An Olympic Size Day

Sunday, November 2, 2008
Olympia, Greece

Watering the hills above Olympia. No one was sure if it was for fire prevention or for landslide prevention or a little bit of both.

Well my very unwelcome 0700 wake-up call came far too early for my liking. My hotel happens to be across the street from a church and as it is Sunday morning the church likes to remind everyone of that fact early and often, so there was no sleeping in today. Although I did take my time getting ready as the few things there are to see here in Olympia did not open too early. I did eventually make my way over to the site of Ancient Olympia.

The remains of the gymnasium. Yes you do need to use your imagination.

Me with one of the baths. At some point there would have been an outdoor pool as well as the warm and hot pools for use by the athletes. All part of the training.

So I lucked out today as the entrance to everything was free and it was not too busy. A bunch of tour buses from the cruise ships but actually not that bad. Ancient Olympia is of course the site of the original Olympic games (the first games being staged in 776 BC) and the location where athletes would have trained, lived and worshipped in the weeks leading up to the games. The area consists of the archaeological site itself as well as 3 museums, the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Antiquity and the Museum of the History of the Excavations in Olympia.

One of the columns at the site. Most of the pieces are there, they are just not together. On a return visit I may find myself looking at this column upright as there are doing a lot of work in the area.

A few more of the ruins. This is the Basilica which would have been converted from something else into the church in later years.

I of course went straight to the site itself (saved the museums for later). While not much is left you can still see where the open air pools were, the gymnasium, the crypt and of course the Stadium itself. The remains of the Bouleuterion were also there, which was a meeting place for athletes and officials and the place where the athletes would have taken their oath before the start of competition.

Me with the Philippeion which dates around 338 BC.

While the whole area was very neat to see but there were a few big highlights. First there is Hera’s Altar which does not look like much but since 1936 it is the location where the Olympic Torch is lit and the torch relay begins (for both the summer and winter games).

Yeah, this is Hera's Altar. Like I said, doesn't look like much but still very neat to see.

The next spot is of course the Stadium. Once again not much to see but certainly a lot to feel. For thousands of years Greek's greatest athletes put their skills to the test here.

The main areas you can see are the stage where the judges and probably senators would have sat. Opposite to them is the goddess’s altar. This is where the Priestess of Demeter Chamyne would have sat. She was a local god considered to be connected with the earth and farming. She also happened to be the only woman who was allowed in the Stadium while the games took place. Competition was for men only but so was watching. Really was neat to be there. I did take a complete lap around the track. I walked it so I had time to soak it all in. Some of us will remember that the stadium was used for the shot put competition during the 2004 Athens Olympics. Can’t imagine trying to concentrate on competing in a place like that.

The ultimate highlight of ancient Olympia is of course the Temple Of Zeus. Of course the original Olympic Games were dedicated to Zeus and the Temple and I guess its contents are considered one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world (I have now visited 2). It is simply a shadow of what it would have been. Hardly anything to see but with a little imagination you can see all of its greatest. And to stand there and to be able to say I was there is the best feeling ever.

Me with the remains of the Temple of Zeus.

Another thing I really liked was the Bases of Zanes (the plural form of Zeus). This was a row of statues of Zeus that lined the walk way that the athletes would travel to enter the stadium. What was different about these statues though is that they would bare the names and infractions of athletes who were caught cheating. All competing athletes would have to walk by them as a warning of what would happen to those who did not play by the rules.

What is left of the Bases of Zanes.

I then headed to the museums, starting with the Archaeological museum. It was full of many of the artifacts that would have been found during the excavations of the Ancient Olympia Site including a large number of items from the Temple of Zeus. Very cool to see all of that stuff.

A marble statue of Nike.

Hermes of Praxiteles (dated 340-330 BC).

A few of the items removed from the Temple of Zeus. The whole thing tells a story (which was a little hard to follow so I will not write it here.)

The Nike of Paeonios. This was a votive offering to Zeus from the Messenians and the Naupactians for their victory over the Spartans in the Archidameian war (probably around 421 BC)

The Museum of the History of the Olympic Games of Antiquity was also very neat. It gave a rundown of the games from their inception. Some very interesting things to learn including that the games originally were only a day long. The number of days gradually increased as the number of events increased. There were 2 stipulations for athletes to be able to compete, they had to be Greek and they had to be free citizens (of course in the early years they also had to be men but that was just a given I think). Also, they use to have two types of javelin, one similar to what we have now where a person runs and throws (a then) wooden stick, but they also had javelin on horseback where they would try to hit a target (usually a shield tied to a tree). My favourite though is that they use to have an age category called “beardless youths”. I guess that is how they separated the boys from the…boys.

The final museum was very small but the Museum of the History of the Excavations in Olympia basically went through the entire history of the excavations in Olympia starting in 1806 and continuing today. You can still see areas where they are restoring and recovering new pieces to the Olympia puzzle. I guess their job will never really be complete.

Well that took up all of the morning but left my afternoon pretty much free. I debated heading to my next location but knew that due to the bus schedule I would just end up being stranded somewhere along the way so decided to stay here where I knew I had a decent hotel at a good price. Olympia is pretty much dead this time of year. It is the end of the season so not many people. Once the tour buses leave there is not much going on. Luckily everything is still open but I am told after about the 10th or 12th of the month all that changes too and the place shuts down for about 5 months.

Anyone? Yeah I have no idea what it says either.

It was kind of nice to just hang out and relax. The sun was out today. Certainly will be nice to get out of here tomorrow though. Some of the local men seem to have taken a liking to me and that is making things very uncomfortable for me (I was given a bracelet and a ring today and the men seem to like to draw attention to their crotch). I actually feel so uncomfortable that I had planned to spend the evening on a couch in a café but am spending it instead on the balcony of my hotel. I just don’t feel comfortable sitting out there alone. Hopefully this will change when I get to another place. I thought the language would be the biggest issue. I have been proved wrong.

One of the restaurants I spent a little time at.

Julie