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 (7th century BC) to the Philippeion, honoring Philip of Macedon, built about 300 years later.
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 (7th century BC) to the Philippeion, honoring Philip of Macedon, built about 300 years later.
At the end of the 4th century AD, Christian
rulers abolished the games and soon after ordered the burning of the
temples. In the 6th 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.
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.
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