The forecast said rain so we started the day outside at the site, hoping to get through as much as possible before the rain arrived. Either this day or the day before Jess gave her report on the Nymphaeum of Herodes Atticus. I can't tell from my pictures which day the report was because I have pictures of the Nymphaeum from both days. It was originally a monumental structure with lots of life-size statues, but there's not much out there now. Some of the statues we saw later in the museum, though.
Next, we went to the stadium to hear Andrew's report on the Olympic Games.
At the bottom of the picture, you can just see the starting line and behind Andrew you can see the judges' seats. What you can't see is that, despite the sunshine, it is, in fact, raining. Andrew carried on and it stopped in time for us to continue our tour of the site which included some Roman buildings, the Philippeion (built by Philip II, father of Alexander the Great), the gymnasium, and the palaestra.
We also investigated a basilica which had previously been Phidias' (a very famous sculptor and painter) workshop where Kyle gave his report late antique Olympia.
After I recovered from seeing these statues, I wandered around some more and was shocked to walk into a room where this guy stood:
Next, we went to the stadium to hear Andrew's report on the Olympic Games.
At the bottom of the picture, you can just see the starting line and behind Andrew you can see the judges' seats. What you can't see is that, despite the sunshine, it is, in fact, raining. Andrew carried on and it stopped in time for us to continue our tour of the site which included some Roman buildings, the Philippeion (built by Philip II, father of Alexander the Great), the gymnasium, and the palaestra.
We also investigated a basilica which had previously been Phidias' (a very famous sculptor and painter) workshop where Kyle gave his report late antique Olympia.
Next we walked over to the museum where we sat outside and listened to Joe's report on Epinicians (poems written for victories) and dedications for heroes. Once inside the museum, Jack talked to us about the prehistorical remains found at Olympia, then we were set free to roam the museum. There are a lot of neat things in the museum but, when I finally got round to the room with the pedimental sculptures from the temple of Zeus, I was a little weak in the knees seeing them in person, I was so awestruck.
After I recovered from seeing these statues, I wandered around some more and was shocked to walk into a room where this guy stood:
The Hermes and Dionysus, possibly the only surviving original sculpture by Praxiteles (all others are Roman copies). He, too, was much larger than I imagined and I had no idea that this statue was even in this museum. Another moment where I was pretty much awestruck. Wow.
Before heading back to the hotel, some of us stopped at the museum for the history of the ancient Olympic Games.
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