoining gymnasium space. The room in the northeast corner of the palaestra is identified as a bathroom. The brick-lined, 4 meter square and 1.38 meter deep tank found here is dated to the Roman period, however.

An unusual feature of the palaestra is the 24.20 by 5.44 meter strip of concrete pavement on the north side of courtyard, which is formed with alternate bands of ribbed and smooth tiles arranged to create continuous ridges stretching the length of the pavement. This was probably a sort of bowling alley, as suggested by a similar pavement found at Pompeii with heavy stone balls on it.

It is not possible to say for what most of the other rooms lining the porticoes were used. Since Olympia had no resident population, the palaestra and gymnasium would not have included spaces for lectures or intellectual discourse and would have been used primarily by competitors in the sanctuary games. The stone benches found in six of rooms would certainly have been used by athletes and spectators rather than by intellectuals. The unidentified rooms of the palaestra would have included rooms such as the elaiothesion or oil store, the konisterion or dusting-room, rooms for storing athletic apparatus, and a few sphairisteria, which were rooms or open courts for ball play.

Artifacts

Statue of Zeus
Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 B.C.E. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving.

Olympia is also known for the gigantic ivory and gold statue of Zeus that used to stand there, sculpted by Pheidias, which was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Antipater of Sidon. Very close to the temple of Zeus (see photo of ruins below) which housed this statue, the studio of Pheidias was excavated in the 1950s. Evidence found there such as sculptor's tools, corroborates this opinion.

File:Hermes by Praxiteles.jpg

Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles

Excavation of the Olympia temple district and its surroundings began with a French expedition in 1829. German archaeologists continued the work in the latter part of the 19th century. The latter group uncovered, intact, the Hermes of Praxiteles statue, among other artifacts. In the middle of the 20th Century, the stadium where the running contests took place was excavated.

Sixteen bronze statues of Zeus, known as Zanes (plural of Zeus), were erected along the length of the Thisavron wall en route to the stadium and paid for by fines levied against athletes accused of violating the laws of the Games.

Of all the treasures donated to the Temple of Hera and put on display, the most impressive was a cedar chest inlaid with ivory and gold, and covered with five rows of intricate figures and inscriptions. The temple also housed the bronze discus inscribed with the Sacred Truce, and an ivory and gold table where the olive crowns given to the athletic victors were set out.

Olympia Today

The modern Olympic Games came to be revived through the efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France. Though an Olympic Game has never been wholly hosted at Olympia, the men's and women's shot put competition for the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics was held at the restored stadium.

The idea of the Olympic torch or Olympic Flame was first inaugurated in the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. There was no torch relay in the ancient Olympic Games. There were known, however, torch relays in other ancient Greek athletic festivals including those held at Athens. The modern Olympic torch relay was first instituted at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

The ancient ruins sits north of the Alfeios River and lies next to Cronius or Kronios hill (the hill of Kronos, or Saturn). Kladeos, a tributary of Alfeios, flows around the area.

The town has a school and a square (plateia). Tourism is popular throughout the late-20th century. The city has a train station and is the easternmost terminus of the line of Olympia-Pyrgos (Ilia). The train station which the freight yard is west of it is about 300 m east of the town centre.

It is linked by GR-74 and the new road was opened in the 1980s, the next stretch N and NE of Olympia will open in around 2005. Distance from Pyrgos is 20 km E(old: 21 km), about 50 km SW of Lampeia, W of Tripoli and Arcadia and 4 km north of Krestena and N of Kyparissia and Messenia. The highway passed north of the ancient ruins.

Ruins of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Greece

A reservoir is located 2 km southwest damming up the Alfeios river and has a road from Olympia and Krestena which in the late-1990s has been closed.

The area is hilly and mountainous, most of the area within Olympia is forested.

External links

• Perseus Digital Library, Ancient Olympia
• The Real Story of the Ancient Olympics
• An Olympic Excavation
• Perseus Digital Library, Olympia
• Athletic history in the palaestra
• The Official Website of Olympia, Greece
• Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, (1898): "Olympic Games"
• traveljournals.net - Olympia
• Olympia photos and info
• traveljournals.net/explore/greece/map/m1214007/olimbia_arkhaia traveljournals.net - Ancient Olympia
• GTP - Ancient Olympia
• GTP - Municipality of Ancient Olympia
• GTP - Ancient Olympia
• Olympia photo gallery
• Indexmundi - Olympia
• Olympia - extensive black and white photo-essays of the site and related artifacts

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