Olympia

Előszó

THE SANCTUARY OF OLYMPIA
prehistory and the beginning of worship
Olympia, the most ancient and most famous sanctuary in Greece, flourished in the verdant valley of the Alpheios in the western Peloponnese. Its close connections with Magna Graecia and the colonies of the West are echoed in the burning desire of the river-god Alpheios for the nymph Aretousa, and his final union with her in Syracuse, at the spring named after her. The sanctuary is also closely linked with the East through Pelops, the legendary first king of the area, who, according to one tradition, came from Lydia and gave his name to the whole Peninsula (Peloponnesos = island of Pelops), which had been known as Apia up till then.
The sanctuary extends over the south-west foot of the wooded hill of Kronion, between the plentiful waters of the Alpheios and its tributary the Kladeos, which flows into it at this point.
The area of the sanctuary and its environs was the site of a settlement that was inhabited continuously from the Early Helladic to the Late Helladic period (2800-1100 B.C.). Evidence for this is furnished by the apsidal, rectangular and elliptical buildings, the tombs and the small finds dating from these periods that have been discovered in the area of the sanctuary and the new Museum.
The transformation of the settlement into a religious centre appears to have taken place during the late Mycenaean period, when we have first evidence of a cult there. The cult in question was that of Pelops and Hippoda-meia, the principal hero-daemons of the sanctuary. The games, which were already being held by this time, were initially of a local character, but seem gradually to have attracted the inhabitants of the cities neighbouring on Pisa, and possibly of those in other, more distant areas of the Peloponnese.
The cults of Kronos, Rhea, Gaia, Eileithyia, Themis and Idaian Herakles must have been introduced at quite an early period. Their shrines were situated at the southern foot of Kronion, where most of the prehistoric finds have been discovered. They reveal special ties with Crete, at a time when Olympia, subject alternately to the state of Pylos (the kingdom of the Neleids) and to ancient Pisa, was a trading-post which the Cretans visited by way of
The Sanctuary of Olympia. View from the north. Seen from the right: the Gymnasion, the Palaestra, the byzantine Basilica and the Leonidaion. On the left: the Heraion, the temple of Zeus and the Bouleuterion. In the background the river Alpheios. —*•
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