7/5 Olympia

At the confluence of two rivers, the Alpheios and the Kladeos, and in somewhat of an inland and semi-remote location lies the ancient city of Olympia. It is by far the most important cultural and ritualistic pilgrimage site for the Greeks. All of Greek civilization and worship can be dated to a singular, zero point in time: 776 BC, when they began counting their years forward. What has been uncovered here is the same typical pattern as other ancient cities: the classic/archaic civilizations are built on top of the prehistoric civilizations’ foundations. An interesting figure from the ancient record books whom I had never heard of before was Pelops, the mythical king of this area from which we get the name Peloponnesian. Legend has it that the previous king before Pelops, Oinomos, received a message from the oracle that said someday his son-in-law will kill him. Stunned by this news, he institutes a chariot race (manifest destiny?) in which the winning prize is his daughter’s hand in marriage. As Oinomos also participated in this race, if he won the race he would get to keep his daughter. According to the story, Oinomos never had lost this race; his horses were practically invincible. However, Pelops somehow wins the race, takes the daughter, Hippodamia, as his wife and kills the incumbent king. What is true and what is mythic about this story can sometimes be a blurred line. What does survive out of this is a sense of competition; who is individually better at something.

Another myth associated with Olympia is the story of Hercules, who diverts the rivers as part of his 12 labors. What arises from this legend is the allegorical nature of mankind being able to cultivate the land. With all of these myths surrounding this ancient location, it is fairly evident that Olympia played such a significant role in the lives of ancient Greeks. Mount Olympus takes its name from this very spot, as well as it being the location of the Temple of Zeus, the supreme deity.

Laying low on the land instead of high upon a mountain overlooking a dramatic landscape, the Temple of Zeus evokes for the Greeks a feeling of permanence, power, stability, and thus is built on flat ground, near the people. Built during the 4^th century BCE by Libon, a local to Olympia, it is considered a masterpiece and model of Doric temple architecture. The key module here as opposed to other temples is the module of the column + its intercolumnation length. Every temple in antiquity had its own module from which it worked, and as a result it is very hard to find two temples that are exactly alike in all aspects. This particular temple is unique in that aspect and also because of the statue which was contained inside. The giant statue of Zeus, standing 42’ tall and designed by Phidias (who also designed the statue of Athena at the Acropolis), was one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. The parts of Zeus body that were exposed outside his toga were made of gold and ivory, the rest being a wooden scaffolding.

My final presentation took place today, this time the topic being the Ancient Olympic Games (and quite the appropriate location). While we can’t always verify the veracity of the ancient myths we’re told, we can derive from them some aspect of truth that has ingrained itself into our society. The story of the Olympic Games has many mythologies attached to it. It ran for around 1000 years, from 776BCE to 400AD. One story has the games evolving from funerary games that were held to honor local gods and heroes. Instead of mourning a life, the Greeks would tend to celebrate it and make the occasion as joyous as it possibly could. Another creation myth states that Hercules performed a job for Augeas, and when he refused to pay him, Hercules kills Augeas. Hercules then took the spoils from Augeas’ empire and set up an annual competition to be held every 4 years to win ‘prizes’ from these spoils. This latter tale is taken from the poet Pindar, who lived around 300 years after the start of the original games. In any case, the games evolved into a series of competitions that were intended to praise Zeus, Father of the Gods and God of Thunder. Remember, the Greeks were highly competitive, as shown through the earlier myth I recounted about Oinomos and Pelops. The question was always, who is better at this one activity? Who can run faster? Who can throw a stone farther? Who is stronger? Ad infinitum. The citizens’ main goal was to honor Zeus at his Altis, which was the site believed to be where Zeus hurled his thunderbolt from Mt. Olympus.

As a result, the entire stadium is arranged so that the participants in the 200m dash would run toward this sacred place, thus reinforcing their shared reverence for him. People would come from all over the ancient world to be a part of this competition. Eventually, Olympia would be populated with various temples, monuments, statues, and treasuries that would be a constant reminder of achievements of the past and a veritable trophy case of past victories. These ancient games also had a spirit of togetherness and peace, parallel to the Modern Games. Every 4 years, a group of heralds would go around to the different Greek city-states and announce the Olympic Truce: a written agreement to end any hostility between warring neighbors for the brief time of the Olympics in order to have a peaceful competition. Similar to today where the symbolic 5 rings, representing the original 5 continents to participate in the games, are the main symbol of togetherness and peace, the goal of any Olympic games is to realize our common humanity if just for a brief moment in time. Eventually, the popularity of these games spread to other parts of Greece. A circuit of other games included:

1. Pythian Games @ Delphi in honor of Apollo

2. Isthmian Games @ Corinth in honor of Poseidon

3. Nemean Games @ Nemea, also in honor of Zeus

Of course, I was disappointed not to win the ancient Stadion running race that we recreated on this day, as I was a member of the track team in high school. Even so, it was quite an experience to re-enact one of the most famous foot races in all of the ancient world IN OLYMPIA, running in the same stadium as some of the famous ancient athletes (none of which I can name). I can honestly say that visiting Greece was a one of a kind experience. The differences and similarities between Greek and Roman cultures are innumerable, but one difference that stood out to me was the food. Italy is all about the pasta and pizza, with less of an emphasis on protein and meat. The Greeks, on the other hand, love their gyros made of either lamb or chicken. The dining experience is somewhat similar though, as restaurants in both countries would theoretically let you sit there for hours on end if you wanted to.

Aside from the food, architecturally the two cultures are vastly different in terms of their conceptions of their citizens and the manifestations of their citizens. The Greeks as a people don’t have a verifiable starting date to their civilization; the concept of being a citizen is ingrained within their culture. The Romans, on the other hand, have a definite starting date to civilization: April 21, 753 BC. There were no “Romans” before this date. In terms of their cities, The Romans were much more systematic and rigid in the making of their urban fabrics. The Greeks’ cities were more fluid; they didn’t find the need to lay out their cities in such inelastic arrangements. They found the best sites for their cities and laid buildings out according to an unwritten doctrine that stressed the need to experience important civic and religious structures, like temples, as a complete three-dimensional construct.