Olympia
oh-LIM-pee-uh
Attested elsewhere in ancient sourcesThe sanctuary of Zeus in Elis, and the games held there every four years. Pausanias walks it building by building and lists the victors' statues.
It matters to Sparta out of proportion to its size. Cynisca, daughter of a Spartan king, entered horses and won the four-horse chariot twice, and Pausanias records both the victory and the monument she put up for it.
The four-year interval between festivals became the standard unit for dating events across the Greek world.
Sources
- Paus. 5-6
- Paus. 3.8.1
- Paus. 6.1.6
References are to the standard divisions of the ancient texts, not to any one edition.
Acenes of Sparta: The Dragon Slayer
A dragon is the reason the 300 died. Leonidas used the magic of the gods to bind Kalaxes beneath Taygetus, and the price was his life and his men's. Sixty-two years later a seven-year-old of the agoge falls into the dragon's crypt and inherits the unpaid balance.
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