TEE EXCAVATIONS IN OLYMPIA. 201 



In the reports of 1875-6 there is a Byzantine church described as entirely 

 -covered with rubbish, partially excavated by the French, in 1829, and now 

 completely bared to view. It was always thought that there lay a larger 

 structure beneath, and this supposition is now confirmed. Besides a valu- 

 able treasure of well-preserved inscriptions and tombstones, there have been 

 found on this spot some ancient ruins of a chapel surrounded by a wall or 

 court-yard. By digging further still eleven large statues came to light — 

 the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, his wife and daughter, the Emperor Com- 

 modus, and the family of the maker of these statues. We have by no 

 means exhausted all that are there. Though they are only statues origin- 

 ated in the second century, and of no great worth as works of art, still they 

 are interesting as portraits of Eoman sovereigns, enabling us to learn much 

 and to surmise more. But the grandest discovery of all is the Temple of 

 Zeus, which in our wildest dreams we never hoped to find as perfect as it 

 has shown itself. We see from the traces of charcoal that the temple was 

 partially burned, and afterwards injured more or less by repeated shocks 

 of earthquake. Evan in the Christian age people had their dwellings round 

 about it, but were driven away by earthquakes. Greeks and uncivilized 

 tribes, probably Avars and Slaves, broke the sculptures to pieces and made 

 their dwellings of them. The fall of the temple and the inundations of the 

 River Alpheios, which did not occur merely in the spring, but lasted for 

 ten or fifteen years, drove away these tribes, and the alluvial soil spread 

 unmolested pretty equally over the whole upper surface. After the ter- 

 ritory had been deserted for a while a second swarm of inhabitants settled 

 there, of whom we know nothing except that they were even of a lower 

 grade than the first, for their abodes were more miserable and more primi- 

 tive than those over which they built. The reason that the first discoveries 

 went on so slowly was because we deemed that the interests of science re- 

 quired us to preserve these ancient dwelling houses intact. But when we 

 were sure that statutes la}^ beneath, short work was made of the housee, and 

 the treasure below lay revealed. 



One interesting discover}^ was the learning the name of the architect, 

 Libon, and another the year of the erection — 431. It is undoubtedly the most 

 beautiful of all Doric temples known. It represents the last and best age of the 

 heavy, bulky erections, as they were known in Sicily, while the more elegant 

 ones were to be found in Athens. The material used in its construction was 

 not a good sort — a kind of shell lime, done over with two thin layers of 

 stucco, which was then painted. The interior arrangements are exactly as 

 Pausanias and others describe them. Pausanias relates that the temple was 

 adorned with sculpture. The twelve labors of Hercules were introduced, 

 six over the principal door and six at the back. He further tells us that 

 the two tympanums represent the last quiet quarter of an hour before the 

 race of Pelops and the father of Ilippodamia, the first-named winning b}^ 

 his cunning the four-horse race. The order in which the figures come, and 

 their number, he likewise enumerates — Zeus in the center, then Pelops, 



