ANCIENT
OLYMPIA
Ancient
Olympia lies 10 km. East of Pirgos, in a valley between wooded
mt. 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.There king
was Oinomaus, whose daughter Hippodameia had married Pelops.There
are indications that already by 1000BC, games were being held
in honor of the couple. Through exclusively local at the start,
the games began gradually to attract the interest of the other
towns in the Vicinity. In 776BC, the leader of the eleians,
Iphitos, rededicated the games to the honor 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 taken 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. “Tinella Kallinike” – Well done,
glorious victor – shouted the crowd in praise of the winner.
Back in his 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 393AD, 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, starts out from Olympia bearing the sacred
flame to the place where the Games are held. To oversee the
organization of the games, an international Olympic academy
was founded with headquarters since 1961 in Olympia.
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 in the Doric temple of Zeus (472BC);
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 took 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 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 the site. Here are
displayed finds from the area, among them 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 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
