March 26

I woke up this morning, early as usual, and went down to breakfast. At this point, I just bring my own stuff down to breakfast, and drink the coffee or tea provided by the hotel. I found a really great cereal in Nafplio and it has lasted me a while. I’m just not a big fan of these hotel breakfasts. Sometimes they have fresh fruit, like in Pylos, but mainly it’s just white bread, meat, cheese, and hard boiled eggs. The coffee at this hotel was pretty good, much better than the gray water at Pylos. Getting up early left me time to make sure that Caroline was all situated for the day, and to read some more.
We left at 8:30 to head to the museum about the Olympic games. This was a new building and very interesting. There were displays on every event and different pieces of artwork showing athletes at the event described. There was little at Olympia that had to do with women, besides working in the brothels. Absolutely no women were allowed at the Olympic games, even though males of any class (even slaves) or nationality could attend. There was one event for women, a footrace for unmarried girls, but it occurred on different years than the actual Olympic games. The middle room was designed to match the dimensions of the Temple of Zeus in the grounds of the sanctuary. The exterior was also designed to match the temple – each corner of the roof was topped either with a tripod, eagle, griffin, or owl.
After this museum, we stopped by the little museum on the history of the excavations. The cool thing about Olympia is that all the finds have stayed here – nothing was taken back to the home country of the excavators – a very rare thing to happen, especially given that the excavations began in 1875. There were journal entries, pictures of the excavators, old tools, newspaper clippings, and sketches of the progress of the dig. Even though it was small, and only two rooms, the museum was sweet. There have been three different excavations here. The first one is called the “Old Excavation” (1875 – 1881), the second called the “New Excavation” (1936 – 1966), and the current excavation called the “Contemporary Excavation” (1973 – now). You’d think they would call the excavations by something other than time. The name only works while that excavation is in progress. What will they call the next one? The “New-Contemporary Excavation?”
After the museums, we hit the site itself. At this point, we have visited all four of the Panathaneic Games sites: Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and Corinth. Olympia was never a town, only a sanctuary for the games, which took place every four years. The games began in 776 BCE and lasted until 393 CE, when Theodosius banned all festivals to the pagan gods. 50,000 people would come to see the games, which increased in number over the years. Late in the Classical period (around the 2nd century CE) a hotel was added, but mostly people just brought tents. When we got to the stadium, Krentz told us the entrance for the athletes would have been flanked with large statues, paid for by the fines acquired from cheaters – just a reminder of the tough consequences of cheating. Allie, Louisa, and I jogged around the stadium to get a feel for the race. The track at Olympia is unusually long. The track is in a natural valley between two low hills. There is no evidence of stone seats, so spectators probably just brought their own seats and watched from either slope.
At noon, we broke for lunch. Krentz told us to meet up at the New Museum at 1:30 to hear Louisa’s presentation on the sculpture from the Temple of Zeus. Allie, Emily, Louisa, and I ate our packed lunch in a grassy area on the site. I had The Aeneid in my backpack, and read for the last 45 mins before we met back up. It was a nice, sunny day, and the time went very quickly.
By this point, I was a little worn out, especially since I had just eaten lunch, so I was glad that we didn’t spend that much time at this museum. Louisa’s presentation was good – again, the sculptures were not shipped off when the excavators found them – so she got to explain her presentation with the actual sculpture right behind her. She talked about the pediment sculpture and the frieze. The pediment sculpture has an overall design, but the style varies among the different pieces. One of the women is very rigid (the Severe Style) and the draping of her clothing is not revealing at all – indicators of an older style. A man, just two figures down from her, is lying on the ground, and is clearly older in years, with his sagging skin and balding hair – indicators of a newer style.
After this museum, we headed back to the hotel. I used Caroline’s computer (I left my charger on the bus, and of course we didn’t take the bus today) and spent some time online. Mom gave me her credit card number and said I could order some clothes from the online sale at Banana Republic! Yeah for new clothes. She is bringing them when she comes for Easter Break. I am getting very sick of the clothes in my suitcase. It’s funny – Kyle “found” (?) a shirt in his suitcase and wore it to dinner the other night. I noticed immediately and commented that he was wearing something new. We all have been wearing the same 4 or 5 outfits and it’s easy to tell when someone wears something new.
I ate some groceries for dinner – the tomatoes here are Excellent – and went to bed after reading a couple of books from The Aeneid.