From the Ship's Log:   Tuesday, May 22, 2012 Katakolon (Olympia), Greece 7:07am      Pilot Embarked 7:31am      Safely Docked 2:38pm      Vessel Undocked and Underway

The original Olympics began in the eleventh century B.C. as a small regional festival, dedicated to the god Zeus. The origins of the town itself are the Mycenaeans who worshipped the goddess Rhea, sister of Cronus and mother of Zeus. Zeus went on to become the "top god" and the founder of the Olympic games. the first Olympic games were held in 776 B.C. and reached their height of popularity in 576 B.C. The events included foot races, wrestling, discus, javelin, long-jump, horse and chariot racing, and a type of boxing called pancratium. The games were banned in 426 by the emperor Theodosius II because they were pagan, and the temples were destroyed. The Olympic Games resumed once again in 1896 in Athens.

Legend aside, the ruins at Olympia, about thirty miles from our actual port at Katakolon, are among the most prominent in the ancient world and were, in fact, one of the wonders of the world. We are looking forward to seeing them.

Docking in Katakolon  

The distance from Corfu to the town of Katakolon (the nearest port for Olympia) was relatively short, and I am sure the captain of the Noordam took his time cruising through the night to get there. His average speed down the Greek coast was only 14 knots, well below the 20 he is capable of. But he timed the trip well, and by early in the morning, when I got up to have a bit of breakfast, we were approaching Katakolon.

Before I went up to eat, I stepped out on the balcony where I could see another cruise ship in the early morning light, about a mile or so away.

When we got back to the suite from our bit of breakfast, we had about a half hour before we had to head down to the lounge to hook up with our tour for today, so we went out on the balcony to take some pictures, and that's where Fred got his picture of Greg and I with our cameras.

The shore excursions were the first order of the day since, unlike many ports, we'll be leaving this one in mid-afternoon instead of early evening. We should have time, though, when we return from Olympia, to tour the little seaside town itself.

So we disembarked about eight-thirty, walked down the pier to the parking area, and boarded our bus for the trip to Olympia.

The Trip to Olympia  

Our shore excursion today will be a half-day trip to the town of Olympia, about twenty miles away from the port. There, our buses will let us off for our tour of the ruins at Olympia. Then, before we return, we'll have a chance to walk around the small town for a while.

Our early-morning drive took us first right down Katakolon's main street and then out on the highway towards Pirgos. Along the way, Fred got a few pictures of the countryside, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at them:

The trip ended as our bus drove slowly up the town of Olympia's main street to the crowded bus parking area near the ruins. There, our tour guide, a very nice Greek woman named Esther, gathered us around her sign (which we were supposed to stick close to, an admonition that lasted all of about a half-hour). While she was giving us the info on when to be back at the bus, I stepped over to read the introductory sign nearby. It's hard to read the sign in the picture, but you can see what it had to say (all signs here at Olympia had three languages- Greek, English and, for some reason, German) if you click here.

Then our tour guide led off, and we walked down the broad entrance avenue, across the bridge over the small stream that runs along the west side of the ruins site, and to the beginning of the ruins themselves. There, we found another informational sign, and you can read it if you click here.

Touring the Ruins of Olympia  

Olympia, a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times- the most famous games in history.

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. The detailed history of the Games belongs elsewhere; what we will be doing today is touring through that sanctuary, known as the Altis. (In my narrative here, I'll use the present tense in referring to the various buildings, but of course the buildings themselves no longer stand- at best their are ruins that give an idea of what the original structure looked like.)

The ancient ruins sit north of the Alfeios River and southwest of Mount Kronos (named after the Greek deity Kronos and seen in the picture at left). The Kladeos, a tributary of the Alfeios, flows under the bridge we crossed as we came into the site.

The Altis consists of an unordered arrangement of various buildings. Enclosed within this sacred enclosure are the Temple of Hera and Temple of Zeus, the Pelopion and the area of the altar, where the sacrifices were made. The hippodrome and later a stadium were to the east of the Altis. To the north of the actual sanctuary can be found the Prytaneion and the Philippeion, as well as the array of treasuries representing the various city states. The Metroon lies to the south of these treasuries, with the Echo Stoa to the East. To the south of the sanctuary is the South Stoa and the Bouleuterion, whereas the West side houses the Palaestra, the workshop of Pheidias, the Gymnasion and the Leonidaion.

It is hard for us to imagine, but the site was in use for over a millenium. The first games were held and the first structures built in 776 BC, and the Archaic Period of the site continued to 580 BC. The Classical Period, between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, was the golden age of the site at Olympia, and a number of new religious and secular structures were added. The Hellenistic Period ran from the late 4th century BC through 200 BC and, again, many structures were added or repurposed. During the Roman Period, the games were opened up to all citizens of the Empire, a number of new buildings were built or remodelled and an aqueduct was built (160 AD). This period and, indeed, the use of the site for the Games, came to an end in 393 AD when the Christian emperor, Theodosius I, banned the games as being pagan. Between that time and the late 1700s, when the site was re-discovered by the English antiquarian Richard Chandler, it appears that the site was buried by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea- the result of repeated tsunamis.

Olympia is also known for the gigantic ivory and gold statue of Zeus that used to stand there, sculpted by Pheidias, which was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Antipater of Sidon. Very close to the Temple of Zeus which housed this statue, the studio of Pheidias was excavated in the 1950s. Evidence found there, such as sculptor's tools, corroborates this opinion.

We began by following our tour guide, but keeping up with her, and getting close enough to listen turned out to be a problem, what with all the people at the site, and all the tour groups, so we eventually just went off on our own. Greg got separated from Fred and I, and then later on I got separated from Fred, but we all got back together on the bus.

To organize the pictures we took here at Olympia, I'm going to follow the general route that Fred and I took through the ruins here at Olympia, and show you one building/feature at a time. Some of the photos we took of the same building were taken at different times or from different angles, but I think I have them all organized pretty well.

So that you can follow us through Olympia, I thought I might use a site plan, but then it occurred to me that if the aerial views available from Google were good enough, I could use those instead, which would give you a better idea of what the site is like. So that is what I did; I stitched together a large aerial view of the site so the ruins are clearly visible, and I have marked not only the specific ruins that we visited but also our approximate route and some of the spots where we stopped.

If you will click on the button at left, a new window will open up containing a scrollable aerial view of the Olympia ruins site. It will have the major ruin elements marked on it as well as our route through them. You can leave this window open while you are reading the narrative and looking at the pictures, closing it when you are done with this section on the ruins here at Olympia.

Now let's begin our tour around the site here at Olympia.

Northeast Propylon  

When we entered the actual ruin site, we came in from the north down a broad path from the road that runs around the northern perimeter of the site.

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When we first entered the site, I stopped to make a movie- mostly just so you can see what the area looked like generally. It would have been interesting had there not been so many people around; with the crowds it was hard to put oneself back two millenia in time to try to get a "feeling" for what it must have been like. Anyway, you can watch that movie with the player at left.

At this point, we were at the approximate location of the north‑east propylon. A propylon is any monumental gateway based on the original Propylaea that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. The word is the union of the prefix "pro" (before or in front of) plus the the Greek "pylon" (gate), meaning literally "that which is before the gates," but the word has come to mean simply "gate building." The most famous Greek propylon is the one on the Acropolis; another well-known and often-photographed example is Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

There was an informational sign as we entered the complex, and you can look at it here.

(I know it is hard to read the English narrative, so I have enlarged it and put it in the scrollable window at right.)

The Kronion Thermae (Baths of Kronos)  

The Kronion Thermae is a large building complex with many architectural phases and functions. Over the central court and baths of the Hellenistic period, rooms with impressive mosaics were constructed in Roman times. It was destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the third century A.D. The last repair dates back to the fifth century A.D. During that period the thermae functioned as a place for agricultural activities.

In the view at left, you are looking northeast towards Mount Kronos.

The Prytaneion  

A "prytaneion" was seat of the "prytaneis" (executive), and so the seat of government in ancient Greece. The term is used to describe any of a range of ancient structures where officials met (normally relating to the government of a city). The Prytaneion normally stood in centre of the city, in the agora. The building contained the holy fire of Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, and symbol of the life of the city.

Here at Olympia, the Prytaneion is located just outside the northwest corner of the altis (the original sanctuary and "sacred" area of the city)- just north of the Temple of Hera. (You can see a view looking across the Prytaneion towards the Temple of Hera here.) In addition to housing the offices of the officials of the sanctuary, the Prytaneion at Olympia was also the building where the officials and winners of the Olympic games met. It is known to have included a special room for the sacred hearth with its eternal flame and a banquet hall where Olympic victors were entertained.

In the second century A.D. a wealthy Athenian named Herodes Atticus dedicated an exedra (fountain) to provide drinking water for visitors to the site. It was fed by an aqueduct which channeled water from a spring on the slopes of the Kronion. While we were listening to our guide, Fred took a picture of me at the Prytaneion, and I took a nice picture of him in front of the Prytaneion with the Temple of Hera in the background. You can see that picture here.

At Olympia, the Prytaneion was where the priests and magistrates lived; the high priests lived in a vanished structure called the Theokoleon. The Prytaneion also housed the Altar of Hestia where the original Olympic flame once burnt. You can learn more about the Prytaneion by reading the descriptive plaque here.

Here at the Prytaneion, I took a series of four pictures panning across the site, and then later stitched them together into a panorama. Here is the result:

The Philippeion  

Just before his death in 336 B.C., Philip II of Macedon began work on a circular monument known as the Philippeion to commemorate his victory over the Greeks at Chaeronea in 338 B.C.

There were two informational signs here at the Philippeion that you might want to read. The first gives some of the history and the architectural details of the ruin, and you can read that sign here. The other sign talks about the renovation of the monument; you can see in the picture at left that some work has been done to shore up some of the columns and walls. You can read that sign here.

Philip died before the structure was completed; it was finished on the order of his son, Alexander the Great, and included statues of all of the Macedonian kings (including no less than five of Alexander himself).

The Philippeion is inside the Altis of Olympia, and it was constructed in the Ionic style, using both ivory and gold (both of which materials have long since been removed). Three of the graceful Ionic columns still stand today. The Philippeion contained statues of Philip's family, Alexander the Great, Olympias, Amyntas III and Eurydice I- these statues the work of the Athenian sculptor Leochares. It was the only structure inside the Altis dedicated to a human.

In addition to the three columns that are standing, three other partial columns remain.

I thought the Philippeion was very inspiring. The combination of the three intact columns and especially the intact lintels on top of them were unlike anything else here at Olympia. Only in Athens and later in Ephesus did we see anything comparable. Use the clickable thumbnails below to see some other views of the Philippeion:

The Temple of Hera  

The Heraion (Temple of Hera) is the oldest surviving building on the site (it replaced an earlier version) and one of the most important and influential structures in the history of Greek architecture. It was dedicated to the wife of Zeus and one of the most important female deities in Greek pantheon. If you like, you can have a look at the informational sign here.

The temple was built towards the end of the seventh century B.C., at the foot of the Kronion. Like most Greek temples it faced east. It was one of the first examples of the Doric Order on the Greek mainland and retained a number of earlier features.

The platform and lower parts of the walls were built out of local limestone but the rest of the superstructure was of mud brick and the original columns were made out of wood. The latter were replaced (as necessary) with stone versions— a solitary wooden one was still standing as late as A.D. 173. The individual columns vary markedly in style and even in size (diameters vary by about a foot) which shows that they were put up at different times— presumably as individual acts of piety. The Temple of Hera was destroyed by an earthquake in the early 4th century A.D., and never rebuilt.

The cella was of the type known as a hecatompedon, meaning it was 100 Greek feet in length, and had porches at the front and rear, each with a pair of columns in antis. There are two rows of four columns running the length of the cella but the builders apparently did not trust the load-bearing capacity of these, so they alternated the columns with short partition walls creating a series of alcoves along each side.

It has a peripteros of 6 by 16 columns. These were originally wooden and were only gradually replaced with stone ones. As the replacements took place at widely differing periods between the Archaic and Roman periods and were carved under the influence of their respective contemporary styles, they differ considerably in proportions and detail.

Just up the hillside at the east end of the Temple is the Altar of Hera. One of the main features of the temple, it was used for the obvious reasons. The bowl of the altar is not original, and the supports have been partially rebuilt. You can read more about the Altar of Hera on the informational sign here.

Reports indicate that there were two cult statues inside the cella or naos, of the temple: a seated Hera and a standing Zeus. An Archaic stone head on display in Olympia museum may belong to the statue of Hera. The building was also used to store numerous other objects, including many further statues of deities and votive offerings. Among the few of these objects to survive is the statue generally identified as the Hermes of Praxiteles, one of the most important preserved examples of Greek sculpture. The temple also held the table on which the olive wreaths for the victors were displayed during the Olympic Games. In modern times, the temple is the location where the torch of the Olympic flame is lit, by focusing the rays of the sun.

At left are clickable thumbnails for five more of the pictures we took here at the Temple of Hera. It was one of the two most clearly-defined ruins here at Olympia, which made it easier to visualize it as it must have been two millenia ago.

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If you like, you can watch the short movie that I made of the Temple of Hera from my vantage point at the west end of the structure. You'll also see the Altar of Hera and portions of the Treasuries.

The Pelopion  

The Pelopion was an open air shrine, which presumably included a sacred grove, dedicated to Olympia's founding hero- Pelops- and was located right next to the Hera Temple on the south side.

It was enclosed by a perimeter wall (currently defined by a line of column stones) which was circular at first but this was replaced by a polygonal one with an elaborate propylon (gatehouse) in the sixth century B.C. Somewhere nearby, to the southeast of the Heraion, was the Great Altar of Zeus. No trace of it survives today— it was simply a huge mound of ashes, the residue of countless sacrifices over the course of more than a thousand years.

Actually, I wasn't sure why so many column sections were lying on the ground here; they did seem to be organized as coming from the same column. There was some restoration work going on in this area.

You can read the informational sign here.

The Nymphaeum  

A nymphaeum, in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs. These monuments were originally natural grottoes, which tradition assigned as habitations to the local nymphs. They were sometimes so arranged as to furnish a supply of water. One famous nymphaeum, dedicated to a local water nymph, Coventina, was built along Hadrian's Wall, in the northernmost reach of the Roman Empire. Subsequently, artificial grottoes took the place of natural ones.

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The nymphaeum here at Olympia is located just east of the Altar of Hera against the hillside on the north side of the ruins complex. You can use the player at left to watch the movie I made of it. Its history is interesting because of the second-century figure who had it built.

Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, otherwise known as Herodes Atticus (101-177), was a very distinguished, rich Greek aristocrat who served as a Roman Senator and a sophist. He was born in Marathon, Greece, but spent some of his childhood in Italy. He received an education in rhetoric and philosophy from many of the best Greek and Roman teachers, but remained entirely Greek in his cultural outlook.

Roman Emperor Hadrian in 125 appointed him as Prefect of the free cities in the Roman province of Asia. He then later returned to Athens, where he became famous as a teacher. In the year 140, he was elected and served as an Archon of Athens. Later in 140, the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, invited him to Rome from Athens to educate his two adopted sons, who were future Roman Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. He married a wealthy girl, Aspasia Annia Regilla, and became a Roman consul in 143.

Atticus and his wife were early real estate developers, controlling a large area of land around the Third Mile of the Appian Way outside of Rome; this allowed him to travel, write and teach. He had a distinguished reputation for his literary work, but most of it is now lost. He was a philanthropist and a patron of public works. He funded a number of building projects including stadia in Athens and Delphi, a theatre in Corinth, baths in Thermopylae, aqueducts at Canusium and Alexandria Troas and the nymphaeum here in Olympia.

Throughout his life, Atticus had a stormy relationship with the citizens of Athens (he was the Donald Trump of his time); but before he died he and the citizenry were reconciled and his many good works recognized. Upon his death, the citizens of Athens gave Atticus an honorary burial, the funeral being conducted in the Panathinaiko Stadium that he had built for the city.

The nymphaeum here at Olympia was a semi-circular affair with three circular fountains; these were fed by an aqueduct from the nearby river.

The Metroon  

Another building located within the Altis (sanctuary area) here in Olympia was a small temple known as the Metroon. It was located just east of the Temple of Hera and south of the hillside where the Hera's Altar and the Nymphaeum were situated.

The Metroon was built in the fourth century B.C. and dedicated to Cybele (aka, Rhea, Demeter), the great mother-goddess of Anatolia. The peripteral temple of Doric order had six columns in the narrow sides and eleven in the long sides. Sadly, little more than miscellaneous stones and blocks that archeologists theorize were part of that structure remain at the site today. Just on the north side of the Metroon, we came across a small monolith with an inscription in Greek on it. We meant to ask our guide what it was, but she was some distance away.

You can read the informational sign describing the Metroon here.

Near the Metroon, we stopped to look at two odd ruins. Each one was in the shape of a huge capsule that had been cut in half- or perhaps an arched doorway lying on its side. You'll see what I mean if you look at our picture of one of them here. The interior was sunken, and walled with rocks, stones and cut blocks. I believe that these structures were what the signage nearby called "Prehistoric Buildings." You can have a look at that sign here.

We took a number of other pictures here at the Metroon; you can have a look at them using the clickable thumbnails below:

The Treasuries  

On the north side of the ruins complex and on the lower slopes of the Kronion were the Treasuries, built by various Greek cities over the centuries to house their dedications to the sanctuary. Although only ten are mentioned by chroniclers of the times, the remains of twelve small buildings have been found.

The Treasuries at Olympia were a series of small temple‑shaped buildings, all but two of which were erected by Greek colonies to store valuable votive offerings. The Treasuries were built on the natural terrace at the foot of Mt. Kronos. The best preserved and earliest treasury is that dedicated by Sicyon.

The majority of these buildings dates from the 6th century B.C. and their construction is most likely related to the occupation of Pisa by the Eleans in 570 B.C.; they greatly supported the growth of the sanctuary. This was also a time of rapid economic development of the Greek cities. These during the same period. These buildings housed the valuable votive objects that the cities offered to the sanctuary, hence their name. The votive objects included gold and ivory items, as well as vessels made of precious metals. It is believed that the first Treasury belonged to Sikyon. Next followed the Treasuries of Syracuse, Epidamnus, Byzantium, Sybaris, Cyrene, two unidentified buildings, Selinus, Metapontum, Megara and Gela. Those of Byzantium, Selinus and Metapontum were built during the Classical era.

You can read the informational sign about the Treasuries here.

We took some additional pictures of the row of Treasuries, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at them:

The Crypte (Stadium Entrance)  

We continued eastward through the complex; the next major area to visit was the Stadium. There were a couple of ways to get into it. One was to follow a path that led up around the Treasuries and down into the bowl of the stadium. The other was to enter the stadium via the Crypte. You can see people following both these paths here.

At the base of the hill where the Treasuries were found, we encountered a row of what looked like pedestals as we went east towards the Crypte. These were the Bases of Zanes, and in fact they were indeed pedestals on which bronze statues of Zeus were placed. These statues were financed by fines levied on Olympic games competitors for cheating, and the statues were a kind of warning to the athletes as they entered the stadium to compete. You can read the informational sign about the Bases of Zanes here.

Passing the pedestals, we came to The Crypte, shown at left looking into the stadium. The Crypte was a passageway built around 200 B.C., in the Altis, in the northeast corner of the Stoa of Echo, right where the terrace of Treasuries ended. (We'll visit the Stoa when we leave the Stadium.) It was a construction that connected the Stadium with the sanctuary, it had a stone arched roof with a Corinthian order propylon (no longer visible) to the side of the temple.

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We walked through the Crypte and into the Stadium, turning around at the end of the passageway to get a view looking back to the Altis.

As soon as we got into the stadium, I scrambled up on the hill to our left- the other path into the stadium I mentioned before. There, I was able to get a good look at the tourists coming through the Crypte, and tried to imagine what it would have been like seeing the athletes enter the stadium millenia ago. As you use the player at right to watch my movie of the folks coming into the stadium through the Crypte, you'll have to use your own imagination to replace with them with the fit, trim, oiled bodies of the naked men that did the same thing a few thousand years ago.

Below are a some clickable thumbnails for a couple more pictures of The Crypte:

The Stadium  

The Stadium at Olympia was, of course, the venues for the athletic competitions; it is located east of the Altis, separated from it by the Echo Stoa, a long portico that offered shade to the visitor. The vaulted corridor called the Crypte led to the Stadion. If you would like to read the informative sign about the Stadion, you can do so here.

Originally, the Stadion it was simply a flat piece of ground one stade long with the finish line at the Altar of Zeus within the altis. But in the middle of the fifth century BC it was moved to the east, beyond the boundaries of the enclosure, and embankments were built to accommodate spectators. Most of them stood along the slopes but there was an area of seating midway along the southern side that was reserved for games officials. On the grassy slope on the north side of the stadion, there was a marble marker, the purpose of which we didn't discover.

I was taking pictures from the west slope of the stadion, and you can see a couple of views of me and the stadion in the pictures Fred took; just use the clickable thumbnails below:

There is no consensus as to what the length of a stadion actually is— surviving stadia tracks range anywhere from 550-750 feet long. The one at Olympia is over 650 feet. The runners appear to have run in lanes, since mention is made of a series of 5 stakes that each runner passed. In addition to the short sprint, there was a 2-stadia race, in which the runners turned at the far end of the track and raced back to the starting line. A long-distance race, the dolichos, was run over a distance of about three miles. It started and finished at the stadion but route wound through the sanctuary. It seems as if the "marathon" event was a more recent addition.

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The horse and chariot races took place in the hippodromos, which was located just south of and parallel to the stadion. According to one source, the race course was about a half mile long and a fifth of a mile wide. There was a wall running the length of it, with turning points at either end. The ancient travel writer, Pausanias, describes an elaborate starting mechanism and embankments on either side but none of this is visible today. It was long believed that all trace of it had been obliterated in medieval times by the flooding of the Alphaos River, but in 2008, German archaeologists using geomagnetic techniques claimed to have traced a good deal of it.

The stadium was a holy place for the ancient Greeks and was originally located west of its present location, allowing spectators able to view races from the slopes of Mt. Kronos. It was gradually relocated east until it reached its present location in the early 5th century B.C. All the seats were earthen, although on the southern slope there was a stone platform, the exedra, on which the Hellanodikai, the judges, would sit. Opposite this, on the north slope, was an altar to Demeter Chamyne. The stadium could hold 50,000 spectators. (During the 2004 Summer Olympics, it actually hosted the shot put events.)

While I was on the west slope, I took four pictures spanning across my field of view, and then later stitched them together into a panoramic view of the Olympia Stadion. Have a look at it below:

The Stoa of Echo  

Dating from the 4th century BC, the Stoa of Echo was located at the sanctuary of the Altis, east of the temples of Zeus and Hera. It was probably built under the reign of Philip II and it almost covered the entire east side of the enclosure. The Stoa was 94m. long and had an external colonnade of Doric order. Named Stoa of Echo because of its acoustics, it was also known as "Poikile Stoa" because its walls were decorated with paintings.

The Stoa received its popular name because a word uttered there was echoed seven times or more. The colonnade closed the east side of the Altis and was separated from the east Altis wall, which supported the stadium embankment, by a narrow passage. You can read the informational sign about the Echo Stoa here.

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I also made a movie here at the Echo Stoa, and you can use the player at right to watch it.

Below are clickable thumbnails for two more views of the Echo Stoa:

The Building of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II  

Many of the structures at Olympia were either commissioned by, or donated by, prominent figures of the time period- such as Herodes Atticus (the Nymphaeum). The next building ruin we stopped at was actually constructed by someone who was an Olympics competitor. Ptolemy II (309-246 B.C.) was a king of Egypt, son of Ptolemy I. He was actually a victor in the chariot races in the Olympic Games of an unknown Olympiad. He was incorporated in the dynastic cult with Arsinoe II in 273/272 B.C. Arsinoe II was his sister.

Arsinoe had the more interesting "career," being married three times. Her first was to Lysimachus, king of Thrace and Macedon. She had three sons- Ptolemy ("the Son"), Lysimachus and Philip. The marriage was terminated by the death of her husband at the battle of Corupedium in 281 B.C., after which she commanded the garrison at Cassandreia until that winter. Her second marriage was with her half-brother Ptolemy Ceraunus, king of Macedon, in early 280. That marriage was, understandably, terminated when he murdered her two younger sons; she fled to Samothrace. Finally, she returned to her own family and married her full brother Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, in 273 B.C. She had no children with him but, at some point after her death in the late 260s, he had the children of Arsinoe I legally declared to be her children. And you thought Kentucky families were complicated

Here are clickable thumbnails for two more views of the Building of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II:

Not only was Ptolemy II an Olympics competitor, but so was Arsinoe II. She was victor in all three events for harnessed horses probably in the 127th Olympics held in the summer of 273 B.C. Arsinoe II died in 268 B.C., and was honored as a priestess in her dynastic cult at Alexandria.

The Hestia Stoa  

Hestia's Stoa was located at the southeast of the Altis, almost next to the Stoa of Echo. The building had rooms in the back side and belonged to the sanctuary of Hestia. It was built in the 4th century B.C. with material that came from the east facade of the Temple of Zeus taken when the facade was repaired after the strong earthquake of 373 B.C.

Of course, all that is left now of the Stoa is a jumble of odd stones and the top of one column.

The Villa of Nero/Roman Barracks  

In 67 BC, the Roman emperor Nero had a peristyle yard built to be used as a residence for himself and his attendants during the Games. The villa was built at the eastern side of Olympia, outside the enclosure of Altis, at the eastern side of the Stoa of Hestia.

Perhaps because of the presence of the Emperor, a military barracks was also constructed adjacent to Nero's House.

If you would like to read the informative sign that we found here at Nero's Villa, please click here.

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Coming down the pathway from the Altis, I made a movie as we approaded Nero's Villa and the barracks, and you can use the movie player at right to watch it.

Below are clickable thumbnails for some of the pictures we took here at Nero's Villa:

The Temple of Zeus  

The Temple of Zeus was not built until long after the Heraion went up; it was built between 472 and 456 B.C.

By the middle of the fifth century B.C., the Sanctuary had reached new heights of wealth and importance. The building was designed by the Elean architect, Libon, and was considered one of the outstanding achievements of the Doric order— so much so that many later temples were modelled after it. Unfortunately, due to earthquake activity, nothing much of the superstructure of the building remains standing. The tumbled remains of the columns lay next to it looking like rows of Oreo cookies. Much of the decoration of the temple has survived, broken into pieces where they fell to the ground. The east pediment was decorated with a frieze depicting the start of the chariot race between Pelops and Oenomaos with Zeus presiding while the western one shows the battle that broke out between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding of Peirithous and Deidameia. The metopes, the panels which ran above the columns along the sides of the temple, bore reliefs depicting the Twelve Labours of Herakles.

There were two different explanatory signs here at the Temple of Zeus, and I took pictures of both of them. You can read those signs here and here.

The column of the temple of Zeus, seen in Fred's picture of the temple at right, was restored and reerected on th eoccasion of the Olympic Games in 2004. The restoration work was executed by the German Archaeological Institute. You can see Fred's excellent picture of this column here and you can read a bit more about the restoration of the column on the explanatory sign here.

I might mention that there was a lot of restoration work going on here at the Temple of Zeus. It is, of course, one of the primary ruins here at Olympia.

A statue of Nike, the winged goddess of victory, once crowned the the apex of the east pediment. Later, it was moved to sit atop a triangular base that was erected outside the temple. You can read more about the statue here. Inside the temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, a colossal statue by the Athenian sculptor Pheidias of Zeus seated on his throne, which was installed in 430 B.C. It was chryselephantine, meaning that it was made out of ivory (for the exposed flesh) and gold for the rest. Not a scrap of it survives but there is a detailed description by Pausanias (author of an ancient travel guide to Greece) and some bad reproductions on Elean coins. Pheidias' workshop is just outside the western boundary of the sanctuary where a kylix (wine cup) with his name scratched on the bottom has been found.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

One notable sculpture that did survive is a baked clay statue depicting the abduction of Ganymede, a young Trojan prince, by the god Zeus to serve as his cupbearer as well as his catamite. Normally, because of their lightness, terracotta sculpture was used to ornament temple buildings but, in this case, the consensus among scholars is that it was a votive offering. The ancient Greeks would not have been even slightly shocked by the subject matter and the youth himself seems more bemused than alarmed— he is shown holding a cockerel, typically a lover's gift. It probably dates to the early decades of the fifth century B.C.

Both Fred and I took quite a few pictures here at the Temple of Zeus, and rather than have you click on individual thumbnails to see each of them, I have put them into a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Finally, I thought this site impressive enough that I would try to capture all of it in one panoramic view, so I stitched a couple of individual pictures together and here is the result:

The Bouleuterion  

We walked south from the Temple of Zeus to come to the Bouleuterion.

These administrative buildings were located just outside the Altis and just south of it. They included the Bouleuterion or Council House, which consisted of a pair of apsidal (that "half capsule" or "horse-shoe" shape you saw earlier) buildings linked by a long portico (stoa) with a square building in between. The latter contained the altar of Zeus Horkios ("keeper of oaths") upon which the athletes made their vows (these vows being to obey the rules of the games).

The Bouleuterion was an administrative building which housed the council of citizens in Ancient Greece. It almost always had the kind of square, horse-shoe shape, was usually located near the agora, and often had tiered seats around the perimeter for citizens to sit, observe and participate. There are several extant remains of Bouleuterions around Greece and former Greek territories of ancient times. The boule, a basic institution of the ancient city-state in historical times, consisted of the citizens' representatives who assembled in order to confer and decide about public affairs. The word Bouleuterion is composed from Greek "boule" (council) and the suffix "-terion" (place for doing something).

Here at Olympia, the Bouleuterion was outside the Altis and along the southern surrounding wall of the sanctuary, east of Leonidaion and quite close to the northern side of the South Stoa. There are clickable thumbnails for some of Fred's pictures of the area at left. The building was structured in two phases. During the Archaic period, the two rectangular buildings with the arched west side, the internal colonnades and the ionic colonnade in the front were built. The top of one Ionic column had been stood off to the side at these ruins. In the Classical period, these buildings were connected by a stoa and a square structure in between them. You can probably get a better idea of what the buildings looked like (since not much remains of them) by reading the informational sign here.

The South Stoa  

Just south of the Bouleuterion there were the South Baths (see below) and another long portico, the South Stoa, which marked the boundary of the Altis.

Dating from the 4th century B.C., the South Stoa was located at the outer side of the Altis and the southern border of the Olympia complex. The structure was almost 200 feet long, and had an outer colonnade in the Doric order and an inner colonnade of the Corinthian; in the middle of there was a kind of platform. Pausanias, the Rick Steves of his time (Rick is a travel writer and reporter on NPR) reports the existence of this "proedriae," a location from which the officials and the priesthood could observe the procession and the South Stoa is most likely identified with this place.

Below are clickable thumbnails for a couple of additional pictures I took here at the South Stoa:

We have reached the southern border of the complex of ruins at Olympia, and before we continue west and then back around to the north and the entrance, I made a movie looking across the complex from this vantage point; you can use the player below to watch it:

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The South Baths/The Southwest Building  

On the outer side of the southeast enclosure of the Altis, east of Leonidaion and west of Bouleuterion and South Stoa lie the South Thermae (baths), which date to the 3rd century B.C.

This small, well-preserved bath, part of an extensive and devastated building complex, was a guest room. Mosaics and a perfect wall heating system are still preserved. In the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. the building was conerted into a wine factory. A kiln was built alongside it to manufacture glass and bottles.

There was a bit more information about these baths and some diagrams of them on the informational sign, and you can have a look at this sign here.

You can also see two more views of the South Baths here and here.

The South Baths are part of a larger complex that also includes "the Southwest Building."

The Southwest Building is a large building complex of the Imperial period. It consisted of a central court with colonnade and an open-air swimming pool, three big halls and smaller auxiliary rooms. The niches of the monumental facade were adorned with statues. It was a meeting place for the athletes, who were training in the big halls of the building.

You can read a bit more and see some diagrams on the informational sign here.

Below are clickable thumbnails for some additional views of the Southwest Building:

The Leonidaion  

West of the South Baths and south of the Palaistra/Gymnasion was the Leonidaion- the lodging place for athletes taking part in the Olympic Games at Olympia.

It was located at the southwest edge of the sanctuary and was the largest building on the site. It was constructed around 330 B.C. and was funded and designed by Leonidas of Naxos (and named after him). The building consisted of four Ionian colonnades with 138 decorated columns, forming a square of approximately 250 feet. In its interior there was a central Doric peristyle with 44 columns. You can see the bases of part of one of these rows of columns here. Below are some clickable thumbnails for other views of the Leonidaion:

This was a multi-purpose building, with entrances on the north and south sides. It served as a guest house for official visitors; there were suites of rooms on all four sides which faced into a peristyle courtyard. During the Roman period the building was severely damaged in a fire. Under Hadrian's reign the building was fully renovated and remodeled into a luxurious mansion with a garden with islets and channels.

You can read a bit more about the Leonidaion on the informational sign.

I also tried my hand at stitching together a panorama to try to express the vast size of this building; the result, a combination of two pictures, is below:

The Palaestra/The Gymnasion  

The "track" events took place in the Stadion, of course. But a litle-known fact (save to those Olympic planners who love to scatter venues all over the host city) was that most of the rest of the athletic events— the wrestling, the boxing and the field sports such as the discus and javelin— took place to the west of the sanctuary. The Gymnasion and Palaistra, which were the site of these events, were both built in the third century B.C.

The Palaistra

The Palaistra was used as an exercise area for wrestlers, boxers and jumpers. It was a peristyle court (meaning it was surrounded by an internal colonnade forming shaded porticoes on all four sides) It was roughly square (215 x 216 feet) with a pair of entrances on the south side, one in each of the corners. Later on, an entrance was added on the north side, and it was marked by a monumental propylon. The two south entrances had small porches supported by pairs of Corinthian columns. The palaestra is oriented precisely to the cardinal points and is very symmetrical in plan. Like all palaestra, the palaestra at Olympia is centered around a large courtyard covered with sand for use as a boxing or wrestling surface.

The building is entered through the south side through two separate doorways, each with Corinthian columns distyle in antis, thus immediately establishing symmetry within the plan of the structure. The doorways open into bench-lined vestibules leading to anterooms that open directly onto the southern portico.

Between the two anterooms is a long, shallow hall lined with benches and faced with Ionic columns. This room is identified as the apodyterion, or undressing room, a space that would need to be close to the main entrance and have room for athletes and friends to meet. Directly across from the apodyterion, along the north side of the palaestra is the ephebion, or clubroom. This large, colonnaded hall is deeper than the apodyterion but does not run the entire length of the courtyard. The entire north side of the palaestra has deep rooms, a feature mentioned by Vitruvius, which offered shelter from the sun. Also in the north side of the building is a doorway that leads directly into the rest of the adjoining gymnasium space. The room in the northeast corner of the palaestra is identified as a bathroom. The brick-lined, 4 meter square and 1.38 meter deep tank found here is dated to the Roman period, however.

At left are thumbnails for two more views inside the Palaestra; click on them to have a look. You can see many of the features mentioned in the description above.

An unusual feature of the palaestra is the 24.20 by 5.44 meter strip of concrete pavement on the north side of courtyard, which is formed with alternate bands of ribbed and smooth tiles arranged to create continuous ridges stretching the length of the pavement. This was probably a sort of bowling alley, as suggested by a similar pavement found at Pompeii with heavy stone balls on it.

It is not possible to say for what most of the other rooms lining the porticoes were used. Since Olympia had no resident population, the palaestra and gymnasium would not have included spaces for lectures or intellectual discourse and would have been used primarily by competitors in the sanctuary games. The stone benches found in six of rooms would certainly have been used by athletes and spectators rather than by intellectuals. The unidentified rooms of the palaestra would have included rooms such as the elaiothesion or oil store, the konisterion or dusting-room, rooms for storing athletic apparatus, and a few sphairisteria, which were rooms or open courts for ball play.

The Gymnasion

The Gymnasion adjoined the Palaistra on the north side— a closed rectangular complex (350 by 700 feet). It was built in the Second Century B.C., and had a large open court in the middle and was surrounded by stoas on all four sides. It provided plenty of space for practicing with the discus or the javelin. Unfortunately, much of it was subsequently washed away by the flooding of the Kladeos River. We were a bit rushed going through the Palaistra and the Gymnasion, but we did pause long enough to snap a few pictures of the columns and walls remaining from the stoa around the Gymnasion. There are clickable thumbnails for these pictures below:

That was it for our tour of Olympia; we had only minutes to get back to the bus (although as it turned out, if we had missed it, we would only have had to walk three blocks into the center of the town of Olympia to get to where it parked again). But we did make it back on the bus just in time.

Postscript  

After the closure of the sanctuary by the edict of the emperor Theodosius in 393 AD, the buildings rapidly fell into decay. The colossal statue of Zeus was transported to Constantinople where it was subsequently destroyed in a fire. The site itself was rocked by a pair of tremendous earthquakes in the sixth century which destroyed virtually all of the remaining buildings. Only Pheidias's workshop survived and was converted into a Christian basilica. Later flooding of the Alphaos and Kladeos together with erosion of the Kronion hill eventually covered the site in a deposit of silt some seven metres thick. Excavation of the site began with a German expedition in 1875 and has continued to the present day.

Touring the Town of Olympia  

From the parking area near the ruins site, the bus made its way slowly through the congestion of all the tour buses and other vehicles north and then to the east side of the town of Olympia, there to park at what appeared to be a special place for tour buses. Our guide gave us an hour to walk around the town and take advantage of the "shopping opportunity."

On the aerial view at left, you can see the route our bus took from the ruins site, and where it parked relative to the town itself. You can also see the route that the three of us took as we walked around the town of Olympia.

Below are some clickable thumbnails for pictures we took of Olympia's main street, a couple of restaurants and some of the merchandise displays (olive soap and fashions):

After an hour, we were all back on the bus and heading off back to the port of Katakolon.

Returning to Katakolon  

Our bus ride back to Katakolon was, of course, the reverse trip from this morning. The weather was better for picture taking, and so Fred and I snapped a number of photos of the road and the countryside, ending with our arrival back in Katakolon. If you would like to see some of this roadside scenery, just click on the thumbnails below:

This bus ride brought us back to the ship. We had time to go aboard and relax for a time before coming back off the ship to walk around the town of Katakolon.

A Walk Around Katakolon  

We have an hour or so to explore the seaside port village of Katakolon. The Noordam was docked very close in, although the harbor was crowded with cruise ships. We got off the ship, walked the hundred yards to the port entrance, and then began walking through the town.

In the town, we of course walked along the main street, and also along the harbor (where there were a number of small outdoor cafes and restaurants. Katakolon is nestled right by the harbor and just below the high hill that overlooks the town.

We saw a number of interesting things on our short walk, including the local Greek Orthodox Church, the terminus of the train line to Pirgos and a horse‑drawn carriage. Click on the thumbnails below to see some of the pictures we took:

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While we were walking along the harbor, I made a movie of it and of the town, and you can watch it with the player at right.

There are also clickable thumbnails below for some additional pictures that we took while walking around Katakolon:

When we were done walking around town, we returned to the pier where I got an interesting picture of the Noordam's bow; we were able to walk right around the front of it to get a good look. We passed back through Greek security, and headed back along the port side of the Noordam to the gangway to reboard the ship.

The Noordam Sails from Katakolon  

We have a long way to go to get to Athens by tomorrow morning, so the Noordam sailed from Katakolon about two-thirty in the afternoon.

We were up on deck well before we sailed, and we were snapping away at some of the scenery around the harbor, and some of the other cruise ships that were docked here. The clickable thumbnails below will take you to some of the best of the pictures that we took:

Just before we sailed, Fred and I went over to the starboard side of the upper deck where we could see the town of Katakolon and look in the direction we went when we traveled to Olympia. I asked Fred to stand against the rail and then took a series of five pictures, beginning with a look down the rail at him and ending with a look down the rail in the opposite direction. Then I merged all five pictures for a panoramic view of the harbor at Katakolon. The result is below:

At two-thirty we began to back slowly out of the harbor. When we were clear, the captain turned the ship 180 degrees and we began to steam south along the Grecian coast. Late in the afternoon, Fred got some excellent pictures of the coastline some ten miles away. You can see a really nice normal view here and an extreme closeup here.

Once we'd had our fill of watching the Greek coast slide by, we headed down for a snack and then a pleasant afternoon on board the Noordam. I got into a short bridge game in the card room, and later went to the gym with Fred. We had our usual LGBT meeting and then dinner in the Vista Dining Room.

The show in the Vista Lounge was a Flamenco guitarist. He was quite good, although we didn't bring our cameras for pictures.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	May 23, 2012: Athens, Greece
	May 21, 2012: Corfu, Greece
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