Olympia, Greece: Where It All Began

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

 

Every fourth summer enthusiastic travelers start thinking about the Olympic Games. They sometimes find they have left it too late: spectator seats are sold-out and the flights going, this year to China, may well already be full. If so go to the Games’ origins. There’s much to see in Greece, the "cradle of civilization" and a visit to that country may be more easily arranged especially at short notice. A visit to Olympia itself would be special, and not just because that's where it all began. The museum in Olympia is fabulous. It’s about 180 miles from Athens and has some of the most magnificent exhibits in Greece. Many tour operators run day trips out of Athens.

Yesterday and Today

Of course, the games have changed since 776 BC, when athletes competed in the nude and only men were allowed to watch the events. The priestess of Demeter received exemption, but her seat was placed some distance from the activities. Several local women caught watching from a cliff one year were hurled to their deaths as punishment. Their fate was no more violent than the fate of competitors in the pankration (no-holds-barred wrestling), where winners often received their medals posthumously.

You don't get a sense of this brutality, though, when you tour the ruined grounds of Olympia—just the grandeur of the land and its place in history. The domed entrance to the stadium still stands. Beyond it lies the 210-yard long field of packed earth that was flattened in the fourth century BC for foot races. The paved areas for the starting and finishing lines are still in place here and there. A careful eye can discern the grooves in the stones where runners placed their feet at the start of the races.

The games had enormous prestige in ancient times. Every four years, a truce was called between the warring city-states of Greece for three months. The athletes were then safe to travel across the difficult terrain of the Peloponnesus peninsula to get to Olympia, which was a site of worship before the glory days of Greece. Gradually, politics began to intrude.

In AD 69, the Emperor Nero successfully contrived to fix the games and declared himself the winner. By that time, however, the games at Olympia had declined in significance. The Romans, who had long dominated the games, were past their peak. In fact, it's said that for the last 200 years of their existence, the games resembled little more than banal street fairs.

Finally, in AD 393, the Christian emperor Theodosius banned the games, considering them to be pagan festivals. Then in AD 426, his successor, Theodosius II, ordered the site at Olympia to be destroyed and had the famous statue of Zeus by Phidias moved to Constantinople. In AD 475, a fire destroyed the 40-foot ivory and gold statue, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

In the 6th century, natural disasters struck. Oddly, these disasters saved what was left of Olympia. First, earthquakes toppled the remaining 50,000 statues, which had been created for the winners of certain events since the games' inception. Then, unforgiving floods buried everything that was left standing with many layers of protective mud.

Olympia Uncovered

Excavations in the 19th century uncovered unexpected artifacts, which are now on display in Olympia's museum. Some of the treasures uncovered include the Helmet of Miltiades, the victorious general at the Battle of Marathon; the Statue of Hermes by Praxiteles, which is arguably the most renowned work of ancient Greek sculpture; and parts of the pediments and metopes of the Temple of Zeus.

As we examined the displayed metopes, which illustrate the 12 labors of Hercules, the museum guide shed light on the Greek culture. "Hercules is bearing the world on his shoulders, but the effort is too much for him. And despite his strength, he falters," the guide pointed out. "So the goddess Athena comes up behind and adds some support. We Greeks believe this is true of life—if you're doing your best, the gods will help a little."