Travel – The Peloponnese – Olympia

This is an excerpt from my book Travels through History : The Peloponnese currently available at a discount.

Olympia is the place to explain the legend regarding how The Peloponnese got its name, or more correctly, who the Peloponnese is named after and why. The reason for this lies in the archaeological museum here and more about this at the end of this description of Olympia. If you visit Olympia in the summer months, it’s best to look around the site in the earlier part of the day and then go into the museum or museums when the sun becomes hotter. 

Pelops is the central figure in the legend, and The Peloponnese is named after him. He was the son of Tantalus and the father of Atreus, about whom I’ve already written in the story about Mycenae. Pelops wanted to marry Hippodamia, who was the daughter of the local king, Oenomaos. The only problem was that Oenomaos had been told by an oracle that his son-in-law would kill him. He had a very secure method of ensuring no one would ever marry Hippodamia and this was to challenge her suitor to a chariot race where the winner would put the loser to death. 

Oenomaos had an advantage in that the horses on his chariot team had wings. Somehow, Pelops bribed the royal charioteer to sabotage the chariot of Oenomaos and, sure enough, during the race, a wheel fell off and Pelops was the winner. He duly killed Oenomaos, married Hippodamia, and became king of the area that now bears his name, The Peloponnese. According to legend, Hercules established the gymnastics and athletic contests in honour of Pelops. 

The Olympic Games started in 776 BC and it’s thought the famous Spartan law-giver, Lycurgus, may have been one founder, along with a King Iphitos of Pisa, an ancient city very close to where Olympia is located. They had the idea to invite people from all over Greece to attend and compete, so they declared a truce for an entire month to entice attendance. The sporting contests took place during the summer at the same time as religious ceremonies. 

The athletic events only lasted for five days, but competitors had to train properly in the presence of a jury to show they were worthy of inclusion in the games. The foot races, wrestling, fighting, and pentathlon all took place in the stadium. There is a Museum of the History of the Ancient Olympic Games at the site where you can read about the famous athletes of the time such as Leonidas of Rhodes and Milos of Croton, as well as see examples of the discuses and weights used by competitors. 

During Roman times, Emperor Nero introduced music and poetry competitions, so he could take part himself. He won seven prizes. With the rise of Christianity, the spectators were watching events that no longer had the same religious significance. Then the Emperor Theodosius outlawed pagan worship, and this brought the end of the ancient Olympic Games in 393 AD. There is a Museum of the Modern Olympic Games in the new town of Olympia too. 

The ruins are quite extensive, but first I will reference a statue that is no longer at Olympia. The Statue of Zeus was a giant seated figure, about 12.4 m (41 ft) tall, created around 435 BC. This statue was one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. The Eleans, custodians of the Olympic Games, commissioned the statue for their newly constructed Temple of Zeus. Phidias sculpted the statue from ivory and gold panels on a wooden substructure. No copy in marble or bronze has survived. As you might expect, Pausanias left a detailed description: the statue had a sculpted wreath of olive sprays for a crown and wore a gilded robe made from glass and carved with animals and lilies. Its right hand held a small statue of the goddess, Nike, overlaid with gold and ivory. The left hand held a sceptre inlaid with metals, supporting an eagle. The vast throne featured painted figures, wrought images, and was decorated with gold and precious stones. When the Olympics ended in 393 AD, the statue was sent to Constantinople, where it was destroyed by a fire in 475 AD. 

As for the ruins that are at Olympia, the first place to see should probably be the stadium whose entrance shows the remains of the vaulting that linked it to the sanctuary area with its temples and votive offerings. The start and finish lines are still discernible and the distance between them, called a Stadion, is approximately 177 metres. The all-male crowd would have watched from temporary wooden stands around the sides. As the games became more popular, they enlarged the stadium until it could hold twenty thousand people. The Echo Portico, with its facade of forty-four columns, separated the stadium and the sanctuary. A human voice would echo seven times here. Coming out of the stadium on the right is the Terrace of the Treasuries with its small Doric temples, built by Greek cities abroad (e.g. Byzantium, Cyrene in Africa) to receive offerings made to the gods. Continuing in the same direction you come to the Exedra of Iridou Atikou, built in 160 AD by Herodes Atticus, a semicircular monument supplying drinking water. Further on are the re-erected columns of the Temple of Hera or the Heraion.