Two of the “big four” sanctuaries that hosted Panhellenic athletic festivals, Olympia and Nemea, were dedicated to Zeus. The younger of the two was Nemea, controlled by Kleonai in the sixth century (when the first temple was built) and later by Argos. The founding myth of the festival linked the cult of Zeus with that of a child-hero, Archemoros/Opheltes, for whom funeral games were established. The recently excavated hero shrine of Opheltes consisted of a long, mounded embankment containing some forty drinking vessels left as foundation deposits. On the broad end of the embankment, from which spectators could view the stadium, was a pentagonal wall enclosing at least two stone altars and a fire pit with the remains of sacrifices. The pottery from this shrine dates no earlier than the early sixth century, when the Nemean games were established, though a few scraps and sherds suggest cult activity at Nemea as early as the eighth century. The Archaic temple of Zeus was destroyed by fire during the late fifth century, probably as a result of warfare to judge from the remains of weapons in the burnt layer of soil.30
As early as the tenth century, Olympia was a meeting place where local chieftains displayed their wealth by dedicating valuable bronze sculptures and tripods to Zeus. The traditional date for the founding of the games themselves is 776, and during the eighth century, Olympia gradually developed into the most elaborate and important cult site of Zeus. In place of local Peloponnesian chiefs, it now became the arena for rivalries between developing city-states.31 The center of the sanctuary was a walled precinct called the Altis (Sacred Grove), where stood the primitive altar of Zeus, a great conical pile of molded sacrificial ashes. Every four years, the high point of the festival was the sacrifice of one hundred or more cattle, whose thighs were burned on the altar by Olympic victors. Zeus’ altar was also the seat of an oracle; at its summit a mantis (prophet) drawn from the Klytiad or Iamid families would observe and interpret the burn pattern of the offerings for those consulting the god.32
An early structure near Zeus’ altar was the Pelopion, or tomb of Pelops, an ancestral hero who gave his name to the Peloponnese; his archetypal chariot race was immortalized in the eastern pediment of Zeus’ temple. This tomb consisted of a mound on which stood a polygonal enclosure wall (probably the model for the similar hero shrine of Opheltes at Nemea). At every festival the hero received a black ram, whose blood flowed into a pit in the Pelopion, as well as preliminary offerings whenever sacrifice was made to Zeus. There has been vigorous debate over the age of Pelops’ cult; though Early Helladic walls were found beneath the Pelopion, they may be unrelated to the Archaic cult, and the stratigraphy is not well enough preserved to draw conclusions about continuity. On the other hand, the mound on which the Pelopion sat was itself prehistoric, and the fact that this site was chosen shows a desire on the part of the sanctuary’s founders to forge links to the heroic past.33
Over the centuries, hundreds of secondary and minor deities became attached to the sanctuary. Among the most important of these were Hera, whose temple dated to the seventh century, Kronos (on the Hill of Kronos), Rhea (in the Metroon), and Herakles, who was credited with founding the games. Once a month the Eleans, inhabitants of the surrounding district, made offerings at the roughly seventy lesser altars on the site. In the time of Pausanias (5.14.4-10), these included at least eight altars of Zeus in various aspects, including Zeus Katharsios (of Purification), Kataibates (of Descending Lightning), Chthonios (of the Underworld), and Hypsistos (the Highest).
As we have seen, Zeus’ cults seldom required a temple or image, and the first temple on the site was that of Hera. None was supplied for Zeus until the fifth century, when the Eleans defeated the Pisatans, their rivals for control of the sanctuary, and began a building program with the spoils. Completed before 457, the Doric temple was furnished with a colossal ivory and gold statue of Zeus, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The god was depicted in a restful pose that departed from the standard Archaic representations of him striding forward with raised thunderbolt, and drew instead on Homer’s description (II. 1.497-99) of a majestic Zeus enthroned on Mt. Olympos. Seated on an elaborately ornamented, gem-encrusted throne, he held Nike (Victory) in his raised right hand, and his left hand grasped a staff, on which perched an eagle. It was said that when the sculptor Pheidias completed the statue, he prayed to Zeus to make a sign if the work pleased him, and a flash of lightning immediately appeared. Few visitors to the temple failed to be moved with religious awe at the sight of the image, which measured about 13 m in height and could be viewed from a second-floor gallery. But in spite of its huge size, viewers received the impression of a calm and peaceful deity. According to Dio Chrysostom (Or. 12.51), “whoever is deeply burdened with pain in his soul, having borne much misfortune and grief in his life and never being able to attain sweet sleep, even this man, I believe, standing before this image, would forget all the terrible and harsh things which one must suffer in human life.”
World History
