Olympia: The Golden Age
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2021
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For hundreds of years in antiquity, the sanctuary at Olympia was one of the most important religious sites in the Greek World, home to stunning art and architecture commissioned by tyrants and city-states situated across the length and breadth of the Mediterranean. And it was during the 5th and 4th centuries BC, that this sanctuary arguably entered its golden age.
In this third and final episode of our mini-series on ancient Olympia, Professor Judy Barringer from the University of Edinburgh talks in detail about some of the most striking art and architecture that survives from Classical Olympia. From the pediments of the Temple of Zeus to the Winged Nike of Paionios. Judy is the author of Olympia: A Cultural History.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast |
| 0:08.8 | we are continuing the story of Olympia we are wrapping up our mini series on this ancient |
| 0:13.5 | site. We're continuing our conversation with Professor Judy Barringer from the University |
| 0:18.6 | of Edinburgh. Now in the first part we looked at Olympia's early religious history. We looked |
| 0:22.9 | at the bronze figurines. We looked at its links to prominent Greek city-states in Sicily |
| 0:28.4 | and South Italy in the archaic period and now we're continuing the story. We're going |
| 0:33.2 | to the 5th century BC and also the 4th century BC. Shall we say a golden age in Olympia's |
| 0:40.2 | history? We're going to be focusing in on two particular monumental structures, the Temple |
| 0:45.6 | of Zeus at Olympia which housed within it one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, |
| 0:50.8 | the statue of Zeus. We're also then going to be looking at the only round structure within |
| 0:57.7 | the outer and incredible building which you can still see the remains of to this day at |
| 1:02.4 | the site and this was the Philippeion of King Philipp II of Macedon. So that further |
| 1:09.3 | ado here's Judy. Judy it is great to have you on the show and it's lovely to see you again. |
| 1:17.7 | I'm delighted to be here thank you so much for the invitation. Not at all and Olympia. |
| 1:23.6 | Judy this is an incredible site and during the archaic period, Olympia witnesses this incredible |
| 1:29.9 | growth and by the time we get to the 5th century. I mean Judy the amount of archaeology that survives |
| 1:36.1 | this treasure trove of a century. Can we really say this is a golden age of ancient Olympia? |
| 1:41.2 | Well I think they certainly thought so because in around 472 BC a lot of changes were made at the |
| 1:48.4 | site which included the beginning of the construction of this temple of Zeus among many other things. |
| 1:54.8 | They also lengthened the duration of the games from three days to five days so they apparently had |
| 2:00.8 | enough people to come and they began to spend tremendous amounts of money on the site in various |
| 2:07.2 | ways and this is connected. It seems these changes are connected with Aelus's synoicism where it's |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.