March 21-22, 2022
44 degrees with a lying sun and rain forecast for later today. Looking forward to the heat of Arabia soon...
Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
It's just a bit after 8 AM on the 22nd. We've had our breakfast and will be heading down to join our excursion in Katakolon at 9. Yesterday, Captain Olav kept us close to the Grecian coastline, threading our way between islands and mainland, so we could enjoy the snow-capped peaks and clear blue water. It was more a scenic cruising day than a sea day. We frittered away the time admiring the views and catching up on the blog.
I also started re-reading the first book in the Game of Thrones series again. It's been a few years since I read it and set it aside when my favorite character was killed off. I'm still disappointed to know that the one I'd picked as my hero is doomed, but I'm enjoying the use of language, the world building and the story crafting ability of George RR Martin. I'm looking for other favorites now, and I won't make the mistake of picking just one this time.
Katakolon is our 16th new-to-us port on this third-time's-the-charm world cruise itinerary. We are loving all our new adventures, and discovering new things about the places we've visited before. If we were thrust back to the medieval world in Dubrovnik, our stop today takes us back 4000 years to the site of the original Olympic games!
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| Olympia is an active archaeological site, with an ongoing dig. Our guide, Vasilyi is an archaeologist with a masters in geology, who grew up 700 meters from Olympia. He and his friends played among the tumbled ruins when they were children. He theorizes the area was chosen for the games and for the location of Zeus' temple (one of the wonders of the ancient world) because of frequent lightning strikes in the area. Zeus is associated with lightning, but Vasiliyi credits the high iron content of the earth in that area for all the lightning strikes. |
Olympia, not to be confused with Mt. Olympus, the home of the gods, is where the games began as a way to establish and enforce peace between frequently warring city-states. A three month truce surrounding the games was strictly enforced. Only foot races, discus throwing and wrestling competitions were included and only male athletes need apply. The games were conducted in the nude and the only female allowed to attend as a spectator was the priestess of Hera, who had a temple on the grounds.
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| Kronos's Hill, the supposed burial site of Kronos, last of the Titans and Zeus's father. Olympia had temples to Zeus, Hera, and Rhea (Zeus's mother) but only a gravesite for the last of Titans after Zeus killed him. |
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| An artists' rendering of Zeus & Nike |
The temple of Zeus housed a 60 ft tall seated statue of the god. The flesh parts of him were covered with ivory and his raiment was gold. Nothing of the statue remains. Our guide believes it was destroyed so the gold could be melted down.
The temple was pulled down too. Some think it was due to earthquakes because Greece is second only to Iceland in European seismic activity. But our guide doesn't think so. If an ancient building falls in a quake, its columns usually fall to one side. The remains of the temple of Zeus were found scattered in all directions. He thinks many centuries later most of the columns were dismantled to retrieve the lead in the center to be melted down for bullets.
After walking the site and viewing the long stadium area where the races were held, we visited a museum that housed that had been removed from the sanctuary (which is what the Olympia site is called.) It was in use from the 10th century BC to 426 AD when Emperor Theodosius closed all outdoor sanctuaries.
There was a lot of walking involved and my phone counted over 9000 steps, but it was a beautiful sunny day with regular stops and a guide who realized it was better to have an easy way to return to the bus instead of going back up the long steep incline we'd walked down. So kudos for that!
I'll finish with the DH's photo montage:
More soon...
Sounds like good weather for walking around.... better than in the heat of the summer!
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice combination of a scenic cruising day and exploration ashore.
If it wasn't for the wind, I'd agree with you. When the wind blows, I feel like the little bolus of oxygen my POC delivers gets whipped away. It's probably not the case, but I feel that way some time.
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