The site of the games was impressive, with ruins from gymnasia and other training facilities, temples and places for people to stay, in addition to the stadium.
Athletes could not practice in the stadium itself since that was sacred, so the gymnasium was laid out with a practice track of equivalent length.
Here's a picture of our tour guide, Joy, showing members of our group a photo recreation of the site. Trained as an archaeologist and then an additonal 3 years to become a licensed tour guide, she was full of information about history and mythology as well as architecture. Anytime you see bricks (like the background here) that is an indication of Roman era work.
Originally, Greek columns were made of one large piece of stone or marble, but in later years they were built in sections and fitted together with dowel-like pieces in the center. You can see the fallen columns in sections very clearly here.
The arch marks the entrance to the stadium. Joy told us that athletes who cheated were forever shamed by having statues place along the walkway...not sure if that's true.
The start and finish line for the races, were lines of stone. You can see there were no seats, just hillsides where people sat to watch the games.to get a wonderful fictionalized but historically grounded story of how the games were carried out, read Mary Renault's The Last of the Wine.
We then went to the museum where they have preserved substantial portions of the friezes from the buildings on the site.
The statuary conveys not only their reverence for the human form, but also the high level of artisanship.
After having lunch, we headed north, back across the canal to the mainland. Next stop, the museum at Delphi (pronounced DEL-fee) since it wouldn't be open Monday morning. The drive up to the mountain town of Delphi was gorgeous; the valley below supposedly is home to over 1 million olive trees.
Delphi was considered the "naval of the earth" (aka Omphalos) supposedly because Zeus sent his two eagles to fly from opposite ends of the earth and this is where they met.
Delphi was also the seat of the most revered oracle in ancient Greece and home to Panhellenic games called the Pythian games. Apollo supposedly defeated the god Python, who originally guarded the site, because Python had tormented Apollo's mother while she was giving birth to him and his sister (on Delos). It's very complicated, no? These statues of the "Twins of Argos" in the museum fascinated me because they reveal very strong Egyptian influence on the art of the time. Greece was such a cross-roads for trade and culture and was constantly fought over and conquered by multiple groups from around the Mediterranean and Europe.
Another Egyptian derived creature fueled the myth of the Sphinx who posed questions to travellers and ate them if they didn't get the right answer. The Sphinx of Naxos is also housed in the museum
The last memorable sculpture at the museum is The Charioteer, a life-sized bronze statue whose eyes seem to follow you.
This was our favorite hotel on the trip because it had a stunning view from the lobby and was close enough to town to allow an evening ramble and some shopping.( Yes, that's me reading on the balcony--what a surprise!)
We tasted homemade olives, bought ceramics, and a birthday present to myself, a small gold "meander" pendant. We saw a herd of goats being shepherded only by a hard-working dog.
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