Ancient Sparti and Ancient Olympia

Tuesday June 19

Soon, we left the mountains behind and we were driving on a two lane road letting the engine go instead of restraining it. At 11:45 exactly we drove into Ancient Sparti.  Sparti is sheltered from the west by the massive Taiyetos mountain ridge. Once an important centre in the 8^th to the 4^th centuries BC, there are not many ruins and it is an ordinary town. We saw the statue of Leonidas, the hero of the Battle of Thermopylae and we went briefly into the site looking at what was once the amphitheatre, but there really is not much left of it now. We learned about the incredibly severe life of the Spartans. We didn’t spend  time at the Acropolis or a temple, or a church and monastery as we had an appointment to keep in Olympia!

The archaeological site of Olympia is in the valley of the Alfios River and is overlooked by the Hill of Kronos. Yorgos arranged for a guide to take us over the site and we really enjoyed not only the learning about the site, but also understanding what life was like “back then” in ancient times.

Our guide explained that there are three parts to the site: in a nut shell, the first is where the gymnasium and official buildings are. Here the athletes trained…in the nude….why in the nude? Because only men were allowed to be present at and compete but one year a mother, dressed as a man watched her son winning. She rushed over to congratulate him, tripped, and tore off her male clothes. Punishment was death, but the judges spared her life. Hence all athletes must be nude to prevent any women from pretending to be men! The second important part, the Altis or sacred precinct, is the Temple of Zeus built between 470 and 456 BC and the Temple of Hera built in the 7^th century BC.

The third important part is where the games such as wrestling, boxing, running, jumping, and javelin throwing were held in the stadium and chariot racing in the hippodrome. One of the important events was the pancratium, where contestants fought in the nude using any means of winning except biting and using a finger.

Our guide convinced me to run the length of the stadium and so in blistering heat I ran 2 laps – 400 m!! I looked around me as I ran and imagined that thousands of people were watching. It was a little bit of fun!!! At the end our guide greeted me with a beautiful olive crown that she had just quickly made!!

The first games were held in honour of Zeus every 4 years starting in 776 BC. They were interrupted in 393 AD when Emperor Theodosius, recently converted to Christianity, stopped the games as they were considered a pagan ritual. Nothing happened until the games were revived in Athens in 1896.

When the tour was finished we spent about 45 minutes in the museum looking at all of the various artifacts excavated from the site.

We completed our journey to the little port town of Kyllini and the Hotel Glarentza There isn’t much in Kyllini; I think its claim to fame is being a ferry town for ferries to the islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia. After lunch (around 3:30 pm) we said a sad “goodbye” to Yorgos. We have really enjoyed our time with him. He was not only extremely personable, but knowledgeable, organised, and reliable and we loved hearing his personal stories about his family and his tour leading escapades.

We went for a walk around town, berated the articulated trucks for using the tiny, narrow, one-way street through town as a speedway, played with the cats and dogs, and around 8 p.m. headed for dinner at the little restaurant we had found for lunch. It was an “authentic” Greek restaurant, as most of our restaurants have been. Ray had fish soup and I had a veal burger like dish with beetroot. Very tasty.

We went back to the hotel and chatted with the owners, a family – older mother and father, and a younger sister and brother. The Glarentza was beautifully kept, and obviously at one time it must have played an important part in the town. Today, the town feels a little left out; whether or not its because there are more flights to the islands thus reducing the ferry service, the hype about the tourism that would take place after the release of the film “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” or the 2011 economic crises, I don’t know. But it is sad to see a beautiful old hotel still shining, but with no one around to see the lights.