Thursday, May 17, 2012

A Day in Olympia

Just one week ago, the official Olympic torch was lit at the altar of the Temple of Hera, so where better to start our first day in Olympia.

Here it is:


It doesn't seem like much, and the way the BBC broadcasts the event, you'd think there was some grand structure around the area, but to the right, out of the picture is the ruins of the Nymphaeum (Roman baths), which didn't seem quite right to the original context (fire v. water).

What we found most amusing during the 1.5 hours that we wandered through the extensive city of ruins were the two workers and their weed whackers, climbing over and through the ruins to hack down the verge, which was over 18" tall, which only led us to wonder...if there were a major event last week, which was anticipated four years ago, why are they only now, after the fact, trying to spruce up the place???  Fortunately, because there appears also to be an implied law that nothing flammable or explosive can be stored near any ruins or artifacts (see the Turks v. the Venetians at the Parthenon), when they ran out of gas after about an hour, they had to leave to go refuel.

The other ruin of significance was the Temple of Zeus:


In anticipation of the 2004 Olympics held in Greece, they rebuilt one of the great columns.  Just one.  The renovation worksite, immediately to the left of this photo (more tarps and 2x4s), seems to support further reconstruction work, but in the intervening 8 years, they still haven't been able to put up any other columns, or do any other other obvious work to any of the buildings (note the difference in color of the column versus the foundation).  And there were some obvious and easy ones that could be reconstructed since they fell in a straight line (see below).


All these worksites are described as being "temporary", but we all know better.  The Greek word is inertia.


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