Today we docked at the small fishing village of Katakolon. This was the gateway to the ancient site of Olympia which is located about 25 miles to the east.
After about an hour's drive we arrived at Ancient Olympia.The sanctuary of Olympia looks like a park, but it transforms you back 2,000 years into the past. In ancient times, over 200,000 men would gather here every four years in August for 2 months to train and compete in the 3-5 day Olympic Games. The area is quite vast, and it took us about an hour and a half to walk it. This was a splendid day, as there are purple blossom trees all through the ruins.
This was a sacred place with Temples of Zeus and his wife Hera. The men who came were trained as soldiers and they came to win. They competed naked. The heat in August can be as high as 40 degrees C, and we were told they often had heat stroke. Our guide had us picture the area crowded with athletes, orators, merchants and philosophers surrounding the Temple of Zeus with its forty foot statue of the god.
After seeing the Gymnasium, and the temples, we saw the place where still today, the Olympic flame is lit for each Olympic game, by sunlight, outside Hera's old Temple, in front of the entrance to the Stadium. In a few weeks the flame will be lit for the London games to be held this summer in the U.K. The eternal flame is a modern invention, as the flame of old was symbolic of the home and hearth kept by the woman in the kitchen.
We entered the Stadium which is an enormous flat dirt surface surrounded by perfectly formed grassy slopes for viewing the athletes. The archway where the athletes entered is still intact, and their were purposely no seats in the slopes so that they could crowd in as many people as possible. Only a judging platform on one side was made, and one sole stone pedestal on the other for the single woman priestess who was present. Women were not permitted at the Games.
You could imagine the roar of the spectators at the athletes as they took their marks on the marble starting blocks, which are still there. Karen, Jonathan, Barry, Jane, my mom and I all walked the length of the field and back, collecting a few rocks to take home.
They dropped us in the local village for an hour's shopping then we bused back to Katakolon, where we dropped our things at the ship. The women had a bite of lunch, the men had a grander fish lunch, we shopped and just generally enjoyed the sunshine. There was an olive wood store which is carved into many items. This beautiful wood art is a dying craft as only one family owns a store in the region.
We had little tea in the Crow's Nest, before cocktails, in Maxine and Mal's suite, and a formal dinner. All in all, a full, and wonderful day.
