A picture of us in start position for the stade, one length of the stadium. It was the first event at the ancient Olympic Games and stayed the only event until the 14th Olympiad. From the front: Justine, Katie, myself, and Alexis.
Today we got up early and headed to Olympia, the actual site. Fortunately it wasn't too crowded or hot when we got there but after about two hours the heat and the crowds were rising. We started off at the River that flows to Mount Cronos, the moutain where Cronos (Zeus' father) was supposedly born. Then we headed to the temples of both Zeus and Hera.
The temple of Zeus housed the "greatest sculpture in ancient Greece". It was sitting on a throne, altogether 15 feet high, and made entirely out of gold and ivory. Pretty ostentacious if you ask me. We talked about the mythology and architecture associated with each temple as usual.
The stadium was very neat to see, however it was different that I imagined. It had no preserved seating. Apparently having marble seats is a Roman design and the Greeks had seats terraced into the landscape so they wouldn't last very long. We talked about the chronology of the events and descriptions of them. I knew a lot of the information because of my paper so it wasn't as interesting to me.
We then grabbed a snack at the little kiosk there and headed back to the hotel for a swim. The pool is very nice but it was pretty hot out so I just stayed out for an hour or so. We have another museum visit in an hour so we have a little time to relax indoors. Tomorrow we don't have to leave until 10, sleep in!
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