The monuments of ancient Olympia are between the confluence of the Cladeus and Alpheios rivers and the Hill of Cronus.
Finds from the surrounding region, notably the location of the Ancient Olympic Games, are on display in the museum. From prehistoric times to the period of Roman administration, the collection comprises artifacts made and utilized in the region. The Nike of Paionios; Hermes and the Infant Dionysus (ascribed to Praxiteles); a few items from the Temple of Zeus; and an oenochoe that belonged to Phidias are the main exhibits in the museum. Its collection of bronze objects places it among the most significant globally.
The most common material used in the construction of the monuments was a coarse local fossiliferous limestone. The surviving buildings belong to different periods and have suffered severe damage; some of them are totally ruined.
The first building the visitor sees is the gymnasium, an enclosed rectangular building with four stoas of Doric style.
It was used for the training of the athletes and for sports like javelin, discus, and the foot race. Immediately after the gymnasium is the Palaistra, built in the 3rd century BC, used for practicing and training athletes in wrestling, boxing, and jumping. It had a square plan and consisted of a central peristyle yard without a roof, surrounded by Doric stoas. It also had a central entrance, and the external walls were stone-built.
A building of great interest is the workshop of Pheidias. It is the place where Pheidias made the chryselephantine statue of Zeus. It had the same dimensions as the cella of the temple of Zeus. In the auxiliary areas of the workshop, various tools of iron, bronze, bone, and lead were found.
With remnants of ivory, glass ornaments, terracotta molds, and sherds of Athenian pots. At the museum we can see a clay corner tile and a section of a palmette end tile from the workshop.
Another remarkable building was the Leonidaion, almost of a square shape, consisting of a central yard surrounded by a Doric colonnade of 44 columns along the inner-facing sides. The whole building was surrounded by an Ionic colonnade of 38 columns.
In the southern part of the sanctuary we can see the Bouleutirion , a peculiar building which consists of four parts of different construction phases.
It is made up of two apsidal wings and a square open area.The two apsidal wings were the headquarters of the Olympic Council.The members of this Council were responsible for the management of the sacred ceremonies assisted by a boulographer and held authority over all olympic officials.
In the most central area of the Altis are the remains of the largest temple in the Peloponnese, the temple of Zeus.It was built on top of an artificial hill, a Doric peripteros with 6x13 columns,10,35 m tall on which rested the entablature with architraves 5m long and 1,77m tall on which stood the triglyphs and metopes.The ten metopes of the eastern side and the eleven of the southern side received 21 gild shields in 146 BC.
The central akroteria were the work of sculpture Paeonius and the corner ones were bronze cauldrons.Everything was gold plated.
In the pronaos and opisthodomos there were two columns in attendance. The frieze was decorated with triglyphs and 6 metopes.In the pronaos were many votive offerings.
The gigantic statue of the God was placed on a pedestral at the end of the cella and was protected by railings one metre high.The pedestral was made of black marble from Eleusis.
The statue of the God was placed inside the temple and was 7 times life size made of gold,ivory and other precious materials.
The God sat on an impressive throne crowned with a golden olive wreath.At his right hand he held a chryselephantine Nike and in his left a sceptre with an eagle on top. The throne was made of bronze,gold,ivory ebony and precious stones.
The skeleton of the statue was wooden onto which the artist had attached the gold sheets and ivory.
The naked parts chest,feet,stomach together with the face were made of ivory. The hair,beard, sandals, and himation were made of gold. In front of and around the temple of Zeus were many votive offerings. Close to the south side of the temple grew the sacred wild olive tree and the altar of the Nymphes.
On a terrace at the foot of the hill of Cronus are the remains of the Treasuries,small temple-like structures with two columns on the façade dated to the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Their owners were the Carthagenians, Syracusians,Samians,Epidamnians, Byzantines, and Sybarites.
And Cyreneans. Five have been identified: the Sicyonians,Selinians,Metapontians, Megarians, and Gelans. The treasury of the Gelans was built in two phases.The richest was that of the Megarians. Sculptures of this treasure survive in its pediment showing the Gigantomachy. The Nymphaeum was the water reservoir for the sanctuary.The pipelines tranferred the waters from the springs in the villages of Mouria and Miraka.
The building consisted of a Semicircular tank where the water was collected .From there it was channeled via lion headed spouts into a long,narrow basin with two small circular structures, one of which was on a lower level. The higher tank was surrounded by a two-story semicircular apse with niches in which there were statues of Antonius Pius and his family, along with fifteen statues of Herodes and Regilla. In front of the semicircular tank had been erected a marble statue of a bull.
Southwest of the Nymphaeum are the remains of the Heraion.The first small temple with only a pronaos,occupied the space taken up by the present day cella.It was later extended and was completed with an opisthodomos and a surrounding wing of wooden columns.
In its last phase was a Doric peripteros with six columns on the ends and sixteen along each side.
The cella was long and narrow and the pronaos had two columns between the ends of the side walls.The opisthodomos was divided by a wall from the main chamber and two columns between the antae.The cella was divided by two collonades into three uneven aisles.
The lower part of the cella walls were made of local limestone
and the upper parts of unbaked bricks.
The roof was covered with Laconian terracotta tiles
and the top of each pediment was crowned with a huge disc-like terracotta akroterion.
The niches of the cella were Adorned with various statues and it was
here that the famous sculpture of Hermes and Dionysus by Praxiteles was found.
The Pelopion was the temenos of Pelops and its original structure dated to the Geometric period.
It consisted of a simple perimeter wall surrounding a small enclosure.
Later it was replaced by a pentagonal one and a propylon.
In the centre of the enclosure was the altar of the hero, his statue and a pit where a black ram was sacrificed every year in his honour.
The Great Altar of Zeus was surrounded by a stone wall seven metres
The roof was conical with marble tiles.On the interior wall were Corinthian
half columns and a semicircular marble pedestral
with mouldings on which 5 chryselephantine statues were placed.
THE MUSEUM
It houses the pediments and metopes from the temple of Zeus.
On the east pediment, the preparations for the chariot race between
Pelops and Oenomaus are depicted.
In the center of the composition stands Zeus.
On the right of Zeus is Oenomaus, king of Pisa, holding
a spear, and next to him stands Sterope, his wife, thoughtful and concerned.
In front of the quadriga is a kneeling man, probably Myrtilus.
Another male figure follows, and the last figure
is a personification of the Cladeus River.
On the other side stands Pelops holding a spear and a shield.
Next to him stands Hippodamia, and next to her are the 4 horses, a thoughtful old
man and a young man playing with his fingers.
The right corner ends with the personification of the Alpheios River. On the west pediment, the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths is displayed.
Another group follows where a centaur has seized a kneeling female Lapith and another one is grabbing a young boy.
The corner ends with two Lapiths watching the fight.
To the left of Apollo is Theseus, ready to attack a Centaur who has taken a Lapith woman.
Next is a group consisting of a Centaur and a male Lapith.
A female Lapith pushing away a Centaur follows into the corner.
ends with two Lapith women full of fear.
The 12 metopes show the 12 labors of Heracles.
The Nike of Paeonius is of Parian marble, 3m high, and placed on a triangular base.
The work was offered by the Messenians and the Naupactians to Olympian Zeus.
Nike is the personification of the victorious outcome of the battle.
She is shown landing. An eagle stands at her feet with outstretched wings. She holds the thin Doric himation.
While the chiton sticks to her body. She once held a crown of wild olive.
and her wings were open.
Hermes of Praxiteles.
The statue of Hermes who holds Dionysus as an infant was created of Parian marble and shows Hermes as a naked teenager leaning on a trunk of a tree where his himation is thrown and holds in his right hand the infant Dionysus. The eyes of Hermes look towards the infant god, but his gaze seems to get lost in the horizon.
In case 1 there are exhibits from the late Neolithic to LH period like fruit bowls, cauldrons, salad bowls, phials, kanthari, amphorae, obsidian blades, and stone tools. In case 2 there are inhumations in pithos jars, askoi, jugs, grey Minyan kantharoi, pithos burial jars, single- and double-handed phials, a bronze chisel, a censer, prehistoric tools, grey Minyan vessels, fragments of dark brown pottery, tools, stone axes, female figurines with the arms raised, alabasters, spherical stirrup jars, and clay or steatite spindles.
The Kalosaka tomb group has revealed clay spindles, small alabaster handleless jars, glass jewelry, kyathoi with ring handles, a bronze leaf-shaped razor, necklace heads of glass faience horn, impressive kyathoi, a headless transitional type of female idol, a large conical kylix, and ribbed-stem conical kylikes.
In case 4 there are Assyrian hammered sheets, bronze and terracotta figurines of people and animals, other bronze objects that decorated the handles of the cauldrons and votive offerings, clay votive offerings, animals, male and female figures, microscopic tripod cauldrons, and 4 impressive small bulls.
Parts from bronze vessels attached either to the rim or the handles, animal figurines, warriors, bullheads, and figurines of the fighter and the old man
Bronze sheets, a sphinx, a cock, and a female mask from a Laconian workshop. In case 5 we can see a well-preserved tripod, a winged horse, a winged Gorgon + used as shield fearing, and a bronze Illyrian helmet decorated with silver sheets.
In case 7 there are bronze helmets with especially formed coverings for the nose and the cheeks and the colossal limestone head of the goddess Hera. In case 8 bronze defensive armor is exhibited: armor for arms and forearms and miters to protect the groin area, a reconstruction of an archaic shield and shield holders decorated with relief representations, and hammered sheets with the figure of a cock.
In case 9 we can see the back section of a bronze breastplate showing the liberation of Helen by the Dioscuri.
Military votive offerings: a geometric tripod of orientalizing style, archaic bronze sheets with two centaurs and Orestes killing Klytemnestra, and the kidnapping of the Amazon Antiope.
By Theseus, a female griffin suckling her newborn,
bronze busts of monumental-sized griffins.
Winged male and female figures, tripod cauldron. parts of bronze cauldrons,
the treasury of the Megarians, the pediment of the treasury of the Gelans
Pottery from the Elians, Corinthians, and Attic workshops; black-figured lekythoi; measuring vessels; a clay head of a Siren; the sculptures of a winged Nike and a Sphinx; and the persecution of a Mainad by a Satyr. The inscribed helmets are a Corinthian and an Etruscan one. Two more helmets with the inscriptions
ATHENIAN MILTIADES II ATHENIANS BETWEEN LAVOTES.
The second may be Assyrian. A small bronze horse, part of a quadriga, stands on a tall base. Bronze figurines of Zeus, statuettes of Athena, Hermes, and goatlike Pan. Bronze vessels, oil lamps, deer figurines, oinochoi, phials, bronze weights, the clay statue of a warrior, a bronze battering ram of the 5th century, and siege weaponry made in a Sicilian workshop
A bronze bull's horn and ear, a votive offering from Eretria bearing
The inscription: A terracotta statue of the goddess Athena, a clay statue of a warrior, a terracotta dolphin bounding over the waves, and Zeus kidnapping Ganymedes. A female statue of Agrippina the younger. The himation with the rich drapery, which covers the head, identifies the empress as a priestess. Marble statue of a noble woman, Empress Domitia, the wife of Domitian.
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