The Altis, or “grove”, was the sacred precinct of Olympia, with various temples and shrines to gods and heroes built within its boundaries.

Archaeology has revealed how changes to the layout of the Altis emphasised the importance of the patron of the sanctity, Zeus, in relation to the other gods.

The Altis

The boundary of the Altis was marked in the north by the hill of Kronos, while to the east, west and south, a low wall called the peribolos made up for the lack of natural markers.

The peribolos was a low hedge during the Archaic and Geometric periods, while the Altis itself was a sacred grove. Votive offerings to the gods would have been hung from trees or placed in niches at the base of the hill of Kronos. 

During these early eras, there were no temples for worship; the only artificial structures in the Altis were altars and the burial tumuli of Pelops and Hippodameia — the founders of one of the earliest identifiable cults in Olympia. Most prehistoric finds were at the base of the hill of Kronos, father of the gods, which suggests that his cult was also of major importance to the early sanctuary. There is also evidence for the worship of Gaia, the earth and Rhea, the mother of the gods.

Of these cults, only two have later temples/shrines that survive in the archaeological record. The Pelopion was dedicated to Pelops as one of the mythical founders of the Olympic Games. It was remodelled in the 6th century BC, changing its enclosure from circular to pentagonal. In the 4th century BC, the Metroon or temple of Rhea — mother of the gods, including Zeus — was constructed. A Doric temple, only the stylobate and parts of the stone entablature survive. Later, Rhea was to be displaced and the Metroon would become the home of the cult of the Roman emperors.

The earliest ritual structure associated with Zeus was his altar. This altar was not made of stone but instead constructed from an accumulation of ashes from sacrifices to the god built up over time. It was destroyed after the demise of the sanctuary but was situated southeast of the temple of Hera.

The Greek Temple of Hera: The Heraion

The oldest and best-preserved temple building in the Altis, the temple of Hera, dates to the 7th century BC. At the foot of the hill of Kronos, it was originally dedicated to both Zeus and Hera until a larger, more impressive building was dedicated to the god.

The temple was long and narrow and is now believed to have been built in one phase. Although only the foundations and part of the cella, which housed the statue of Hera, survive, it is possible to reconstruct the temple’s appearance from the fragments on the site.

The lower walls of the Heraion were limestone, topped with an upper layer of unbaked bricks, while a series of Doric columns held up a wooden entablature and a roof of terracotta tiles.

Originally wooden, these columns were eventually replaced with stone versions, each column reflecting the Doric fashion of the time it was erected. In this way, the temple of Hera stands as a record of the development of the Doric style.

Only the plinths of the statues of the gods remain. However, the head of Hera’s statue was discovered when archaeologists excavated the temple. They also unearthed from the temple’s ruins one of the offerings made to Hera: the Hermes of Praxiteles.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus

It was not until the early classical period that Zeus acquired a separate temple in his sanctuary. The temple, built between 470-457BC by Libon of Elis, was larger than Hera’s archaic temple and indeed any other classical temple in the Peloponnese and the Greek mainland.

From what remains on the site and the descriptions of Pausanias, it seems Zeus’s temple measured 64m x 268m and was a Doric style temple. It was built of a limestone conglomerate covered with stucco and Parian marble.

The pillar-lined portico featured 13 columns down the long side and six on the short side. The roof pediment was 63×95 feet. The pediment freezes survive in pieces and have been carefully reconstructed, along with the temple metopes in the museum of Olympia.

Also in the museum are the remains of the temple’s statues, most famously, Nike of Paionios. Unfortunately, however, of the gold and ivory cult statue of Zeus created by Phidias, nothing remains. One of the wonders of the ancient world, it was removed from Olympia by the emperor Constantine to adorn his new city of Constantinople, only to be destroyed by a fire.

Resources

Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (Eds), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd Ed). Oxford: Oxford university press

Charles Gates, (2003), Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome. Routledge: London and New York

Athanasia and Nicolaos Yalouris, (1995), Olympia: Guide to the Museum and the Sanctuary. Athenon s.a: Athens

Pausanias, Guide to Greece, Trans P Levi, vols 1 and 2. Penguin classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.