So the legend goes, with a lightening bolt hurled from where he sat enthroned atop the mighty cloud-capped summit of Mt. Olympus, Zeus showed the ancient Greeks where to build the great temple in his honor. That site became the ancient sanctuary of Olympia, nestled in a serene wooded foothill, bordered by the Alfios and Kladios Rivers in Greece’s western Peloponnesos. The first games were held to honor Pelops, a local hero for whom the peninsula is named.  By 1200 B.C., however, Zeus had become the absolute master of the sanctuary and the Olympic games were a part of greater religious festival devoted to him. In 776 B.C., King Iphitos of Elis inaugurated the first official games of antiquity and held them every four years, a period of time that became known as an Olympiad. The Games were held regularly in antiquity for more than a millennium until Byzantine Emperor Theodosius ended the games by edict in 393 A.D.    

The Altis Sanctuary

Ancient Olympia’s most sacred spot was known as the “Altis” of Zeus, a slight modification of the ancient Greek word for “grove.”  According to myth, Zeus’ lightening bolt marked the heart of the Altis.  Flanked by the Hill of Cronus in the north and walls in the south, east and west, the Altis was approximately 600’ long and 525’ wide.  It was the religious center of Olympia containing the Temple of Zeus, the Altar of Zeus, the Temple of Hera, his wife, the Altar of Hera, the tomb of Pelops, the Phillipeon, the Treasuries and many other altars, temples, great statues and votive offerings.      

The Ancient Olympic Sporting Contests

The Games of ancient Olympia were held every fourth year between the end of June and the beginning of September. Heralds were sent out to all parts of Greece to announce the festival dates as well as the sacred truce, during which time no one was allowed to take up arms, legal disputes were suspended, no death penalties were carried out and the personal safety of all travelers to and from Olympia was guaranteed during their stay. Horse and chariot races were held in the Hippodrome. Stadium events included footraces: the stade race (one length of the stadium), the diaulos (two lengths of the stadium), the long race and the race in armor. In the 18^th Olympiad (708 B.C.), contests of wrestling, boxing, a brutal form of boxing called the pankration and the pentathlon were added. The pentathlon consisted of 5 separate contests: the stade race, discus throw, long jump, javelin throw and wrestling match. A competitor had to win 3 of the 5 contests to be victorious.           

The Venues

The Games of ancient Olympia were held at either the Hippodrome or Stadium. The hippodrome lay to the east of the Altis and was used for equestrian events. The hippodrome was approximately 1,155 feet in length. Nothing remains of the hippodrome today as the diverted course of the Kladios River washed away the entire site.  Excavations uncovered the late Classical Stadium, which dates back to 350 B.C.  There remains a 600-foot long running track, which accommodated twenty runners, flanked by earth embankments where the spectators sat. According to myth, Herakles (Hercules), the legendary son of Zeus and Hera, fixed the length of the first Olympic stadium, and thus the stade race, at 600 feet.  Grooved marble sills, the starting and finishing lines at each end of the track and the raised platform where the judges sat, are still in place today.  A vaulted tunnel, which led from the northeast corner of the Altis to the Stadium, has been reconstructed using original stones held in place by a keystone to form an arch.   

The Training Facilities

A mandatory ten-month period of training was required of all Olympian athletes. Two facilities were constructed for their training: the Gymnasium and Palaestra. The buildings were west of the Altis, forming a pendant to the stadium and hippodrome in the east. The Palaestra, a large square building was constructed around an open central courtyard.  There were rooms with benches for study and instruction, training rooms for wrestling, boxing and jumping.  There were storerooms for oils and sand with which the athletes anointed and covered themselves.  Several, hot, cold and vapor baths were also included.  The Gymnasium was built later than the Palaestra and larger than the stadium.  It was supported by columns, which enclosed an inner courtyard with a 600-foot running track and adequate room for discus and javelin throwing.

The Pelopium and Phillipaeum

Pelops, for whom the Peloponnesos is named, won the hand of his wife Hippodamia, by defeating her father King Oenomaus of Pisa, in a chariot race. Pelops, who was worshipped as a hero in Olympia, had his tomb built within the Altis.  The Pelopium grove contained trees and statues, which surrounded his hexagonal stone grave.

In the 4^th Century B.C., King Phillip of Macedon, father to Alexander the Great, often entered the chariot races at Olympia.  Though the owners of horses hired riders and charioteers to race for them, if victorious, the owners were proclaimed victors.  To proclaim his many victories, Phillip minted special coins and erected the Phillipaeum, a circular Ionic temple in the Altis, which housed ornate statues of the Macedonian royal  family.

The Northern Altis

The northern boundary of the Altis enclosed a number of different buildings. Built by various Greek and Roman city-states, the Twelve Treasuries, which stood at the northeast end of the Altis, served as storehouses for votive offerings, sacrificial paraphernalia and for money, which was thought to be safe under the protection of the gods.  In Roman times, a wealthy Athenian, Herodes Atticus, built an elaborate fountain beside the Treasuries.  Further west, the Prytaneum, named for the magistrates who administered the sanctuary and the games, housed the sacred eternal flame which burned at the altar of the goddess of the hearth, Hestia, from which all other altars were lit.  The Prytaneum also contained a large banquet room where the victors of the events and important visitors gathered to feast following the sacrifice at the end of the games.

Secular Buildings

Without exception, all secular buildings and installations stood outside the Altis.  The three Olympic priests, who performed rites and sacrifices at the altars in the Altis, were given a special residence called the Theokoleon, a square building with eight rooms surrounding an inner courtyard. The Leonidaeum was built around 330 B.C. by Leonidas of Naxos as a guesthouse for important visitors to Olympia.  The Buleuterion was the meeting place of the Olympic Council, which was the body ultimately responsible for the administration of the games.  They also heard any appeals lodged against the judges decisions there. The Buleuterion also housed a statue of Zeus Horkios, god of oaths, before whom the athletes, accompanied by their fathers, brothers and trainers, took the Olympic Oath promising not to cheat.  

The Temple of Hera (Heraeum)

The Temple of Hera was built three times following its destruction by fire twice. Its third construction included forty-four wooden pillars, which, as they decayed, were gradually replaced in stone.  It is the oldest temple in Olympia and three objects of great religious significance were kept within: Hippodamia’s nuptial bed, the bronze plaque of Iphitus upon which the terms of the sacred truce were inscribed, and, a table of ivory and gold on which the wreaths for the victors were laid out.  The approximate height of the Heraeum was nearly twenty-four feet. As the dwelling place of the deity, it also contained a statue of Hera. 

The Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus, the largest and most important structure at Olympia, was built around 457 B.C. by the architect Libon of Elis.  It was built of cut marble and decorated with ornate statuary. It surpassed the Temple of Hera in size, beauty and splendor.  The sculpture on the eastern (front) pediment depicted a scene just prior to the chariot race between Pelops and King Oenomaus.  In the center, below the apex of the triangle, stood the figure of Zeus.  The height from the ground to the top of the pediment was sixty-eight feet, its width ninety-five feet and its length two hundred-thirty feet.  The sculpture on the western (back) pediment depicted the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths with the figure of Apollo at its center.  Around the inner wall, metopes depicted the Six Labors of Herakles (Hercules).

The Statue of Zeus

Within the antechamber of the Temple of Zeus, at the far end of three divisions of marble pillars, sat one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the forty-foot colossal gold and ivory statue of Zeus.  The work of the reknowned Athenian sculptor, Phidias depicted the enthroned Zeus wearing a wreath of wild olive on his head, a golden scepter surmounted by an eagle in his left hand and as the source of victory, a golden figure of the Goddess of Victory, Nike, in his right. Coroebus, the winner of the stade race at the first Olympiad in 776 B.C., was not crowned with the wreath of wild olive; his prize was an apple.   It was only after the fifth Olympiad (756 B.C.), and in front of this magnificent statue, that the Olympian victors were crowned with the fragrant, reddish brown wreath of wild olive.  

The Ancient End and Modern Beginning

Olympia did not survive the ancient world.  In the 6^th Century A.D., severe earthquakes ravaged the great sanctuary. Successive flooding of the Alfios River, however, preserved its remains under multiple layers of sand and silt.  In 1874, Ernst Curtius concluded a treaty on behalf of the German Reich with the government of Greece, whereby Germany undertook to bear the cost of a new excavation and to grant Greece possession of all new finds.  Within six years, Curtius had excavated the whole Altis, bringing back to life the sacred grounds and spirit of the ancient games.  After 1527 years, the Olympic dreams and persistence of the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin finally became a reality. Under the royal patronage of the King of Greece, the first modern Olympiad commenced at 3:00 P.M., April 6, 1896 in the Panathenaic Stadium of Herodis in Athens.  Two of the first modern Olympic champions were James Connolly, a Harvard law student who claimed first place in the triple jump, second in the high jump and third in the long jump and Spiros Louis, a Greek shepherd with no experience, who triumphed in the first marathon.