Olympia

If Mount Olympus is located in the northeast of Greece, then Olympia is in the southwest. And this is no longer a mountain, but a sanctuary, arranged in the sacred grove of Altis in the tributaries of the Pineas River. When the Argonauts’ campaign came to an end and beyond the ways of its participants diverged, Hercules proposed to take an oath: if one of the Argonauts should be in trouble, the rest would have to come to the rescue, wherever they were (now we know who the Musketeers imitated). The treaty was consecrated in Olympia. There, in honor of Zeus, Hercules ordered the establishment of the Olympic Games - sports that from the 6th century BC acquired political significance: from now on, only Hellenic people were allowed to participate in them, which, according to the reformers of the games, should have a positive impact on the fate of warring cities-polises, uniting them under the banner of a single national idea. In short, every four years, a small sanctuary on the edge of the earth turned into an ecumenical center, where up to 100,000 people flocked in its heyday. And it was not only athletes and fans, but also scientists, musicians, poets and adventurers. While some ran and threw, others treated the audience with heated stories about overseas countries and their wonders or shared new hypotheses, scientific discoveries. There, along the way, poets read fresh peanas – odes in honor of the heroes of the games, and merchants, against the background of general euphoria, easily sold any product. The winners were awarded with an olive wreath and a palm branch and were called Olympians. But the main hero of the celebration was still Zeus. At the altar of the supreme god, athletes took oaths before the start of the games and dedicated their victories to Zeus. His statue, made of gold and ivory by the great sculptor Phidias and decorated the Olympic temple, was named one of the Seven Wonders of the World. When the Romans conquered Greece, they loved the Olympics. Only they could not understand the Hellenic idea of equality, so under the Romans from now on, victories and olive wreaths went only to the emperors. Today, Olympia is interesting not only for the preserved stadium, temple, Phidias workshop or Philip's rotunda, but also for several excellent museums, vividly and succinctly illustrating the history of the sanctuary itself, the history of sports in antiquity and the course of archaeological excavations in our time.