DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.793#0110
PLAIN OF O L Y M f I A.
THE celebrated plain of Olympia, which was anciently decorated with a great
variety of splendid and curious edifices, and where architecture and sculpture exhibited
some of their most magnificent trophies, is, at present, a long and even com field,
containing only a few and imperfect vestiges of its former sumptuous ornaments.
The temple of Jupiter Olynipios, which contained the colossal chryselephantine statue
of the god, the wonder of Greece, is now fallen to the ground. The lower part of the
cells, and some large fluted fragments of Doric columns, arc the only relics of tliis
imposing edifice, winch once excited such transports of admiration. It was built of a
stone called Poros, which was found near the spot, and of which Theophrastus' and
Pliny* compare the hardness and the colour to that of Parian marble. It is composed of
shells and concretions, and seems not to merit the encomiums winch those authors have
bestowed. The situation of the temple is scarcely visible in this view; it may, however,
be distinguished at the western extremity of the plain on the right side of the river, and
over the right liand figure. The ncighltouring elevation is probably the hill of Saturn.
The Alphcios is seen flowing in a broad and sinuous current on its way toward the sea.
It rises in Arcadia, and many tributary streams are poured into its channel before it
reaches the Olympian plain. It enters the sea at the promontory of Ichthys.
The river sometimes overflows the plain. The earth is accordingly raised con-
siderably above its original level, and probably conceals many rich remains of ancient
sculpture and magnificence. We know from the testimony of Suetonius, that Nero
threw many of the finest statues into the common sewers which ran into the Alphcios.
An excavation would probably here bring to light some of the finest sculpture of
antiquity. It is to be hoped that some wealthy traveller may lie possessed of sufficient
taste, and animated by sufficient enterprise, to attempt an undertaking which was once
the favourite scheme of the learned Winkehnann.
i Dc lapid. ' Nut. Hist b. 3G. c. 17.
THE celebrated plain of Olympia, which was anciently decorated with a great
variety of splendid and curious edifices, and where architecture and sculpture exhibited
some of their most magnificent trophies, is, at present, a long and even com field,
containing only a few and imperfect vestiges of its former sumptuous ornaments.
The temple of Jupiter Olynipios, which contained the colossal chryselephantine statue
of the god, the wonder of Greece, is now fallen to the ground. The lower part of the
cells, and some large fluted fragments of Doric columns, arc the only relics of tliis
imposing edifice, winch once excited such transports of admiration. It was built of a
stone called Poros, which was found near the spot, and of which Theophrastus' and
Pliny* compare the hardness and the colour to that of Parian marble. It is composed of
shells and concretions, and seems not to merit the encomiums winch those authors have
bestowed. The situation of the temple is scarcely visible in this view; it may, however,
be distinguished at the western extremity of the plain on the right side of the river, and
over the right liand figure. The ncighltouring elevation is probably the hill of Saturn.
The Alphcios is seen flowing in a broad and sinuous current on its way toward the sea.
It rises in Arcadia, and many tributary streams are poured into its channel before it
reaches the Olympian plain. It enters the sea at the promontory of Ichthys.
The river sometimes overflows the plain. The earth is accordingly raised con-
siderably above its original level, and probably conceals many rich remains of ancient
sculpture and magnificence. We know from the testimony of Suetonius, that Nero
threw many of the finest statues into the common sewers which ran into the Alphcios.
An excavation would probably here bring to light some of the finest sculpture of
antiquity. It is to be hoped that some wealthy traveller may lie possessed of sufficient
taste, and animated by sufficient enterprise, to attempt an undertaking which was once
the favourite scheme of the learned Winkehnann.
i Dc lapid. ' Nut. Hist b. 3G. c. 17.