Grand Olympia

"Speaking of scale, it was eye-opening to walk the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. This was the place where often warring city-states came together in treaty to worship Zeus, train and compete with each other in 'games.' This was where the ancient Olympic Games occurred. It was more for war training and competing for honorable recognition. The place also acted like Switzerland in our day with stored treasures at the foot of Mt. Olympus where they were protected by the sanctuary of Zeus, but also as a status symbol of success in conquests.

The students of CYA had fun running the 'stade,' one length of the stadium field under the instruction for the 'correct' way to use the grooved starting blocks and running form of the ancients. Olympia is mostly a large field of fallen stones, but the mind can easily reconstruct a bit of how it might have looked. We know from books that the Temple of Zeus housed one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the massive statue of Zeus himself. Only by a few standing columns can we imagine the awesomeness the ancients must have experienced upon seeing his majesty. The museum pieces at the various stops along this (field) trip help us to appreciate the true magnificence of their ability to articulate stone and marble to create images of their gods (and heroes) and belief stories.." ~from Chuck's journal

artist reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia was an ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the god Zeus. The temple, built between 472 and 456 BC, was the very model of the fully developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order...It housed the renowned statue of Zeus, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Chryselephantine statue was approximately 13 m (43 ft) high and was made by the sculptor Phidias in his workshop on the site at Olympia. He took about twelve years to complete it. On his head was a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand he held a figure of Nike, the goddess of victory, also made from ivory and gold, and in his left hand, a scepter made with many kinds of metal, with an eagle perched on the top. His sandals were made of gold and so was his robe. His garments were carved with animals and with lilies. The throne was decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory.

The statue was the most famous artistic work in Greece. The Roman general Mummius dedicated twenty-one gilded shields after he sacked Corinth in 146 BCE; they were fixed at the metopes of the eastern front side and the eastern half of the south side. In 426 CE, Theodosius II ordered the destruction of the sanctuary, and earthquakes in 522 and 551 devastated the ruins and left the Temple of Zeus partially buried. The site of the ancient sanctuary, long forgotten under landslips and flood siltation, was identified in 1766. In 1829 a French team partially excavated the Temple of Zeus, taking several fragments of the pediments to the Musée du Louvre. Systematic excavation began in 1875, under the direction the German Archaeological Institute, and has continued, with some interruptions, to the present time.

Olympia (Greek: Ὀλυμπία); a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times. The Olympic Games were held every four years throughout Classical Antiquity, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. The first Olympic Games were in honor of Zeus. ~wiki