Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/120

 The third or easternmost section was open to the public. This temple was most richly adorned with statues and reliefs. On the east front were represented in twenty-one colossal figures the moment before the contest between Oenomaus and Pelops. The west front exhibited the fight of the Lapithae and Centaurs. The statement of Pausanias that the two pediments were made by Paeonius and Alcamenes is now generally supposed to be an error. The Twelve Labours of Heracles were depicted on the metopes of the prodomos and opisthodomos; and of these reliefs much the greater part was found—enough to determine with certainty all the essential features of the composition. It was near this temple, at a point about 38 yds. E.S.E. from the south-east angle, that the explorers found the statue of a flying goddess of victory—the Nike of Paeonius.

4. The Temple of Hera (Heraeum), north of the Pelopium, was raised on two steps. It is probably the oldest of extant Greek temples, and may date from about 1000 It has colonnades of six columns each at east and west, and of sixteen each (counting the corner columns again) at north and south. It was smaller than the temple of Zeus, and, while resembling it in general plan, differed from it by its singular length relatively to its breadth. When Pausanias saw it, one of the two columns of the opisthodomos (at the west end of the cella) was of wood; and for a long period all the columns of this temple had probably been of the same material. A good deal of patch-work in the restoration of particular parts seems to have been done at various periods. Only the lower part of the cella wall was of stone, the rest being of unbaked brick; the entablature above the columns was of wood covered with terracotta. The cella—divided, like that of Zeus, into three partitions by a double row of columns—had four “tongue-walls,” or small screens, projecting at right angles from its north wall, and as many from the south wall. Five niches were thus formed on the north side and five on the south. In the third niche from the east, on the north side of the cella, was found one of the greatest of all the treasures which rewarded the German explorers—the Hermes of Praxiteles (1878).

5. The Temple of the Great Mother of the Gods (Metroum) was again considerably smaller than the Heraeum. It stood to the east of the latter, and had a different orientation, viz. not west to east, but west-north-west to east-south-east. It was raised on three steps, and had a peripteros of six columns (east and west) by eleven (north and south), having thus a slightly smaller length relatively to its breadth than either of the other two temples. Here also the cella had prodomos and opisthodomos. The adornment and painting of this temple had once been very rich and varied. It was probably built in the 4th century, and there are indications that in Roman times it underwent a restoration.

B. Votive Edifices.—Under this head are placed buildings erected, either by states or by individuals, as offerings to the Olympian god.

1. The twelve Treasure-houses on the north side of the Altis, immediately under the Cronion, belong to this class.

The same general character—that of a Doric temple in antis, facing south—is traceable in all the treasure-houses. In the cases of several of these the fragments are sufficient to aid a reconstruction. Two—viz. the 2nd and 3rd counting from the west—had been dismantled at an early date, and their site was traversed by a roadway winding upward towards the Cronion. This roadway seems to have been older at least than 157, since it caused a deflexion in the watercourse along the base of the Cronion constructed by Herodes Atticus. Pausanias, therefore, would not have seen treasure-houses Nos. 2 and 3. This explains the fact that, though we can trace twelve, he names only ten.

As the temples of ancient Greece partly served the purposes of banks in which precious objects could be securely deposited, so the form of a small Doric chapel was a natural one for the “treasure-house” to assume. Each of these treasure-houses was erected by a Greek state, either as a thank-offering for Olympian victories gained by its citizens, or as a general mark of homage to the Olympian Zeus. The treasure-houses were designed to contain the various  or dedicated gifts (such as gold and silver plate, &c.), in which the wealth of the sanctuary partly consisted. The temple inventories recently discovered at Delos illustrate the great quantity of such possessions which were apt to accumulate at a shrine of Panhellenic celebrity. Taken in order from the west, the treasure-houses were founded by the following states: 1, Sicyon; 2, 3, unknown; 4, Syracuse (referred by Pausanias to Carthage); 5, Epidamnus; 6, Byzantium; 7, Sybaris; 8, Cyrene; 9, Selinus; 10, Metapontum; 11, Megara; 12, Gela. It is interesting to remark how this list represents the Greek colonies, from Libya to Sicily, from the Euxine to the Adriatic. Greece proper, on the other hand, is represented only by Megara and Sicyon. The dates of the foundations cannot be fixed. The architectural members of some of the treasure-houses have been found built into the Byzantine wall, or elsewhere on the site, as well as the terra-cotta plates that overlaid the stonework in some cases, and the pedimental figures, representing the battle of the gods and giants, from the treasure-house of the Megarians.

2. The Philippeum stood near the north-west corner of the Altis, a short space west-south-west of the Heraeum. It was dedicated by Philip of Macedon, after his victory at Chaeronea (338 ). As a thank-offering for the overthrow of Greek freedom, it might seem strangely placed in the Olympian Altis. But it is, in fact, only another illustration of the manner in which Philip's position and power enabled him to place a decent disguise on the real nature of the change. Without risking any revolt of Hellenic feeling, the new “captain-general” of Greece could erect a monument of his triumph in the very heart of the Panhellenic sanctuary. The building consisted of a circular Ionic colonnade (of eighteen columns), about 15 metres in diameter, raised on three steps and enclosing a small circular cella, probably adorned with fourteen Corinthian half-columns. It contained portraits by Leochares of Philip, Alexander, and other members of their family, in gold and ivory.

3. The Exedra of Herodes Atticus stood at the north limit of the Altis, close to the north-east angle of the Heraeum, and immediately west of the westernmost treasure-house (that of Sicyon). It consisted of a half-dome of brick, 54 ft. in diameter, with south-south-west aspect. Under the half-dome were placed twenty-one marble statues, representing the family of Antoninus Pius, of Marcus Aurelius, and of the founder, Herodes Atticus. In front of the half-dome on the south, and extending slightly beyond it, was a basin of water for drinking, 71 ft. long. The ends of the basin at north-north-west and south-south-east were adorned by very small open temples, each with a circular colonnade of eight pillars. A marble bull, in front of the basin, bore an inscription saying that Herodes dedicates the whole to Zeus, in the name of his wife, Annia Regilla. The exedra must have been seen by Pausanias, but he does not mention it.

C. It remains to notice those features of the Altis which were connected with the management of the sanctuary or with the accommodation of its guests.

1. Olympia, besides its religious character, originally possessed also a political character, as the centre of an amphictyony. It was, in fact, a sacred . We have seen that it had a bouleuterium for purposes of public debate or conference. So also it was needful that, like a Greek city, it should have a public hearth or prytaneum, where fire should always burn on the altar of the Olympian Hestia, and where the controllers of Olympia should exercise public hospitality. The Prytaneum was at the north-west corner of the Altis, in such a position that its south-east angle was close to the north-west angle of the Heraeum. It was apparently a square building, of which each side measured 100 Olympian feet, with a south-west aspect. It contained a chapel of Hestia at the front or south-west side, before which a portico was afterwards built. The dining-hall was at the back (north-east), the kitchen on the north-west side. On the same side with the kitchen, and also on the opposite side (south-east), there were some smaller rooms.

2. The Porch of Echo, also called the “Painted Porch,” extended to a length of 100 yds. along the east Altis wall. Raised on three steps, and formed by a single Doric colonnade, open towards the Altis, it afforded a place from which spectators could conveniently view the passage of processions and the sacrifices at the great altar of Zeus. It was built in the Macedonian period to replace an earlier portico which stood farther back. In front of it was a series of pedestals for votive offerings, including two colossal Ionic columns. These columns, as the inscriptions show, once supported statues of Ptolemy and Berenice.

3. The Agora was the name given to that part of the Altis which had the Porch of Echo on the east, the Altar of Zeus on the west, the Metroum on the north, and the precinct of the Temple of Zeus on the south-west. In this part stood the altars of Zeus Agoraios and Artemis Agoraia.

4. The Zanes were bronze images of Zeus, the cost of making which was defrayed by the fines exacted from competitors who had infringed the rules of the contests at Olympia. These images stood at the northern side of the Agora, in a row, which extended from the north-east angle of the Metroum to the gate of the private entrance from the Altis into the Stadium. Sixteen pedestals were here discovered in situ. A lesson of loyalty was thus impressed on aspirants to renown by the last objects which met their eyes as they passed from the sacred enclosure to the scene of their trial.

5. Arrangements for Water-supply.—A copious supply of water was required for the service of the altars and temples, for the private dwellings of priests and officials, for the use of the gymnasium, palaestra, &c., and for the thermae which arose in Roman times. In the Hellenic age the water was derived wholly from the Cladeus and from the small lateral tributaries of its valley. A basin, to serve as a chief reservoir, was built at the north-west corner of the Altis: and a supplementary reservoir was afterwards constructed a little to the north-east of this, on the slope of the Cronion. A new source of supply was for the first time made available by Herodes Atticus, c. 157. At a short distance east of Olympia, near the village of Miraka, small streams flow from comparatively high ground through the side-valleys which descend towards the right or northern bank of the Alpheus. From these side-valleys water was now conducted to Olympia, entering the Altis at its north-east corner by an arched canal which passed behind the treasure-houses to the reservoir at the back of the exedra. The large basin of drinking-water in front of the exedra was fed thence, and served to associate the name of Herodes with a benefit of the highest practical value. Olympia further possessed several fountains, enclosed by round or square walls,