Evening star., 1952-08-30
Recopturing the Glory That Was Greece
10 the Edition Of The Stor:

l. brought to mind a Fourth of July
week end some of us with the Economic
Cooperation Administration Mission to
Greece spent two years ago exploring
Olympia undoubtedly the real center
Of world sport about 500 BE-, as we'll as
the first home Of the United Nations.
In those days, all war stopped month
before the games. Sports enthusiasts
We're attracted from every known land
by ship, barge. horse or on foot. To
an American. where hundred years Of
fame is the exception, the simple fact
that Olympia was hub of Greek re-
ligion and athletics for over a thou
sand years tells us only how very young
we are. On top of that for another
thousand years the very site and name
OF Olympia were lost.
The first Olympic Games were held in
776 BE-; the last in 393 AID. When
Theodosius I substituted Christianity
Tor paganism in 394 AID, he abolished
OlympiadS. Theodosius II, 80 years
later. ordered all the pagan temples de-
stroyed and his order was implemented
later by violent earthquakes which top
pied the monumental columns that de-
crees could not move. and left standing
the foundations of the great buildings
and the walls from which imagination
only can reconstruct the originals-with
the assistance Of MessrS. Pausanias.
Gardiner, ct al.
OF greatest help to the German ex-
cavatorS. who started digging in 1875.
was the description of the buildings and
OF the hundreds of monuments as re-
corded by Greek historian and traveller.
Pausan1as. who saw the place at its best
In 174 AID. From him we learn the equal
Importance of religion and athletics at
Olympia, where Greek gods were in
terested in Greek sport.
Our guide had grown up in the village
of Olympia and had a real interest in
the ruins. His English was a handicap.
BuC MS enthusiasm for the statuary
groups in the museum was a great i'm
proVement over the perfunctory guides
elsewhere in Greece. Some museum
treasures are still underground, par
tlcularly the great Hermes of Praxibeles.
How it escaped vandals no one knows.
The graceful Nike of Paionion, on her
triangular marble pedestal originally 80
feet high. floats at the far end of the
large hall of the museum. On the
sidewalks are grouped all that remains
OF the 30 or more figures from the front
and rear pediments of the Temple of
Zeus. In adjoining rooms almost hid
den were hundreds of Roman statues
which bear no comparison, even to my
unframed eye, with their Greek prede-
cessors. Has art always continued to
deteriorate?
Olympia is place to compare Greece
and Rome. The Greeks ran the games
cleanly and successfully for hundreds of
years. The Romans. history shows, cor
rupted the Greeks or nearly did in a
few years. I'm glad I had the thrill of
Italy and its monumental history before
going to Greece. Rome was anticli-
matte.
With great expectation, we proceeded
down the hill, and by the modern bridge
across the once full Kladeos River, to
the Altis wall which surrounds the once
sacred precincts of Olympia. I could
picture the procession of athletes, train
ers, chariots and horses. coming down
this same road three days before the
games from Ellis, 20 miles north, where
they had completed their training. Here,
where we stood, the athletes stopped in
great gymnasium, 600 feet long and
35a feet broad. Sixty-six DoFic pillars
ran down the center of the building.
The foundations of the southern colon
made are in one long row. The GYM
nasium Is still useful, as we found
group of well tanned Greek boys using
it for their soccer field. I saw indi-
cations Of the covered running track one
"Stade' in length. and of the dormi-
tories for the competitors.
We decided to follow the route of the
procession that took place before the
games. just as it was pictured on the
frieze Of the Parthenon in Athens. First
came the Olympic officials in their
purple robes, the seers and priests, the
sacrifice animals, deputies from all
Greek states. then the competitors,
chariots and horsemen. They left the
Prytaneion, adjoining the gymnasium.
where hymns had been sung and sacri-
fees made and Hera's hearth was
always burning. The walls and some
columns of the Prytaneion still stand.
The professional road passed the
Temple of zeus, whose mammoth
columns still lie as the earthquake left
them, thrown off their bases in a sue
cession of fluted drums. The founda-
tions of the temple and the front ramp.
still intact, raise the old question: How
could men without machines raise such
beautiful marble mountains?
Then on to the Bouleuterion, where
the Olympic Council held forth and
where the competitors, their fathers,
brothers and trainers swore before Zeus'
fearful statue to use no unfair means
in the games. ALI then proceeded to
the Hippodrome for the chariot and
, horse races, but we could not follow
them as the Hippodrome was washed
away many centuries ago by the Alpheos
River.
But we did follow them through the