Ancient Olympia
"Anyone
who has experienced a wild winter storm in the Alpheios valley and seen
the sky resplendent with blinding lightning, or who has deen startled by
a sudden mighty thunderclap on a stifling summer's day, will have no
reason to doubt that this isolated part of the western Peloponnese is
indeed the most important Sanctuary of Zeus, wielder of thunderbolts and
father of the Gods."
Klaus Herrmann
"Olympia. The sanctuary and the contests"
One
of the most important sanctuaries of antiquity, dedicated to the father
of the gods Olympian Zeus. Olympia is the birth-place of the Olympic
Games and also where they were held.
The
ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook
from the nearby city of Elis, won the stadion race, a foot race 600 feet
long. Although the ancient Games were staged in Olympia, Greece, from
776 BC through 393 AD, it took 1503 years for the Olympics to return.The
ancient Olympic Games, part of a major religious festival honoring Zeus,
the chief Greek god, were the biggest event in their world. They were
the scene of political rivalries between people from different parts of
the Greek world, and the site of controversies, boasts, public
announcements and humiliations.The ancient Greeks were architectural
innovators. The temple of Zeus, designed by the architect Libon, was one
of the largest Doric temples built in Greece. Libon tried to build the
temple in an ideal system of proportions, so that the distance between
the columns was harmoniously proportional to their height, and the other
architectural elements were sized proportionately as well.
The
excavations at Olympia were begun in May 1829, two years after the
battle of Navarino, by. French archaeologists.The finds (metopes from
the opisthodomus and parts of the metopes from the pronaos of the Temple
of Zeus) were transferred to the Louvre where they are still being
exhibited. When the Greek government was informed of the looting of
artifacts, the excavation was stopped.Excavations started again 45 years
later by German archaeologists. The research is being continued to this
day by the German Institute of Archaeology in Athens, and the Ephorate
of Antiquities in Olympia.
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