Olympia II

Along the row of Zanes, leading to the

Stadium, once statues of various cheaters

whose fines helped support the Games

Like every other religious site, Olympia was built on

top of someone else's site; here a neolithic site more recently

unearthed and explored

Remains of the Altar of Hera, where the Olympic Torch is lit

every two years (summer/winter)

Temple of Hera

Vicki at Hera's; note profusion of wild flowers; spring in this

part of the world

Olympic athletes were marinated in olive oil for both

training and competition; and used these tubs to clean off

afterwards

Another view of the gym and wild flowers

Site of Pheidias' workshop; a Christian church in the 6th

century

Bases of the colonnaded Leonideion, a large hotel for

officials, VIPs

Parting view of the Stadium, from the slopes of Kronos Hill

c

Olympia I

We spent Sunday morning touring the archaeological site of the Olympic Games, Archaia Olympia. The first recorded Olympic Games occurred in 776 BC and ran an unbroken string every four years until 393 AD, when the Christians shut them down, along with various other pagan institutions. Initially, and for the first several hundred years, the Games provided a month-long truce every four years, allowing athletes and spectators to journey to sacred Olympia (birthplace of Zeus). The main occupation of the various Greek city-states, history tells us, was making war on each other and on anyone else within reach; so the Games were a nice respite. But then in Hellenistic times and later under Roman administration the Games changed, becoming less a Pan-Hellenic gathering than another spectacle. Sic transit, Gloria. Anyhow, the Games were forgotten, the site silted up under 3-4 meters of mud, and it was not re-discovered until the 18th century. Most of the archaeological work was done in the 19th century.

Kronos Hill, a pathetic little near-hillock where Zeus was

said to have been born (Kronos his dad; it's a long

disgusting story), overlooks the Olympic sanctuary

In the sanctuary, entering the gymnasium area, where the

athletes trained

The Phillipeon, a monument to Philip of Macedon, erected

by himself, celebrating his conquest of Greece

Temple of Hera



Alongside the Temple of Zeus; 6th century earthquakes

toppled pretty much everything sizeable



Pedestal of the statue of Nike (victory); we'll

see her in the Museum

Temple of Zeus remains



The Temple of Zeus housed Pheidias' colossal statue of

Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders; it was later carted off

to Byzantium and there lost in a blaze; this representation,

which I like, was in a bar in Olympia...Sic transit, etc.



Remains of vaulted entry to Olympic Stadium



 

OK, so the Greeks did know how to build an arch



Starting line in Olympic Stadium; intact,

seriously, after all these years; I'll spare you

the photo of me, this time only, lined up and

awaiting the starting gun

Olympic Stadium, with Kronos Hill in the background; no

seats, no skyboxes, nothing

Mountain Road, Rural Peloponnesia

So after Mycenae, we headed west, through the interior, bound for Archaia Olympia, on a mountain/gorge road of Vicki's nightmares.

Nice little road-side chapel; note snow in the mountains...

Heading toward one of the more vertical little towns we have

seen

Closer up



Road narrows (a lot), helpful bend mirrors, a dozen of them,

eventually, begin to appear



Fortunately, there's not a lot of traffic

Back on the narrow, twisty, and true

Tiny oil truck for tiny roads

In another little town, a fixer-upper with income potential



A couple more of the thousands of road-side shrines one

sees in Greece



Finally, we're on an expressway, sort of; but then it comes to

an abrupt, unannounced end...



But we finally make it to Olympia and spend the night

(with police permission even) in the parking lot next to the

great archaeological site



Mycenae Museum

The Mycenae Musem, down the hill from the city

Inside one of its halls

Mycenaen figurines

"Call home!"

Bronze Age assortiment

Replicas of Schliemann's dig; the originals are in the Mycenaen Hall of the 
National Museum in Athens

More Bronze Age bronze

Mycenaen worry beads

Mycenae

Next we toured Mycenae, the great hill-top capital of the Mycenaen world. More defensive architecture, monumental stone work, but a written language (linear B), and all the gods, heroes, and other figures of early western civilization...

Mycenae, set on a hill-top in the mountains, but just a few miles from the sea

The Lions' Gate



Closer-up

Alas, we walked around mostly in squalls, but there was a  nice rainbow in the 
distance 

Grave Circle A; when Schliemann dug his first hole at Mycenae, he hit here, 
a grave complex that yielded about 30 pounds of gold, including what 
Schliemann fancifully dubbed "Agamemnon's death mask"; he was about 
three centuries off, however

Descending, boldly, the ninety steps down to the cistern

Half-way down, rusted-out braces...not very

reassuring

The bottom

Another massive gate

Palace area near the top

Entrance to Clytemnestra's Tholos (very similar to Treasury of Atreus in 
structure and dimensions)

A last look at the great complex

Treasury of Atreus

From Tiryns we drove the few miles on to ancient Mycenae, parking for the night at the Treasury of Atreus, a tholos (round) tomb, a tumulus, sort of, but with a monumental beehive stone structure beneath. We toured it the next morning, and then did Mycenae, a few hundred yards up the hill, and its museum. All this is Bronze Age, 16th-12th centuries BC, the stuff of Homer. Well, the stuff Homer wrote about, centuries later. Mycenae was Agamemnon's home town. Also Clytemnestra's, et al. And Pelops, too.

Entrance to the Treasury of Atreus, also called, fancifully, Agamemnon's Tomb; 
again, the stones are huge although more finely dressed at Mycenae

Inside the beehive; nothing was found here nor in other tholos tombs in the area; 
they are fairly conspicuous and have been used by shepherds and others for aeons...
just as soon as the Mycenean world collapsed in the 12th century BC, I speculate

The enormous doorway

Vicki poses for scale; the tomb is immense

As do I, by the doorway; the lintel measures 28x23x5 feet, 
130 tons; Cylcopean indeed; the triangular space above it 
is characteristically Mycenean, devised to reduce the weight 
the lintel carries