Ολυμπία/Ancient Olympia

After the trauma of last night’s midnight-dash through a huge storm in search of cover and higher ground, we decided not to take any chances and to treat ourselves to a nice camping spot at our next stop. For that, we drove south 55km to reach Ancient Olympia and there, we got lucky. We found a gorgeous campsite up in the hills and booked ourselves in for three nights to take a bit of a breather as it had been a busy few days. What a place! The views from this hillside site were stunning, the pool was incredible (it was a really deep pool) and just knowing that the sites of Ancient Olympia were right below us was a thrill in itself. We paid €33 per night including EHU.

Camping Alfios Olympia; 37.643089900179774, 21.62010726222467

Ancient Olympia 

Our campsite is about a 15 minute walk down a steep hill to the site of Ancient Olympia and we took the opportunity several times to wander that way during our stay, to visit both the site and the museums (and the cafés, for gyros and icecream!).

The archeological site is located in a lush, tree-filled valley between two rivers, the Alpheios and the Kladeos. In it are buildings from the Archaic period, the Classical period, the Hellenistic period and the Roman period, showing the importance of this site over many centuries. The oldest buildings are the Temple of Hera, the Pelopion (a monument which later became a sacrificial altar), the Bouleuterion (council buildings) and the Treasuries buildings. These were built during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, although the site is thought to have been occupied since 1500 BCE, with a religious cult dedicated to worshiping Zeus developing around 1000 BCE.

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The organization of the Olympic games and the development of this site are thought to have been one of the main contributors to Greeks developing their sense of belonging to a unifying Hellenic culture. One of the most important parts of the ritual of the Olympic Games was the Sacred Truce, the suspension of all hostilities within Greece before, during and after the Games. Officials travelled to all the Greek cities in order to announce the Sacred Truce and the date of the Games. Only Greek men (and, later, boys) could take part in the Games, those whose parents were also Greek free citizens. Competitors had to present themselves to the sanctuary at Ancient Olympia a month before the beginning of the Games in order that their heritage and physical condition could be checked.

The Classical period is said to have been the golden age of Olympia, the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. During this time, the Temple of Zeus was built, along with the Greek baths, the completion of the Olympic Stadium, the Hippodrome (for chariot racing) and the Prytaneion, the building where winners met with officials.

During the Hellenistic period, 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, the site was further developed to accommodate the large numbers attending the Games, including the largest building on the site, the Leonidaion (a lodging place for athletes and guests), the Palaestra (a centre for wrestling), the Gymnasium (training facility and meeting place for athletes, much like today!) and more bath houses. It is thought that the sanctuary of Olympia gradually began losing its lustre in late Hellenistic times and into the early Roman era.

However, during the Roman period, Olympia underwent a revival and the Olympic Games were opened up to all citizens of the Roman Empire. There was a new flurry of construction and renovation during this period. New baths replaced the older Greek examples in 100 CE and an aqueduct was constructed in 160 CE.  Eventually, though, after the 293rd Olympic Games, in 393 CE, Emperor Theodosius I banned the Games and ordered that the sanctuary be torched. This was due to the connection the Games held to pagan deities, in an era when Christian religion was becoming dominant throughout the Roman empire.

The site also suffered extensive damage from earthquakes from the 4th to the 6th centuries CE. Eventually the site was entirely covered following flooding, tsunamis and landslides, and was abandoned entirely by the 7th century. The site was rediscovered in 1766 by the antiquarian Richard Chandler. Excavations began in 1829, which means that they have been ongoing for almost two centuries! There are two excellent museums near the site now – the Archaeological Museum, and the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games. We visited them on separate days as there is so much to take in! 

Bronze age settlement

A prehistoric settlement was discovered on the site of Ancient Olympia, dating from around 2150 – 2000 BCE. The houses had stone foundations and items were located within them such as vases, jugs and pots. The vases have incised decorative motifs on them, showing connections between this group of people and those of the Cetina culture of the Dalmatian coast during the early Bronze Age.

The Temple of Zeus

The function of the entire site of Ancient Olympia, of course, was to pay homage to the greatest of the Greek gods, Zeus, the sky and thunder god. The American Heritage Dictionary tells us that we can equate Greek ‘Zeu pater’ (‘Zeus father’ in the vocative, as seen in The Iliad), Latin ‘Iū-piter’ (Jupiter), and Vedic Sanskrit ‘dyauṣ pitar’ and reconstruct an Indo-European deity, *Dyēus pəter, who was associated with the sky and addressed as ‘father’. In Irish today, even, we have ‘Dia’ and in Welsh ‘Duw’, words clearly also related to our Indo-European origins.

But back to Zeus! Evidence of the cult of Zeus at the sanctuary of Olympia is found in more than 6,000 dedications that were placed in the ashes of the great Altar of Zeus, dating from the 8th century BCE and earlier. This ash altar grew to be a over 8m tall over the centuries and was made up of the ashes of repeated ceremonial sacrifices. It was situated near to where the Temple of Zeus was later constructed. Items found on the spot where this ash altar once piled high include bronze and clay figurines of Zeus as well as charioteers and chariots, and also remnants of bone from animal sacrifices offered to Zeus. In later centuries, buildings were constructed in order to worship and praise him, and an oracle was also built here in order to put questions of a military nature to this most important and powerful of gods. The Olympic festival and games, which began in the 8th century BCE, were dedicated to Zeus and many statues in the sanctuary were commissioned by winners of Olympic games and dedicated to him.

The Temple of Zeus is said to have been a fully developed classical Greek temple of Doric order, one of the earliest constructed in this style. (Saul gives more detail about the various styles of building in his history post, Doric being one of the three major classical orders of Greek and Roman architecture. Doric refers to the style of column used in a building; these are the simplest style of column, with no base and plain, round tops.) Nothing remains of the Temple of Zeus now only ruins but, at one time, it housed the Statue of Zeus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This statue was made of gold and ivory and stood 13m high. It was created by the sculptor Pheidias and its completion took approximately 13 years. It featured Zeus sitting on a cedarwood throne decorated with ebony, ivory, gold and precious stones. The statue was destroyed by fires in the 5th century CE. Our knowledge of it comes from its depiction on coins and descriptions in Greek texts, for example, those of the geographers Strabo and Pausanias.

The Workshop of Pheidias

As mentioned above, the 13m tall gold and ivory statue of Zeus was crafted by the renowned Athenian sculptor Pheidias around 435 BCE. Ruins of Pheidias’s workshop still remain and in this workshop were found items relating to the creation of the statue of Zeus, such as terracotta moulds and tools.

Olympia: the history of athletics and the Olympic Games

The first Olympic Games were held at this site in 776 BCE and were held every four years at this same site until 393 CE, so that’s a continuous period of 1,169 years. The games were held at the second full moon following the summer solstice (corresponding with August in our calendar). To begin with, the Games lasted for one day only. When the Games were then expanded to include chariot races, the Games lasted two days and, when boys’ games were included, the Games lasted three days.

Women were not permitted to participate in, or even spectate at, the Olympic Games.

The Olympic flame at the Temple of Hera

We were fascinated to discover that the Olympic flame even today is lit by the reflection of sunlight in a parabolic mirror in front of the Temple of Hera. This ceremony starts the Olympic torch relay, which formally ends with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The flame then continues to burn in the cauldron for the duration of the Games, until it is extinguished during the closing ceremony.

This tradition of the Olympic flame has been in place since the Amsterdam Games of 1928. The idea was derived from the traditions of Ancient Greece, as a sacred fire had been kept burning throughout the celebration of the Ancient Olympics at the altar of the sanctuary of Hestia.

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This link below shows the ceremony of the lighting of the Olympic Flame for the still-delayed Tokyo Olympics. The flame lighting doesn’t actually begin until 49 minutes in; prior to that, a lot of men in suits are doing a lot of talking.

The Philippeion

These are the ruins of the Philippeion, an iconic circular memorial in limestone and marble. It is the only structure at this site which was dedicated to a person and not a god. It contained statues of Philip II and also his son, Alexander the Great. It commemorated Philip’s victory at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE (against other Greeks, Athens and the Thebes!) and to validate Philip’s status as a great Greek leader, coming as he did from Macedonia. It is the only circular building here and is encircled by a collonade.

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The Olympic Stadium

The Stadium dates from the 5th century BCE. There were stone markers for the start and finish lines and the length of the track was 192.27m. Only the judges had stone seats and the rest of the crowd watched from the embankments. The capacity of the stadium is thought to have been around 45,000. 

When the modern Olympic Games came to Athens in 2004, the men’s and women’s shotput competition was held at the restored Olympia Stadium.

Echo Stoa and the columns of Ptolemy II & Arsinoe II

Beside the entrance to the Stadium once stood a building called the Echo Stoa or the Echo Portica. It is almost 100m in length and it would originally have been a covered walkway, lined with inner and outer Doric style columns.  In ancient Greece, a stoa was used for a variety of reasons including selling and display of goods, and religious or public meetings. The stoa at Olympia was built during the Classical period, 4th century BCE, and was named the Echo Stoa because of the excellent acoustics. Any one word uttered within this structure was said to echo seven times.

In front of the Echo Stoa there once stood monuments of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his sister-wife, Arsinoe II.

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The Palaestra

This was a large 66m.sq. building. It contained an inner central court area and the building was surrounded by columns on all sides. There were also special rooms cordoned off for dressing areas, baths, oiling and dusting areas. This building was used as a training and preparation area for those competing in wrestling, boxing and jumping. Poets and orators also used this area as a platform for communication of their philosophies and ideas.

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Finally, Morgan and Olwen share with you their impressions of Ancient Olympia: