Tours: Gods of Olympia

Discover Olympia's splendor under the watchful eye of the gods.

Opening RemarksWorkshop of PhidiasOlive Tree of ZeusPelops, the Legendary FounderHeraionHeraHekatombTemple of ZeusZeusChryselephantine Statue of ZeusClosing Remarks

• Barnabas: Welcome, friend, to this especially sacred part of the Olympian sanctuary!

("Who are you?")

• Barnabas: My name is Barnabas, and I am a ship captain. Don't be fooled by my scarred eye. Though I've seen my share of combat, I mostly stick to trading these days. Well, trading and introducing visitors like you to wonderful sites like this.

("What do you think of this place?")

• Barnabas: This place is practically vibrating with divine energy. I feel like if I look over my shoulder right now, Zeus will be staring back at me!

("Let's begin the tour.")

• Barnabas: The sanctuary of Olympia was dedicated to Zeus, king of the gods. It had close connections to the divine, as you will see very soon. I'll come find you when you're done, and we can talk about what you've learned.

Phidias sculpting, modern decor in the Louvre Museum by Nicolas Gosse (1787-1878) and Auguste Vinchon (1789-1855) / 19th cent. CE (Modern period)

This workshop was built for the renowned Phidias after his work on the Akropolis of Athens.

In 435 BCE, Phidias came to Olympia to begin working on the great chryselephantine statue of Zeus.

He died five years later, shortly after completing his masterpiece.

This grand statue would have become one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Phidias' workshop was located right next to the Temple of Zeus.

Its structure has been well preserved, mostly owing to its conversion to a church in the 5th century CE.

Archaeologists have also discovered lots of ancient materials in the surrounding area, such as casting molds and sculpting tools.

The most famous artifact, however, is a cup bearing an inscription that aggresively states: "I belong to Phidias!"

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Phidias was part of Perikles' inner circle. Gowever, this did not prevent him from being accused of impiety and exiled from Athens. He was charged with stealing gold intended for the statue of Athena in the Parthenon, and for attempting to portray himself and Perikles on the shield of Athena. Many other friends of Perikles, such as Aspasia and Anaxagoras, were also persecuted around the same time.

Engraved gold ring depicting Nike, a personification of victory / 400-350 BCE (Classical Greece)

On the fifth and final day of the Olympic Games, victors attended a ceremony where they were crowned with olive wreathes and showered in flowers.

The crowns came from the sacred olive tree of Zeus, which was planted near the god's temple.

A young boy trimmed the branches with a golden sickle before giving them to the hellanodikai to turn into wreathes.

After the crowning ceremony, it was time for great feasting and celebration.

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The list of Olympic winners is known mainly from two sources: Pausanias and Eusebius. By cross-referencing these sources with other documents, we know that there were approximately 3,500 winners from 776 BCE to 277 BCE. However, only about 800 of these people are officially known.

Amongst the victors were several remarkable athletes, such as Kallias of Athens. Kallias not only won the pankration event 472 BCE, but he was also the first Athenian to win at each of the four Panhellenic Games.

Diagoras of Rhodes, meanwhile, won the boxing event in Olympia in 464 BCE, and his two sons and two grandsons were also Olympic victors.

But perhaps the most famous athlete from antiquity was the boxer Theagenes of Thasos. In Olympia, he won the boxing event in 480 BCE, and the pankration event in 476 BCE. He also won ten times at the isthmian Games, nine times at the Nemean Games, and three times at the Pythian Games, in addition to winning several other regional games. After his death, Theagenes was made a hero by his countrymen, who honored him with a cult.

Red-figure krater with scene of Pelops, Hippodameia and Oinomaos / 4th cent. BCE (Classical Greece)

Pelops was both a legendary Greek hero, and the mythological founder of the Olympic Games.

According to legend, Pelops fell in love with the beautiful Hippodameia.

Her father Oinomaos, the king of Pisa, disapproved of their union.

Having once heard a prophecy that he would be killed by his son-in-law, Oinomaos was known to challenge his daughter's suitors to chariot races, killing them when he won.

Still, Pelops was determined to win Hippodameia's heart.

Before the race, he enlisted the help of Poseidon, who gave him a golden chariot with four winged horses.

Pelops was able to win both the race and the hand of his beloved, while Oinomaos was dragged to death by his horses.

The start of this famous race was depicted on the eastern pediment of the Temple of Zeus.

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In Greek mythology, Pelop's father was Tantalos, the king of Sypilos in Lydia. The gods favored Tantalos, and often invited him to their feasts.

At one such feast, Tantalos tried serving his son Pelops to the gods, as a way of testing them. He cut Pelops into pieces and made his flesh into a stew. Only Demeter, distracted by the loss of her daughter Persephone, ate Pelop's shoulder; the other gods sensed the king's treachery and did not partake in the stew.

Zeus punished Tantlos by sending him to Tartaros, where he could not quench his thirst or sate his hunger. Any water or fruit he reached for shrank continually away from his grasp – serving as the origin for the word "tantalize".

With Tantalos taken care of, Zeus reassembled Pelops and brought him back to life, with the exception of his eaten shoulder, which was replaced with an ivory prosthetic made by Hephaistos.

Stater of Elis for Olympia depicting Hera and a thunderbolt / 400 BCE (Classical Greece)

The Heraoin was a temple dedicated to Hera.

It is one of the oldest temples in the sanctuary, dating back to approximately 590 BCE.

The structure included columns painted with images of women who won the Heraia, an athletic competition made up of running events.

Every four years, sixteen women were chosen to make a veil dedicated to Hera.

These women also organized the competition, though they did not compete in it.

The Heraia was unique for its focus on female athletes, in contrast to the male-exclusive Olympic Games.

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According to Pausanias, the Heraion was filled with several statues and votive offerings. Besides statues of Hera and Zeus, there was also a marble statue of Hermes holding an infant Dionysos – a masterpiece of the famous sculptor Praxiteles which has survived to the present day. Other statues mentioned by the traveler have disappeared, including statues of the Hesperides, Athena, Apollo, Demeter, Kore, and more.

Pausanias also described different offerings, such as the chest of Kypselos, the first tyrant of Korinth. When Kypselos was a baby, his mother put him in this chest to hide him from the Bacchiadai, who were seeking to consolidate their power in the city. As thanks to the gods, Kypselos later dedicated the chest to Olympia.

The temple also contained the disc of Iphitos, which was inscribed with the truce put in place by the [[Elis|Eleans}} during the Olympic Games. Finally, there was the gold and ivory table of Kolotes, where the olive wreaths intended for Olympic victors were displayed.

Beside the temple was the altar of Hera, which since 1936 has served to light the modern Olympic flame.

Marble statue of Hera, Roman copy of a Greek original from 3rd cent. BCE / 2nd cent. CE (Roman period)

Hera was the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth.

She ruled Mount Olympos as queen of the gods, along with her husband and brother, Zeus.

Many mythological stories paint her as being annoyed at Zeus' many lovers and illegitimate offspring.

In Greek art, Hera is usually depicted as matronly and regal, often wearing a crown or sitting on a throne.

She is also sometimes seen holding a pomegranate - a symbol of both fertility and death.

Hera's cult was very popular across Greece, and Olympia even minted her image on its coinage.

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Hera played a part in several myths. One such famous story is the Judgement of Paris, a beauty contest between Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena.

During the Peleos, all the gods were invited except Eris, the goddess of discord. When she decided to come anyway, she was turned away on the order of Zeus. Angered, Eris threw a golden apple into the celebration with an inscription that read "to the fairest", or "to the most beautiful". Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple. Non wanted to arbirate the goddesses' argument, so Zeus asked Hermes to bring them to Mount Ida to be judged by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam.

Each goddess tried to sway Paris with a promise. Hera promised he would rule Asia, Athena offered him wisdom, fame and glory, and Aphrodite promised to make Helen of Sparta – the most beautiful mortal in the world – his wife. Paris chose Aphrodite, and the other goddesses, enraged, brought about the Trojan War.

Scene of a sacrifice on a red-figure krater / 5th cent. BCE (Classical Greece)

One of the highlights of the Olympic Games was a ceremony that took place on the third day of the festival.

It began with a procession of athletes, ambassadors, hellanodikai, and animals.

The group made their way around the Altis until they arrived at the Temple of Zeus.

Then, the animals were brought in front of the Altar of Zeus and offered as a sacrifice.

This sacrifice was known as a hekatomb, a word that originally described the sacrifice of 100 oxen.

During the hekatomb, the bones and legs of the animals were burned and carried to the top of a mound of ashes from previous sacrifices.

Meanwhile, the meat of the animals was saved for a large banquet held later in the evening.

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The sanctuary of Olympia is an ancient religious place. Long before the creation of the Games, the Altis was home to an oracle of Gaia. Gaia was a Greek primordial deity who was seen as the personification of the Earth. Her oracle was later supplanted by an oracle of Zeus Ouranos, though it's possibly the two co-existed for a time.

The Oracle of Zeus also eventually disappeared, probably because of the development of other major oracular sites like Delphi and Dodona. However, divination continued to be practiced in Olympia in the form of soothsayers.

Soothsayers were among the principal priests in Olympia. They engaged in a practice called hieroscopy, in which they studies the entrails of sacrificed animals to interpret the thoughts of Zeus.

Metope from the Temple of Zeus depicting Herakles and the Kretan Bull / 460 BCE (Classical Greece)

The Olympic Games were dedicated to Zeus, and all the ceremonies and events were hosted in his honor.

It's no surprise that the largest temple in the sanctuary was the Temple of Zeus.

While most temples were restricted to priests, the Temple of Zeus welcomed all who visited Olympia.

This openness was most likely meant to show off the gold and ivory statue of Zeus that stood within the temple's walls.

The building also featured art depicting both versions of the Olympic festival's founding myth.

The eastern pediment showed a scene from the legendary race between Pelops and Oinomaos.

The temple's metopes, meanwhile, showed the twelve labors of Herakles, the other mythical founder of the games.

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Not only was the Temple of Zeus the largest temple in Olympia; it was also the largest temple in all of the Peloponnese region.

The abduction of Europa by Zeus in the form of a bull, scene from red-figure vase / 450 BCE (Classical Greece)

Zeus was the god of sky and thunder, and king of the Olympians. He ruled the world from his home on Mount Olympos.

The child of Kronos the Titan, Zeus overthrew his father and cast the Titans out in a great battle known as the Titanomachy.

He had children of his own with his wife Hera, including Ares, Hephaistos, Hebe, and Eileithyia.

He also had many children without Hera, much to her consternation, but there are too many to list here.

Zeus was believed to have control over the lives of mortals, as his many epithets attest to.

For example, his title "Horkios" made him a keeper of oeaths, while "Xenios" was the name conferred to him as a protector of hospitality.

In Greek art, Zeus was usually depicted holding a thunderbolt and sitting on a throne, befitting his position as king.

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Zeus' numerous extra-marital dalliances with mortal women provoked the rage of the very jealous Hera. They also resulted in the birth of many Greek heroes.

Zeus would often transform himself for the purpose of seduction. For example, he approached Antiope as a satyr, transformed into a swan for Leda, and changed into a bull for Europa. Sometimes he even inpersonated other humans, like when he appeared to Alcmene as her husband Amphitryon - an act of deception that lead to the birth of Herakles.

Roman era bronze copy of the chryselephantine statue of Zeus by Phidias / 1st-2nd cent. CE (Roman period)

The Temple of Zeus was home to the chryselephantine statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The statue - made of gold, ivory, and wood - was sculpted by the renowned artist Phidias.

At thirteen meters tall, it was as impressive looking as it was difficult to maintain.

Oil was used to to protect the wood and ivory from cracking, and to prevent general decay.

While the statue does not exist today, it was thankfull described by Pausanias in great detail, so its legacy lives on.

Learn More: The seven wonders of the ancient world is a list of seven remarkable constructions from antiquity. The oldest version of this list dates back to the 2nd-1st centuries BCE, and is attributed to Antipater of Sidon.

Incredily, the oldest of these wonders is also the only one to have survived: the Great Pyramid of Giza. All the others were destroyed, including the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Colossus of Rhodes.

The Colossus of Rhodes was the last built, in 280 BCE, and the one with the shortest lifespan, as it was destroyed by an earthquake about 50 years later.

• Barnabas: Hello again! I hoped you enjoyed your visit, and feel a little bit closer to the gods. Well, as close as a mortal can get. Is there anything else you'd like to do?

("I'm ready for the quiz.") ("Take on the next suggested tour.") ("Take me on a random tour.") ([LEAVE] "That's all for now.")

• Barnabas: Farewell for now, my friend!