Deb's Blog

My Viking excursion “Ancient Olympia & Magna Grecia Farm” began at the site of the first Olympic Games which began in 776 BCE and ended in 393 CE. Although most of the site—which originally contained over 760 buildings—is covered in ruins, it was exhilarating to be on the spot where it all began.

The first Olympic Games consisted of one event, a sprint from one end of the stadium to the other. The stadium held 45,000 spectators who sat on the grassy slopes. No women were allowed to participate or even watch. The only seats were reserved for the judges. The athletes, who competed in the nude, entered under an archway through a corridor.

The Palaestra (gymnasium) is where wrestling and boxing were taught and performed for training purposes.

When one thinks of the ancient Olympic Games, its religious aspect doesn’t necessarily come to mind. But long before the Games were born, the Greeks believed Olympia to be a religious sanctuary where temples were erected to their gods, primarily Zeus, the chief deity of all the gods. The Games were played every four years during a religious festival honoring Zeus. The classical Greek temple dedicated to Zeus housed a 43 foot gold and ivory statue of Zeus made by the sculptor Pheidias. The statue of Zeus is gone, and all that’s left of the temple is one giant pillar.

Pheidias created the statue of Zeus in his workshop which had the same dimensions as the cella, the inner area of the Temple of Zeus, where the statue would ultimately sit. In the 5th century Theodosius II turned the workshop into an early Christian church.

The Temple of Hera (590 BC) was dedicated to the Goddess Hera, wife of Zeus and queen of the ancient Greek gods. It’s at her altar that the first Olympic flame and the torch relay was introduced in 1936 for the Berlin Games, and every two years since then. Check out the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Flame Lighting Ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz936NJY2HI The ceremony begins in the stadium and ends at the Temple of Hera where the flame is lit and the torch is handed off to the first torch bearer.

From ancient Olympia we traveled to the Magna Grecia Farm, a 4th generation family owned and run farm house estate established in 2009. The estate produces olive oil, olives, wines and much more. After a tour of the very modern facility where their award-winning olive oils are produced, we sampled several olive oils—plain and infused with spices, herbs, fruits, and truffles. Then we were seated and served a variety of delicious Greek appetizers and wines, while entertained by locals who performed syrtaki, a Greek folk dance.