ABSTRACT
The games were performed as a national religious festival at a sanctuary of Zeus, leader of the Olympian gods. It was the first of the great pan-Hellenic sanctuaries, and the history of its contests illustrates deep currents in Greek culture. The unifying influence of Olympia grew along with Greek identity, as scattered, rival, city-states continually forged a roughly common culture. Olympia’s creative energy flourished, especially early in the Classical period, when the cooperative Greek defeat of the immense Persian empire fuelled the classic art, architecture, and literature that were richly displayed at this national sanctuary. Visitors to Olympia today experience acres of ancient foundations and colonnades, once again within an altis or grove of wild olives and other trees and flowering shrubs. The most famous literary displays at Olympia took up the theme of Greek unity in common struggle against ‘barbarians’. Pythagoras contrasted honour-seeking athletes with the dignity of the wisdom-loving philosophos—a term he may have coined in the process.
