146 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



before the first quarter of the fifth century B.C. ; probably between 

 480 and 4G0 B.C.* 



In many points of architectural style, it bears a resemblance 

 to the Temple of Athene (sometimes known as tliat of Zeus Pauhel- 

 lenius) on the island of ^gina, which was erected in this part of the 

 century ; and it stands, perhaps, in still closer architectural relations 

 with the Theseiura, at Athens, — a building of which the precise date is 

 not known, but which was probably erected between 470 and 460 B.C. 



The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, on account of its national rela- 

 tions, was by far the most important and famous temple of the 

 Peloponnesus. Few temples in the ancient world excelled it in 

 renown, in dignity of association, or in general reverence ; few sur- 

 passed it in the number and splendor of their dedicatory offerings ; few 

 were of larger dimensions, or of more beautiful proportions, or more 

 nobly adorned : — 



Ovx tv T«/V Ucdi'uig ^Adixvaig 

 Ev/uore.,' t^oav avXal 

 Qswr ftovov. 



No other temple, not even that of Delphi, was to an equal degree 

 the temple of the whole Greek race. 



Long after Greece had fallen from her station as the living leader 

 of the world in science and in art, long after she had become a Roman 

 dependency, the Olympic Games were still celebrated in sight of this 

 splendid and stately Temple. There is no knowledge of the precise 

 date of its destruction. It was burned probably about the time of the 

 stern edict of the P^mperor Theodosiiis II. against the heathens and 

 their sanctuaries, in the year 42G.t 



From the time of its destruction, the ruins lay exposed to the injury 

 of flood and storm and earthquake, and to tlie more wanton injuries 

 of man. By degrees, the soil accumulated over them, and vegetation 

 covered the shapeless heap. The place became solitary and unhealthy ; 



* Urliclis, in the " Verhandl. der 25. Versammlung Deutscher Philologen," 

 in Halle, 1867, p. 75, fixes the date of the building between 01. 77, 3-4, and 80, 

 3-4; that is, from 470 to 457 B.C. And this view is adopted by Krell, "Geschichte 

 des Dorischen Styls," 1870, p. 85. 



t The only notice of its destruction is found in a mutilated note by a 

 scholiast to Lucian's Rhet. Precept, printed in the edition of Jacobitz, Leipsic, 

 1861, T. iv. p. 221 : StripKeaev //e'xP' '''ov /xiKpov . . . ts 'Ap/co51oii vlhs ^v. t. . . vaov 

 Tov'OKvuiriov Aihs ifiirpri. . . And so the temple crumbles, and falls to long neg- 

 lect. Cf. Herliberg, " Der Untergang des Hellanismus," Halle, 1875, p. 428. 



