Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/491

 OLYMPIA. it derived its name. (Strab. sii. pp. 571, 576.) The inhabitants of the district were called Olympeni ('0vfj.TTnvoi, Strab. xii. p. 574 ; Ptol. v. 2. § 15) or Olympieni ('OAu^uTriTjroi, Herod, vii. 74 ; comp. My.sia). [L. S.] OLY'MPIA (ri 'OXvi-nria), the temple and sacred grove of Zeus Olympius, situated at a small distance west of Pisa in Peloponnesus. It originally belonged to Pisa, and the plain, in which it stood, was called in more ancient times the plain of Pisa; but after the destruction of this city by the Eleians in b. c. 572, the name of Olympia was extended to the whole dis- trict. Besides the temple of Zeus Olympius, there were several other sacred edifices and public buildings in the sacred grove and its immediate neighbourhood ; but there was no distinct town of Olympia. The plain of Olympia is open towards the sea on the west, but is surrounded on every other side by hills of no great height, yet in miiny places abrupt and precipitous. Their surface presents a series of sandy cliffs of light yellow colour, covered with the pine, ilex, and other evergreens. On entering the valley from the west, the most conspicuous object is a bold and nearly insulated eminence rising on the north from the level plain in the form of an irregular cone. (Mure, vol. ii. p. 281.) This is Mount Cronius, or the hill of Cronus, which is frequently noticed by Pindar and other ancient writers. (Trap' fvSeieKov Kpoinov, Pind. 01. . Ill; ndyos Kpdvov, 01. xi. 49 ; vii7oio Tr4rpa a.i§aTos Kpoviov, 01. vi. 64; Kpovov Trap' aiirvv oxSov, Lycophr. 42; 6 Kpoveios, Xen. Hell. vii. 4. § 14; rh opos rh Kp6- vtov, Paus. V. 21. § 2, vi. 19. § 1, vi. 20. § 1; Ptol. iii. 16. § 14.) The range of hills to which it belongs is called by most modern writers the Olym- pian, on the authority of a passage of Xenophon. (^ffelL vii. 4. § 14). Leake, however, supposes that the Olympian hill alluded to in this passage was no other than Cronius itself; but it would appear, that the common opinion is correct, since Strabo (viii. p. 356) describes Pisa as lying be- tween the two mountains Olympus and Ossa. The hills, which bound the plain on the south, are higher than theCronianridge,and, like the latter, are covered with evergreens, with the exception of one bare sum- mit, distant about half a mile from the Alpheius. This was the ancient Typaeus (Tvttcuov'), from which women, who frequented the Olympic games, or crossed the river on forbidden days, were con- demned to be hurled headlong. (Paus. v. 6. § 7.) Anotiier range of hills closes the vale of Olympia to the east, at the foot of which runs the rivulet of Mirdha. On the west the vale was bounded by the Cladeus (KAdSeos), which flowed from north to south along the side of the sacred grove, and fell into tlie Alpheius. (Paus. v. 7. § 1 ; KAdSaos, Xen. Hell. vii. 4. § 29.) This river rises at Lata in Blount Pholou. The Alpheius, which flows along the south- ern edge of the plain, constantly changes its course, and has buried beneath the new alluvial plain, or carried into the river, all the remains of buildings and monuments which stood in the southem part of the Sacred Grove. In winter the Alpheius is full, rapid, and turbid ; in summer it is scanty, and divided into several torrents flowing between islands or sand- bunks over a wide gravelly bed. The vale of Olympia is now called Andilalo (i. e. opposite to Lala), and is uninhabited. The soil is naturally rich, but swampy in part, owing to the inundations of the river. Of the numerous buildings and count- less statues, which once covered this sacred spot, OLYMPIA. 475 the only remains are those of the temple of Zeus Olympius. Pausanias has devoted nearly two books, and one fifth of his whole work, to the description of Olympia; but he does not enumerate the buildings in their exact topographical order : owing to this cir- cumstance, to the absence of ancient remains, and to the changes in the surface of the soil by the fluc- tuations in the course of the Alpheius, the topo- graphy of the plain must be to a great extent con- jectural. The latest and most able attempt to elucidate this subject, is that of Colonel Leake in his Peloponnesiaca, whose description is here chiefly followed. Olympia lay partly within and partly outside of the Sacred Grove. This Sacred Grove bore from the most ancient times the name of Altis (J) "AXris), which is the Peloponnesian Aeolic form of aAcros. (Paus. v. 10. 5 1.) It was adorned with trees, and in its centre there was a grove of planes. (Paus. V. 27. § 11.) Pindar likewise describes it as well wooded {Tlicras evSfvSpoi' eV AAtfe'on aAaos, 01. viii. 12). The space of the Altis was measured out by Hercules, and was surrounded by this hero with a wall. (Pind. 01. xi. 44.) On the west it ran along the Cladeus; on the south its direction may be traced by a terrace raised above the Al- pheius; on the east it was bounded by the stadium. There were several gates in the wall, but the prin- cipal one, through which all the processions passed, was situated in the middle of the western side, and was called the Pompic Entrance (^ tlo^TriK:?; el'aoSoj, Paus. V. 15. § 2). From this gate, a road, called the Pompic Way, ran across the Altis, and entered the stadium by a gateway on the eastern side. 1. The Olympieium, Objmphan, or temple of Zeus Olympius. An oracle of the Olympian god existed on this spot from the most ancient times (Stiab. viii. p. 353), and here a temple was doubtless built, even before the Olympic games became a Pan-Hel- lenic festival. But after the conquest of Pisa and the surrounding cities by the Eleians in k. c. 572, the latter determined to devote the spoils of ihe conquered cities to the erection of a new and splen- did temple of the Olympian god. (Paus. v. 10. §§ 2, 3.) The architect was Libon of Elis. The temple was not, however, finished till nearly a century atterwards, at the period when the Attic school of art was supreme in Greece, and the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis had thrown into the shade all previous works of art. Shortly after the dedi- cation of the Parthenon, the Eleians invited Phei- dias and his school of artists to remove to Elis, and adorn the Olympian temple in a manner worthy of the king of the gods. Pheidias probably remained at Olympia for four or five years from about b. c. 437 to 434 or 433. The colossal statue of Zeus in the cella, and the figures in the pediments of the temple were executed by Pheidias and his associ- ates. The pictorial embellishments were the work of his relative Panaenus. (Strab. viii. p. 354) [Coir.p. Diet. ofBiorjr. Vol. III. p. 248.] Pausanias has given a minute description of the temple (v. 10); and its site, plan, and dimensions have been well as- certained by the excavations of the French Conunis- sion of the Morea. The foundations are now exposed to view ; and several fine fragments of the sculp- tures, representing the labours of Hercules, are now in the museum of the Louvre. The temple stood in the south-western portion of the Altis, to the right hand of the Pompic entrance. It was built of the native limestone, which Pausanias called poros, and