Greece travel with Oracle Tours: Ancient Olympia Birthplace of the Olympic Games
Greece Travel Taxi Tour: Ancient Olympia
Olympia (left) was a Panhellenic sanctuary, open to all Greeks. Every four years
in late summer, thousands of Greeks from all over the known world converged
at Olympia for the games held in honor of Zeus. The first recorded Olympic Games
were held in 776BC but probably were established long before. They continued uninterrupted for over a thousand years,
until around 400BC. In the sixth century BC, an earthquake toppled all
the buildings and the site was abandoned. Nearby rivers covered the site
with a deep layer of silt, protecting the ruins until excavations began
in 1875. The modern visitor can see the foundations of all the important
buildings and can view a wide array of artifacts in a museum on the site.
In 1896 the first modern Olympic Games where held in Athens.
Ancient Olympia lies 10 km. East of Pirgos, in a valley between wooded mt. Kronos, The Allfios river and its tributary, the Kladeos.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
The victor’s price was a crown made from a wild
olive branch, which was always cut from the same tree, the Kallistefano.
“Tinella Kallinike” – Well done, glorious victor
– shouted the crowd in praise of the winner. Back in his birthplace,
people would knock down the city walls. The Olympic games, which included
the foot race, wrestling, the Pankration, the Pentathlon, chariot
racing, and horse racing, as well as artistic and literary competition,
come to an end in 393AD, with the prohibitory edict of Theodosios
I. Fifteen centuries later, in 1896, they were revived where they
had been born, in Greece, by the French historian and educator Pier
De Coubertin. Since then every four years a torchbearer, like the
ancient heralds, starts out from Olympia bearing the sacred flame
to the place where the Games are held. To oversee the organization
of the games, an international Olympic academy was founded with headquarters
since 1961 in Olympia.
According to legend, this area was inhabited by the
Pisans.There king was Oinomaus, whose daughter Hippodameia had married
Pelops.There are indications that already by 1000BC, games were being
held in honor of the couple. Through exclusively local at the start,
the games began gradually to attract the interest of the other towns
in the Vicinity. In 776BC, the leader of the eleians, Iphitos, rededicated
the games to the honor Zeus. This date marks the first Olympiad; afterwards
every four years pan Hellenic contests were held attracting athletes
from all the Greek city-states. While the games were taken place the
Olympic truce was in force and all hostilities suspended.
THE OLYMPIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
The first building on the left is the Prytaneion, where ceremonies honoring
the winners took place. Further south Philippeion and next to it the Heraion,
a Doric temple dedicated to Hera. Special running races, the Heraia, were
held in her honor in which only virgins from Eleia could participate.
Southwest of the Heraion lies the Pelopion, an altar dedicated to Pelops,
from whom the Peloponnese is named. Nearby in the Doric temple of Zeus
(472BC); here stood the famous gold and ivory statue of the god, a work
of Pheidias. Outside the sacred grove of the Altis are ruins of other
buildings: the Bouleuterion or Council House, where the athletes took
the Olympic oath; the Leonidaion, used as a hostel for official visitors;
the Palaistra (wrestling school), Gymnasium and the Baths.
The treasures,
placed at the foot of Mt. Kronos, were small edifices raised by each city
to house sacrificial vessels. Next to them stands the Nymphaion, a semi-circular
marble tank that held Olympia’s water supply. Just beyond the treasure
lie the stadium and the Stoa Poikile or Echo Colonnade, and near it Nero’s
house. Set in the shade stands the monument containing the heart of de
Coubertin, the man who revived the Olympic games.
THE OLYMPIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
Olympia’s new museum lies in a shady grove opposite the site. Here are displayed finds from the area, among them the stone head of Hera, Praxiteles’ marble statue of Hermes (330 BC), the Victory by Paionios (421 BC), Miltiades’ helmet, the terra cotta group of Zeus carrying Ganymede, and the sculptures from the pediments and metopes of the Temple of Zeus, among the most important works of Classical art. There are also pottery, terra cotta and bronze figurines, votive offerings from the sanctuary, etc.
MUSEUM OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Very near the ancient site lies the modern village of Olympia. Here one of its prettiest buildings houses the Museum of the Olympic games, the only one of its kind in the world. It contains mementos connected with the history of the Games and a unique series of postage stamps, designed by Papastephanos-Provatakis commemorating the Games
Here are a few of the other Oracle Greece Taxi or Bus touring destinations you may choose from
Athens,
Cape Sounion, Ancient Corinth, Delphi & Ossios Lukas, Drama, Florina, Greneva, Chalkidiki, Imathia, Kastoria, Kavala, Kozani, Meteora, Mt. Athos, Mycenaea, Naufplion, Olympia, Pella and Vergina, Phillipi & Kavala, Dion & Mt Olympus, Sparta & Mystras, The Mani and Monemvasia, Thessaloniki,
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