Olympia I.

After we left Delphi, we crossed over to the Peloponnese, the giant island that makes up almost half the landmass of the country.

It isn't geographically speaking, an island, but after the installation of the Corinthian Canal, it became one, in that it is completely surrounded by water.

During the Greek bid for the Olympics, a new bridge was planned for Greece, and the Rion-Antirion Bridge is now the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world. However, length notwithstanding, the Greek ferry system is a part of life and with the exception of this opportunity, there wasn't going to be a chance for the kids to experience a ferry ride, so instead of paying the bridge toll fare, we hopped a ferry for the 20 minute ride across the Corinth Gulf.

Ferry ride completed, we climbed back in the bus and began our tour across the Peloponnese, From Rion we drove south and west past Patras, where the ferry for 80 and me had landed a scant 5 days earlier, and on south to the city of Olympia, site of the ancient Olympic Games and home of the temple of Zeus.

In Olympia we went immediately to the museum, since it closed at 3 that afternoon, and spent a couple hours with Vicky explaining what we were seeing. The introduction to Rich Sculpture (a method invented by Greek artists to get around the taboo against sculpting nude females) was especially intriguing, since that method of depicting the female form would last as a major influence all the way up to, and through, the Renaissance period.

The trick was, that aside from the occasional exposed breast, it was considered poor form (and in fact, a punishable offense) to depict a nude female in public sculpture (though nude males were perfectly ok -- go figure), but the artists of Greece were tired of naked men and wanted to study the muscles of the female form. The important differences in physiology meant that women left unstudied were literally a last frontier for the entire community, and their solution was simple. They depicted women soaking wet, in windy environments. Clad in only thin layers of clothing, and with the wind forcing even these to stick to their skin, they once again became depictable with all their musculature on display, thus making their true forms accessible to the viewer. The method is now known as rich sculpture.

Aside from this, we also got to hear about the decorations of Zeus temple, including the 12 panels which celebrate the 12 works of Hercules, Zeus' bastard child and Hera's unwitting protégé, who would rise from hated to respected via his 12 legendary feats of mental or physical prowess.

Interestingly, the statures of the characters matter greatly in these 12 panels. Whenever the stances of Hercules and his opponent form an X (Chi) shape on the panel, it represents a work where his physical strength was the key to the solution. When the characters are strait up, standing peacefully, it represents a situation where his intellect led to his success.

After we had visited the museum we entered our new hotel, then went out walking and shopping and wandered the streets of Olympia, a town founded almost entirely on the business brought in by its many visitors. We went to a local souvlaki bar for dinner, and had a variety of tasty Greek treats and local wines. Many of the Greek restaurants make the wine on site, and their whites are extremely dry (almost vinegary) while their reds are thin and sharp. Both were interesting, but neither were types I would drink regularly.

After a night of tomfoolery (which got us admonishments from several members of our group and nearly got us some from other visitors at the hotel as well) we finally headed to our rooms. We had another long day ahead of us--in the morning, the tour of the Olympic and Temple sites, and in the afternoon, the drive through the Peloponnesian hills to Nafplio, on the other side of the country.