July 6th - Day 26

Greetings from Olympia! Today was all about the famed city-state of Olympia. We started by touring the actual site and it was a good thing that we got there right when the site opened because we had it practically to ourselves. After about an hour the site started to fill up with other tourists.

Temple of Hera

There were so many cool things to see at Olympia. I got to see the Temple of Hera and the Temple of Zeus. The Temple of Zeus was absolutely massive, but is largely in disrepair. The surrounding area looked like a column graveyard. There is only one column standing on the temple. This column was reconstructed for the 2004 Olympic Games. Next to the Temple of Zeus was the base of the Nike statue that I presented on when we went to the Olympia Museum.

Reconstructed Column

Temple of Zeus

On our way to the stadium we saw the statue bases that held bronze statues of Zeus paid for by fines charged for cheating. If an athlete was caught cheating they were charged a large fine and their name was inscribed on the statue base so everyone would know their crime.  The stadium was smaller than I expected, but still impressive. We got to walk through the athletes' tunnel to get into the actual stadium and we staged our own Olympic foot race. After seeing the stadium we toured the baths and the palaistra where the athletes lived, trained, and prepared to participate in the Olympic Games. At this point, the site had become extremely crowded so we decided to leave and head over to the museum.

Nike of Paonius

The museum wasn't very large, but it did contain some very interesting finds, including the Nike statue and Hermes and the Infant Dionysus statue which were the subjects of my last site report. The Nike statue was really cool. I had some trouble researching it because all of the sources were in German and French, neither of which I read. The statue is credited to Paonius and was discovered in 1875. It is believed to have been dedicated by the Messenians after they defeated the Spartans at the Battle of Sphacteria, the island we visted in Pylos (the one with the spiders). A reconstructed version of the statue was used as the image on the 2004 Summer Olympics medals. Even though we are still missing large portions of the statue and despite its weathered appearance, it is still an incredibly beautiful piece. Nike means "winged victory" and according to myth she was the divine charioteer in Zeus' war against the Titans. She flew around battlefields rewarding victors with glory and fame. Nike was also a close acquaintance of Athena and is believed to have stood in her outstretched hand in the statue of Athena located in the Parthenon.

Hermes and the Infant Dionysus

The second statue I researched was the Hermes and the Infant Dionysus attributed to the famous sculptor, Praxiteles. According to myth, when Zeus revealed himself to his mortal lover Semele, she was at once incinerated by his divine radiance. Zeus was able to rescue their unborn child by sewing him into his own thigh. Following the birth of the child, Zeus ordered Hermes, his messenger, to hide the newborn from his jealous wife Hera, who sought to destroy any remnants of the affair, including the newborn. Hermes swiftly took the baby to remote mountains for hiding, where nymphs raised the child. Under their care, the infant Dionysos grew to maturity and became the god of wine, revelry, and theater. Hermes and the Infant Dionysos depicts the messenger before he delivered the infant to the mountain nymphs. The Hermes statue is largely intact and was found near the Temple of Hera in 1877. It is an incredibly beautiful piece, but according to the sources I read it is not considered one of Praxiteles' more popular pieces due to the lack of reproductions. It is much more polished than the Nike statue, however you can still see chisel marks on the back of Hermes. The statue is missing its right arm and it is believed that it held grapes.

After the museum we had the rest of the day free. I stopped by the hotel to pick up my laptop and wandered around the town to try and find an internet cafe so that I could at least check my email. I managed to find this cute little restaurant with delicious gyros and free WiFi. After lunch I wandered around the shops and took in the sights around our hotel. I went back to the same little restaurant for dinner and then headed back to the hotel to pack. Tomorrow we head back to Athens and Loring Hall. I am excited to be able to get back to our homebase and spend a few days at least not living out of a suitcase.