Sport & Victory

We arrived at Olympia to a tour of the ruins of the stadium, temples, etc. dedicated to Zeus, athletic competition, sport, and victory. The tour guide did a good job to explain how athlete training areas were set up, describing the purposes of the temples, roofs, stadiums, etc. It seemed to help us understand within that context, the way the Greeks viewed sport, victory, and Zeus.

A group of us decided we would have a footrace at the stadium, and we did so barefoot. There was disagreement over whether we were racing the length of the track, or there and back. As we took off, the others went ahead in a full sprint, and some started with a more moderate pace, under the assumption we were going there and back, thus pacing for the long run. Xavier won the race after one length, and some wondered why the return stretch was excluded. Then one of the unidentifiable security staff members indicated that we need to put our shoes back on. They are pretty sharp in their response time, as we were quickly reprimanded for prohibited rock contact such as sitting, standing, etc.

From the grounds of Olympia, we continued to the Ancient Olympia Museum which contained many pediments, sculptures, statues, and so forth from the temples in antiquity. The Ancient Greek architecture styles included decorative pediments as can be seen from the statue decorative art. Seeing all the art from Olympia of antiquity really helped the imagination envision the awe Olympia once was.

Statue Art from pediment of Temple of Zeus