OLYMPIA, the scene of the Olympic games, is in western Peloponnese on the N. bank of the Alpheus (mod. Ruphia), about II m. E. of modern Pyrgos, where the ancient Cladeus tributary flows in from the north. Olympia is bounded on the W. by the Cladeus, on the S. by the Alpheus, on the E. by the ancient race courses and on the N. by low heights. Here a conical hill, about 400 ft. high, cut off from the rest by a cleft, descends abruptly on Olympia. This is the Cronion hill sacred to Cronus.
The importance of Olympia in the history of Greece is re ligious and political. Religious associations date from the pre historic age, when a centre of worship is attested by house remains and early votive offerings found beneath the Heraeum. The earliest extant building is the temple of Hera, which may date in its original form from about i000 B.C. and retained till Pau sanias' time one original column of wood. There were various traditions as to the origin of the games. According to one the first race was between Pelops and Oenomaus, who used to chal lenge the suitors of his daughter Hippodameia and then slay them. Another attributed the festival to Heracles, either the well-known hero or the Idaean Dactyl of that name. In early times the con trol of the festival belonged to Pisa, but Elis seems to have claimed some share in it. Sixteen women, representing eight towns of Elis and eight of Pisatis, wove the festal robe for the Olympian Hera. Olympia thus became the centre of an am phictyony (q.v.), or federal league under religious sanction, for the west coast of Peloponnese. It suited the interests of Sparta to join this amphictyony; and, before the list of Olympic victors begins in 776 B.c., Sparta had formed an alliance with Elis. Aristotle saw in the temple of Hera a bronze disk, recording the traditional laws of the festival, on which the name of Lycurgus of Sparta stood next to that of Iphitus, king of Elis. Whatever may have been the age of this disk, the relation which it indicates is well attested. Elis and Sparta, making common cause, had no difficulty in excluding the Pisatans from their proper share in the management of the Olympian sanctuary. Pisa had, indeed, a brief success, when Pheidon of Argos celebrated the 28th Olympiad under its presidency. But this festival, from which Eleans and Spartans were excluded, was afterwards struck out of the official register. The destruction of Pisa (before 572 B.c.)
by Sparta and Elis put an end to the rivalry: Pisatis, and also Tri phylia to the south of it, becoming dependent on Elis. On the re ligious side of the festival the Eleans had unquestioned supremacy. All candidates were tested at Elis, in the gymnasium, before they were admitted to the athletic competitions at Olympia, and training (usually of ten months) at Elis was regarded as the most valuable preparation. Elean officials, who not only adjudged the prizes, but decided who should be admitted to compete, assumed the title of Hellanodicae.
Long before the overthrow of Pisa the list of contests had been so enlarged as to give the celebration a Panhellenic character. Exercises of Spartan type—testing endurance and strength with an especial view to war—had almost exclusively formed the earlier programme. But as early as the 25th Olympiad the four horse chariot-race was added, an invitation to wealthy com petitors from every part of the Hellenic world, and the recogni tion of a popular spectacular element, as distinct from athletic or military. Horse-races were added later. For such contests the hippodrome was set apart. Meanwhile the list of contests on the old racecourse, the stadium, had been enlarged. Besides the original foot-race in which the course was traversed once only, there were the double course (diaulos) and the "long" foot-race (dolichos). Wrestling and boxing were combined in the pancra tion; leaping, quoit-throwing, javelin-throwing, running and wrestling in the pentathlon. Under the protection of the Spartans, the festival acquired new importance for. having failed in their plans of actual conquest in the Peloponnese, they sought at least acknowledged predominance. While therefore the Eleans were the religious supervisors of Olympia the Spartans constituted themselves its political protectors, enforcing the sanction which the Olympian Zeus gave to the amphictyones, whose federal bond was symbolized by common worship, and punishing violation of that "sacred truce" which was indispensable if Hellenes from all cities were to have peaceable access to the Olympian festival.