Olympia
was a Panhellenic sanctuary, open to all Greeks. Every four years
in late summer, thousands of Greeks from all over the known world
converged at Olympia for the Games held in honor of Zeus. The
first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC. They continued uninterrupted
for over a thousand years, until around 400 BC. In the 6th Century
BC, an earthquake toppled all the buildings and the site was abandoned.
Nearby rivers covered the site with a deep layer of silt, protecting
the ruins until excavations began in 1875. The modern visitor
can see the foundations of all the important buildings and can
view a wide array of artifacts in a museum on the site. In 1896
the first modern Olympic Games where held in Athens. Ancient Olympia
lies 10 km. east of Pirgos, in a valley between the wooded mountain
Kronos, the Allfios river and its tributary, the Kladeos.
A
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GAMES
According
to legend, this area was inhabited by the Pisans. Their king was
Oinomaus, whose daughter Hippodameia had married Pelops. There
are indications that already by 1000 BC, Games were being held
in honor of the couple. Though exclusively local at the start,
the games began gradually to attract the interest of the other
towns in the Vicinity. In 776 BC, the leader of the eleians, Iphitos,
rededicated the Games to the honor of Zeus. This date marks the
first Olympiad. Afterwards, every four years Pan-Hellenic contests
were held attracting athletes from all the Greek city-states.
While the Games were taking place The Olympic Truce was in force
and all hostilities suspended. The victor’s price was a crown
made from a wild olive branch, which was always cut from the same
tree, the Kallistefano. The crowd in praise of the winner shouted
“Tinella Kallinike” – Well done, Glorious Victor. And back in
the voctor's birthplace, people would knock down the city walls.
The
Olympic Games, which included the foot race, wrestling, the pankration,
the pentathlon, chariot racing, and horse racing, as well as artistic
and literary competition, come to an end in 393 AD, with the prohibitory
edict of Theodosios I. Fifteen centuries later, in 1896, they
were revived where they had been born, in Greece, by the French
historian and educator Pier De Coubertin. Since then every four
years a torchbearer, like the ancient heralds, was starting out
from Olympia bearing the sacred flame to the place where the Games
were held. To oversee the organization of the games, an International
Olympic Academy was founded with headquarters in Olympia since
1961.
THE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
The
first building on the left is the Prytaneion, where ceremonies
honoring the winners took place. Further south Philippeion and
next to it the Heraion, a Doric Temple dedicated to Hera. Special
running races, the Heraia, were held in her honor in which only
virgins from Eleia could participate. Southwest of the Heraion
lies the Pelopion, an altar dedicated to Pelops, from whom the
Peloponnese is named. Nearby is the Doric Temple of Zeus (472
BC); here stood the famous gold and ivory statue of the god, a
work of Pheidias.
Outside
the sacred grove of the Altis are ruins of other buildings: the
Bouleuterion or Council House, where the athletes were taking
the Olympic oath; the Leonidaion, used as a hostel for official
visitors; the Palaistra (wrestling school), Gymnasium and the
Baths. The treasures, placed at the foot of Mt. Kronos, were small
edifices raised by each city to house sacrificial vessels. Next
to them stands the Nymphaion, a semi-circular marble tank that
held Olympia’s water supply. Just beyond the treasure lie the
stadium and the Stoa Poikile or Echo Colonnade, and near it the
Nero’s house. Set in the shade stands the monument containing
the heart of de Coubertin, the man who revived the Olympic Games.
THE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
Olympia’s
new museum lies in a shady grove opposite to the site. Here are
displayed findings from the area, and among them there are the
stone head of Hera, Praxiteles’ marble statue of Hermes (330 BC),
the Victory by Paionios (421 BC), Miltiades’ helmet, the terra
cotta group of Zeus carrying Ganymede, and the sculptures from
the pediments and metopes of the Temple of Zeus, among the most
important works of Classical art. There are also pottery, terra
cotta and bronze figurines, votive offerings from the sanctuary,
etc.
MUSEUM
OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Very
near to the ancient site lies the modern village of Olympia. Here
one of its prettiest buildings houses the Museum of the Olympic
Games, the only one of its kind in the world. It contains mementos
connected with the history of the Games and a unique series of
postage stamps, designed by Papastephanos - Provatakis commemorating
the Games.
