Ancient Olympia

 Oct 2

After another Gartagani Guesthouse breakfast, we headed down from the mountains towards Olympia. The drive was twisty but not terrible, though Google misled us in one village and there were a few hair-raising moments when it looked like we were meant to drive down a rocky embankment, but we did get back on track with not too much actual danger to life and limb. 

The car barely squeezed between these two walls. Google misdirection.

The road became wide enough, except when a farmer was moving his equipment.

Arriving in Olympia, we were happy to find much warmer temperatures than in the hills. In fact, it was hot in the sun, and we sought shade. We stopped in a little mom-and-pop place for lunch. I think we're learning how to eat in Greece, sharing dishes rather than ordering something for each of us. Portions are large, and plates are often a la carte, so if you order, say, fish, you get just fish. Today we had filo-wrapped cheese pies, a green salad, beets, and tzatziki. It felt like a reasonable and healthy lunch, better than we’d been doing before now, and everything was fresh, which it wasn’t up in the hills. 

We visited what we’d come here for, the ancient site of Olympia. It was much as I’d expected, mostly a bunch of rubble with very little reconstruction. Still, it’s fascinating to imagine the grandeur that was once here, and to see the remains of structures that mark the beginnings of the Olympic games. We spent some time just sitting in the stadium, where the Olympic flame is lit for every Olympic games before it starts its journey to whatever city is hosting in any given year. One can’t help but be awed in these places.

Pillars outlining what was once an arcade around a space for combat sports such as wrestling

Searching for something, anything

Inside Phidias's workshop, where he made the statue of Zeus that later became designated as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world

Pillar bases are all that's left of this temple

The one pillar still standing in the Temple os Zeus.

Lots of rubble as the Temple collapsed in an earthquake

Similar to the iconic Tholos of Delphi, this is a partial reconstruction of the Philippaeon

This arch was the end of a long tunnel through which the athletes would enter the stadium

 

The original Olympic Stadium. If you look closely, you might see two people midway down.

There is evidence of building in Olympia from the 8th century BCE, and recent excavation have revealed prehistoric occupation of the site. Olympia flourished until the 4th century CE, when earthquakes toppled temples and invaders plundered monuments. The Olympic festival was eventually banned by the Christian emperor Theodosius. Flooding led the site to be abandoned finally in the early 7th Century.

But what’s fascinating to me is that this huge, important site was buried under up to 8 metres of silt and wasn’t re-discovered until the late 18th century -- it had disappeared and no one seemed to remember it. The first excavations began in 1829, and some major structures were only revealed as late as 1972. Excavation continues still.

As always, the artifacts from the site are now housed in a nearby museum. There we saw the remains of the pediment sculptures from the Temple of Zeus, the largest religious structure of the site, second in size only to the Parthenon. Seeing the size of the sculptures helps us realize just how immense the temple was. We saw helmets and statues and lots of pottery.

Nike, the victory goddess. Same goddess as "Winged Victory" in the Louvre

I like this helmet because it's similar to the one on the cover of "Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller, a book I recommend if you're interested in the Trojan War

Pediment statuary and spectators. The temple was massive.

We walked the short walk back to town. The current municipality of Archaia Olympia, the official name of the town, was nonexistent before the excavations of the ancient site began to draw public interest. So this is a town developed purely for tourism (aside from the need for housing for the excavation workers), and it shows. It’s a pretty setting, but it’s Disneyland. Tacky shop after tacky shop, taverna after taverna. We sat in one of them for a while, enjoying cool Radlers, until it was time to think about dinner, which we had in one of the cavernous tavernas designed for the tourbus crowd. Hundreds of tables, but fortunately for us, few of them were filled tonight. The wine was terrible.

 

Barely drinkable wine from a half-litre copper carafe. Cheers!