OLYMPIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

This archaeological museum (Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ολυμπίας/Archaiologiko Mousio Olympias) is one of the finest in Greece. Housed in a 1975 building, it houses almost exclusively objects from the sanctuary of Olympia. With its café and store, it also enjoys a pleasant setting between the Kladéos River and a botanical garden. The twelve rooms follow a chronological path from the Bronze Age onwards. Room 2 features a superb ^7th-century BC sphinx head, a collection of bronzes (shields, armor, cauldrons with griffin heads) and a large terracotta discoid acroterium that adorned the eastern pediment of the Temple of Hera (c. 600 BC). In Room 3, friezes from the pediments of the treasuries of Megara and Gela (^6th century BC). New elements from the Terrace of Treasures await you in Room 4. These are large terracotta acroteria from the ^6th century BC. A leaping dolphin, a lion, the face of Athena and the beautiful scene of Zeus' abduction of Ganymede: the young shepherd boy would become the cupbearer of Olympus... and the lover of the supreme god. Also on display here is the helmet worn by Athenian general Miltiades at the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), which was donated to the sanctuary of Olympia.

Next, a slight shift in the direction of the visit: room 6 is an alcove of room 4. It contains the Niké by Paionios (c. 420 BC). The great sculptor from Chalkidiki worked a single block of Paros marble to depict a "Victory" of absolute grace and unprecedented drapery. Although the face and forearms have disappeared, the work remains one of the masterpieces of classical Greek sculpture. There's more to come. In the center of the museum, Room 5 features the fantastic pediments of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, created in Paros marble between 470 and 456 BC by unknown artists. On the eastern pediment, Zeus presides over the preparations for a chariot race that ends in the death of Œnomaos, son of the god Ares, at the hands of King Pelops, while the allegories of Alpheus and Kladéos at either end indicate that the scene takes place in Olympia. On the western pediment, Apollo dominates a fight following a banquet in Thessaly: the Lapithes (human) against the Centaurs (horse-like and human-busted). Intoxicated and violent, the Centaurs attempt to kidnap their hosts' wives, but are defeated and driven from Pelion. From room 4, we come to room 7. Here you'll find Phidias' workshop: tools and clay moulds used by the artist to create his famous 13-metre-high chryselephantine statue, completed in 430 BC and destroyed a thousand years later in a fire. Another masterpiece of Greek art has survived and takes pride of place in room 8: Hermes carrying the infant Dionysus. The sculpture is superb and over 2 m high. However, specialists are torn as to whether it is the work of the great Praxiteles (^4th century BC) or his disciples (^3rd century BC). The "Praxiteles style" can be found among the statues in room 9. Rooms 10 to 12 are devoted to the Roman period, with a particularly impressive marble bull (c. 150 BC).