Thursday, March 5, 2009

Ancient Olympia, Greece

Birthplace of Ancient Olympic Games

Snapshots by:
Alexander Kupriyanov
Writes from Moscow, Russia

Ancient Olympia is located in western Peloponnese, Greece in a tranquil valley. Millions of visitors every year come here to admire the impressive birthplace of Ancient Olympic Games.

Although the entire complex of ancient Olympia is today piles of ruins, they cause admiration, especially for all those great ideals they represent.

Imagine that here, the most brilliant performances of the time were organised, the ‘Olympia’, the forerunners of the modern Olympic Games.

The Games were held every four years, around August and lasted five days.

They included games such as the pentathlon (jump, discus, race, javelin and wrestling), track, wrestling, pankration and soldiers’ running with armour.

The athletes contested naked, and the races and boxing matches were called nudist facts.

The ‘Olympia’ started as a local celebration, a small regional of festival. Interesting enough, during the Games, the wars between city-states stopped.

As a prize, the winners received a twig wreath from the sacred olive tree of kallistephanos oil tree, which they calletd ‘kotinos’.

Race games were organised every four year, in honour of goddess Hera, called ‘Heraea’, in which only women took part.

The sanctuary and the Games at Olympia were dedicated to Zeus.

The most important and impressive building was the famous temple of Olympian Zeus.

The Gymnasium and Palaestra where the athletes trained before the Games.

During the 1875 excavations some unique masterpieces of the ancient Greek art were found, such as the famous Hermes of Praxiteles, exhibited at the Olympia Museum.

Our guide, Julia, explained to us all about Ancient Olympia.

After passing the Crypt, we enter the Stadium, in which the nudist games took place.

The stadium, has a length of 192 metres and a width of 30 metres. Here we can see the starting point, a marble slab for the runners.

Anna, between the modern and the past.

Thanks to the vision of the French Pierre de Coubertin, these Games were revived in Athens in 1896, with the modern international Olympiads.

Αρχαία Ολυμπία
Στη γενέτειρα των Αρχαίων Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων
Alex Kupriyanov
Γράφει από τη Μόσχα
Να φανταστεί κανείς ότι εδώ, διοργανώνονταν τα πιο λαμπρά θεάματα της εποχής, τα Ολύμπια, οι πρόδρομοι των σύγχρονων Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων.
Μιχάλης, Άλεξ και Φοίβος μπροστά στη Στοά της Ηχούς ή Επτάηχος.

Η αφετηρία του Σταδίου με τη μαρμάρινη πλάκα, με σειρά από αυλακώσεις, από την οποία ξεκινούσαν οι δρομείς.

Προσπάθεια αναπαράστασης των προσπαθειών...

Το Στάδιο είχε μήκος 192 μέτρα και πλάτος 30 μέτρα.

Χρειάστηκαν χίλια ολόκληρα χρόνια για να συμπληρωθεί όλο το σύμπλεγμα.

Μετά την απαγόρευση της ειδωλολατρίας, ο θεσμός που έγινε σύμβολο καταργήθηκε το 393 μ.Χ.

Η ξεναγός μας Τζούλια, μας εξηγά την ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία της Ολυμπίας.

Όπου και να περπατήσεις, όπου και να κοιτάξεις, μαγεύεσαι.

Ζωντανός θρύλος η Αρχαία Ολυμπία, το αναστηλωμένο Φιλιππείο.

Χάρις στο όραμα όμως του Γάλλου Πιέρ Ντε Γκουμπερτέν, οι αγώνες αυτοί αναβίωσαν στην Αθήνα το 1896, με τις σύγχρονες παγκόσμιες Ολυμπιάδες.

Η Ιστορία που χάννεται στα βάθη των αιώνων σε ένα κομμάτι κίονα.

Μαρία, Μελίνα, Ελένη σε μια ανεπιτυχή προσπάθεια να αλλάξουν τον... ρουν της Ιστορίας!
Η Άρχαία Ολυμπία είναι μεγαλείο.
Alex Kupriyanov

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

if there is one place in the world i really, really want to go to it's greece - the culture is so rich!

escape said...

the running acts are the coolest. looks like you really reminisced the first olympics in that.

Phivos Nicolaides said...

@ Prinsesamusang. The culture and the history are amazing. The place and the people too. You'll love it!

@ The donG. Alex was so enthousiastic with this ancient place!!