Princeton (2021) h/b 344pp £28.00 (ISBN 9780691210476)
For over a millennium, Olympia was one of the most important sanctuaries in the Greek world, home to an oracle, temples, countless statues and other valuable dedications, and to the four-yearly Olympic Games. While these may have begun earlier than their traditional foundation date of 776 BC, archaeology suggests that major crowds could be accommodated only after the local River Cladeos was diverted around 700 BC (an event which B. sees as inspiration for the myth of Heracles cleansing the Augean stables). It was, therefore, in the sixth and fifth centuries BC that the festival became truly panhellenic (even if readers might question B.’s vision of a ‘sense of Hellenic unity’ during and immediately following the Persian Wars). Attracting not just competitors and spectators but entrepreneurs and hustlers, it was dominated at first by Dorians and Western Greeks, though by the third century BC most visitors came from the eastern Mediterranean, and ‘Roman emperors transformed Olympia into a Roman site’. At the heart of the Olympic experience was a celebration of competitiveness, whether in sport or war, and victors in both spheres used the sanctuary to memorialize their prowess, dedicating costly statues, armour and other prized artefacts in specially built treasuries or well-chosen outdoor locations throughout the sanctuary. At the same time, successive generations tried to outdo their predecessors by redesigning the site, erecting new buildings or moving (and occasionally removing) statuary, which (together with its later destruction) complicates the task faced by modern scholars trying to make sense of it.
Drawing on sources ranging from the periegete, Pausanias, to the most up-to-date archaeology, and enhanced by numerous photographs and plans, B.’s authoritative, well-argued and accessible account of the complexities of Olympia’s evolution reshapes much of what we thought we knew of the site and invites significant reassessment. At a macro level, she shows how the size of the Altis, or sacred enclosure, was much larger than previously assumed (it included Kronos Hill), discusses the market area to the south of the South Stoa and provisions made for dining and accommodation (originally campsites ‘may have been segregated by region or polis’, while ‘archaeology attests to guesthouses from the fourth century BC onward’), and traces how the addition of buildings such as the Temple of Hera and Temple of Zeus necessitated the relocation of elements such as the ash altar, race track and viewing areas.
But it is when discussing individual artworks and their relationship both with each other and the space as a whole that B. is at her most persuasive, whether it is the sculptures on the Temple of Zeus (she argues strongly for interpreting their mythological subjects in a local context), the siting and design of the nymphaeum (‘something of a museum itself in the form of a Roman theater’), or lost groupings such as the Achaean Monument of c. 480 BC, where the unprecedented positioning of Nestor ‘on his own base at a fair distance’ from the main group of statues invites viewers ‘to walk between the two parts of this monument, to become a part of this ensemble’. ‘Among such company’, she writes, ‘the divisions between human, hero, and god blur visually and metaphorically although Zeus reigns supreme over all.’
In such manner, B. brings Olympia alive. Nor is she afraid of speculating. She questions the identity of the deity originally worshipped in the Temple of Hera (was it, in fact, Zeus?), debates whether Pheidias’ statue replaced an archaic statue of Zeus in the new temple, and, discussing holes for tethering posts found on the site, reflects that hecatombs must have been despatched simultaneously—‘trying to manage 99 bulls, panic-stricken after hearing, smelling, and seeing the fate of the first victim, would be not only difficult but also dangerous, even if the bulls were tethered’.
The bulk of the book focusses on the archaic and classical ages. B. herself admits to a ‘somewhat breathless overview of Olympia in the fourth century and Hellenistic period’, and her survey of the Roman era is more breathless still. In the uncorrected proof on which this review is based, many of the site plans were blurry, the thirty-eight colour plates were not included (so cannot be assessed), and there was the odd error (‘the Greek victory over the Persians at Plataia’ becomes the Greek victory ‘over the Plataians’) which it is hoped will be picked up before publication.
Such cavils aside, this is an important work, which, being well-priced, deserves a place on the shelves of any studying Olympia and the context of the Olympic Games. Readers must decide for themselves to what extent it is a ‘cultural history’, but it is to be hoped that B.’s ambition is realised and that it will, indeed, provide ‘a model and inspiration for exploration of other ancient Greek sanctuaries and sites’.
David Stuttard