Perry, Walter Copland: Greek and Roman sculpture: a popular introduction to the history of Greek and Roman sculpture (London, 1882)

OLYMPIA. 223

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SCULPTURES OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS
AT OLYMPIA.

MANY circumstances combine to render the Temple of Zeus at
Olympia one of the most interesting monuments of ancient Greece.
It was hallowed beyond all other sanctuaries by the visible presence
of the great Father of Gods and men, represented in all his majesty
by the greatest artist of the world. The sacred plain of the Altis,
in which it stood, consecrated and planted by the Idaean Heracles
himself,1 was the centre of Hellenic life, in which all the tribes of
Greece assembled to celebrate, in honour of the God whom they all
acknowledged as supreme, the games they so dearly loved. In this
thrice hallowed spot Zeus himself was born, and nursed by the Idaean
Dactyls. It was here that he wrestled with Cronos for the empire of
the World. Here Apollo outran the swift-footed Hermes on the course,
and vanquished Ares himself in boxing.2 And hither for eleven hun-
dred years came the noblest men of Hellenic race to display in keen
but friendly rivalry their matchless powers of mind and body, and to
receive from the fountain of honour, from the Olympian Zeus himself,
the garland of wild olive—the worthless but inestimable palm,'' which
' raised them to the Gods who rule mankind.'

1 Pindar, 01. xi. v. 43 (ed. Djssen) :—

i S" ip iv iKffa eAo-ait bAoi. « o-rpo.rix'

Aoi'ol' re iriual' Aios iA«ip.oc

viot o-Tao>aro iiO,or iAcrot Tmrpi (ityicrT..- »«pi

8i Trojan 'AAtiI' p.«r W «>' «"*Mf
XtcVpu'r, to 6c kvkAw ireoor
t9r]Kt hopitov Avffir,
Ti/xaoait rrtipor 'Ak<t>tov
HCTtt &u>6<k' al'a*7u»l' OfHtr Kai ffo'yoi'
Kptirou irpofft</)f<yfa70.

Then the valiant son of Zeus (Heracles), collecting
together at Pisa his whole host and all the booty,
measured ground for a sacred grove (i.e. the whole
7<>«|'<k) to his almighty sire | and having fenced

round the Altis, he left it to stand separate on a
clear spot, while the plain all around he appointed
as a resting-place for refreshment at the evening meal
(i.e. after the games), and raised an altar in honour of
the river-tfod Alpheius, with the twelve principal
deities. And he called it the hill of Cronos.'

2 Pausan. v. 7.

■ Pindar, Ol. iii. v. 13 :—

optp'i KofxaiVi £aArf y\avKO\poa ko&hov (Auia?* Tat'
troT*

'Iffrpov anb (TKiapav rrayar trciKcr 'A/jn£iTptiw(,T(do'as
prap.a Twr Qv\vp.iria KjAA<o~rof ad\tov, etc.

l'intlar. Pyth. viii. 93 : kfraUav hiatv