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Adapted from Eyewitness Travel Guide, Greece
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Site Plan of Ancient Olympia
(from http://shelton.berkeley.edu/175c/OlympiaPlan.JPG
)
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- began in 776 B. C.
- oldest recorded date in western history
- first games were said to consist of a foot race the length of the stadium&and nothing more
- a religious festival dedicated to Zeus
- women were not allowed to participate or even attend
- victors won a crown of olive

- during period of Olympic Games, hostilities between city-states were suspended, armies were prohibited from entering Elis, and criminals were not to be executed
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- tumulus (artificial mound) over the presumed grave of Pelops
- the Peloponnese is named for Pelops
Pelops Competes in a Chariot Race
for the Hand of Hippodamia
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- the central area of Olympia (surrounding the Temple of Zeus)
- called the Altis
- from Elean word alsos (‘grove’)
- victors’ olive wreaths made from olive tree in the sanctuary
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- ruins are from the 3rd century B. C.
- walkway up to the entrance was lined with statues (called zanes) erected by athletes as a consequence of violating their Olympic oath

- said to have been laid out by one step of Herakles
- only seats were for the officials of the Games
- everyone else sat on the ground

- built 470 - 457 B. C.
- one of largest Greek temples
- Doric style
- architect was Libon, an Elean
- made from local limestone
- destroyed by an earthquake in the 5th century A. D.
- east pediment had sculptures depicting chariot race of Oinomaus and Pelops
- west pediment depicted Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs
- metopes from pronaos and opisthodomos depicted labors of Herakles

- begun in 7th century B. C.
- one of oldest temples in Greece
- originally a temple to both Hera and Zeus
- housed:
- cedar chest inlaid with ivory and gold, and covered with 5 rows of reliefs and inscriptions
- bronze discus inscribed with Sacred Truce
- ivory and gold table on which victors’ crowns were placed

- commissioned by Philip II
- honors dynasty of Macedonian kings

- housed an altar to an unknown hero


- Pheidias was the sculptor who created the huge Athena statue for the Parthenon and a huge statue of Zeus for Olympia
- both now lost
- (click here for a modern painting of Pheidias and the Parthenon frieze [Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1868, oil on canvas, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery])
- the workshop was converted to a Christian church in the 5th century
- identification of this structure as Pheidias’ workshop was uncertain until archaeologists discovered shards of marble, casts for portions of the Zeus statue, and a cup inscribed pheidio eimi (‘I belong to Pheidias’)
- the cup was discovered in 1958
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Pheidias’ cup with inscription
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