Olympia

Saturday, May 4

It was overcast as we set out this morning for Ancient Olympia, about 2 ½ hours away.  At last night’s party, when we talked about our plans for today, we got a bit of advice concerning the potential routes we might take to our destination.  We could travel on the main roads or take a more scenic path, which our “council of advisors” described with all manner of hand gestures and sound effects.  We figured we’d try one from Column A and one from Column B and opted for scenic wonder first.  A narrow road climbed and rose through mountainous terrain and passed through a series of hill-hugging vertical towns and villages.  A steady rain and an occasional ribbon of clouds below us added to the visual drama, while sounding the car’s horn on blind curves provided the audio accompaniment.  

By the time we arrived at the archeological site, the rain had diminished and it soon stopped altogether.  The site of the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC until 393 AD actually known as the Sanctuary of Olympia, is quite large and contains the ruins of temples, training facilities, a hotel, thermal baths, the Bouleuterion,  (a council chamber where athletes took an oath not to cheat while stomping on the balls of castrated bulls), a sculptor’s studio, treasuries, the home of the eternal flame, a winner’s circle, stadium, and even a walk of shame, where cheating athletes were called out publicly and their names spat upon.  

The original games were actually religious events, held to honor Zeus, king of the gods and patron of the games. His temple sits in the center of Olympia, its columns strewn about in segments around all four sides of the raised platform.  One column has been reassembled and helps to make the scale of the original temple understandable. It covered an area of about half an acre and was six stories high, with columns whose capitals weighed 12 tons!  An enormous statue of Zeus, constructed just a short distance from the temple, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and it dominated one end of the temple; though theories abound, no one knows for certain what happened to the statue.

Male (only) athletes came from all over the Greek world to train (physically and morally), honor the gods, and compete.  The stadium held 45,000 (standing) spectators – men, boys, and girls (no women allowed) and winners were crowned with olive (not laurel) wreaths, fashioned from a tree planted on the spot by Hercules! 

Mythology, religion, sport and history are all bound up with each other in Olympia.  The structures at Olympia range in age from the Temple of Hera (7^th century BC) to the Philippeion, honoring Philip of Macedon, built about 300 years later. 

At the end of the 4^th century AD, Christian rulers abolished the games and soon after ordered the burning of the temples.  In the 6^th century, earthquakes, floods and mudslides forced the abandonment of the site, which was eventually buried under 25 feet of silt, which helped preserve what was left until excavations began in 1875.

Though there were many tour groups visiting today, the size of the site and its spacious tree-shaded walkways allowed for quiet strolls among the ruins and an unhurried visit.  It was well worth the trip from our home base.

Many of the treasures and artifacts found at Olympia are displayed at the adjacent Archeological Museum.  Among the most striking are the marble statues from the east and west pediments of the Temple of Zeus, the statue of Nike that had stood above the Winner’s Circle, and the huge sun disk that had topped the Temple of Hera.  Along with an excellent model of thee archeological site, with its buildings reconstructed, the contents of the museum really helped bring Ancient Olympia to life.

We took the main roads back to Nafplion, and they were plenty scenic, if not quite as dramatic as our morning ride.  All of our rides around Nafplion have been enhanced by the lovely   Citrus groves line the roads and there is plenty of fruit for sale at small stands along the way.  We bought a huge bag of oranges and are looking forward to tucking into it in the days to come.  When we were at last night’s barbeque, we sat at a table under a lemon tree in the backyard.  When I remarked about the fact that it’s bearing fruit now, while ours at home do so during the winter, Adonia said that hers bears seven times a year!  As we were eating, Dimitris would just reach up, pluck a lemon, cut it in half, and squeeze juice liberally over the meat; it was great!
scent of orange blossoms.

It was so late by the time we got in from dinner last night that I forgot to mention something that greatly amused the gathering.  We were talking about language, overcoming barriers to communication, the English vocabulary that we find as motifs on t-shirts all over the world and other related topics.  When I said that we commonly use the phrase, “It’s Greek to me” to signify that something is incomprehensible, they loved it, and said that they sometimes say something similar, but use Chinese rather than Greek!

This is our last night here; tomorrow we move on to another location on the Peloponnese Peninsula, bringing with us some lovely memories.