Bookworm on Olympia
My son and I spent the morning on a cruise ship-sponsored tour to Olympia. As I wrote Mr. Bookworm, who is still at the hospital with my other little Bookworm, I don’t regret going, but it’s questionable how much they actually missed.
As was the case with Olympia in ancient times, our destination was a seething mass of humanity. The difference, of course, was that these were nice, neat tourists, rather than cutpurses, cutthroats, prostitutes, scammers, priests, athletes, nobles, sports aficionados, and all the others who crowded into Olympia for 1000 years, first from the far-reaching Greek empire and then from the even further reaching Roman empire.
Unlike Ostia Antica, little remains of the structures that once graced Olympia. After Emperor Theodosius shut down the pagan games at the end of the 4th century, the place was raided for pre-cut stones, briefly inhabited by Christians, struck by an earthquake, and then buried under a sea of mud, 17 meters deep.
The outlines of all the old structures are still completely visible, but no height remains. With the exception of the Roman fountain area (the Romans introduced the games to running water), and a few pillars, nothing stands higher than about three feet tall, if that high.
The whole area was also hot and dusty. As a Bay Area native with fog in her veins, that’s always a bit of a challenge.
Now that I’ve griped a bit about Olympia’s drawbacks, let me talk about its wonders. It is wonderful that the place has been continuously occupied since at least 2000 B.C. It is wonderful that the games started in 776 B.C. and continued without pause until 396 A.D. It is wonderful that, starting in 776 B.C., the games, which took place every four years, were used as the universal calendar for the ancient world, and are the starting point for all of our historic dating. It is wonderful that we could stand on the same starting line that runners first used almost 3000 years ago. And it is wonderful that, with a little imagination and a good guide, one can get a sense of how the place looked in a far away time.
The museum was also a treat, although we had way too little time there, while the crowds made it virtually impossible to see anything. The pediment statues, the helmets, the shields, the amulets and totems, and even the children’s toys, all provide telling proof that the Greeks raised artistry to its highest level.
No wonder the Romans were so in love with Greek culture. Heck! No wonder we in the west are still in love with ancient Greek culture.
