In the first place why are they called 'Olympian'? Are they the Gods of
Mount Olympus, the old sacred mountain of Homer's Achaioi, or do they
belong to the great sanctuary of Olympia in which Zeus, the lord of the
Olympians, had his greatest festival? The two are at opposite ends of
Greece, Olympus in North Thessaly in the north-east, Olympia in Elis in
the south-west. From which do the Olympians come? On the one hand it is
clear in Homer that they dwell on Mount Olympus; they have 'Olympian
houses' beyond human sight, on the top of the sacred mountain, which in
the _Odyssey_ is identified with heaven. On the other hand, when
Pisistratus introduced the worship of Olympian Zeus on a great scale
into Athens and built the Olympieum, he seems to have brought him
straight from Olympia in Elis. For he introduced the special Elean
complex of gods, Zeus, Rhea, Kronos, and Gê Olympia.[45:1]
Fortunately this puzzle can be solved. The Olympians belong to both
places. It is merely a case of tribal migration. History, confirmed by
the study of the Greek dialects, seems to show that these northern
Achaioi came down across central Greece and the Gulf of Corinth and
settled in Elis.[45:2] They brought with them their Zeus, who was
already called 'Olympian', and established him as superior to the
existing god, Kronos. The Games became Olympian and the sanctuary by
which they were performed 'Olympia'.[45:3]
As soon as this point is clear, we understand also why there is more
than one Mount Olympus. We can all think of two, one in Thessaly and one
across the Aegean in Mysia. But there are many more; some twenty-odd, if
I mistake not, in the whole Greek region. It is a pre-Greek word applied
to mountains; and it seems clear that the 'Olympian' gods, wherever
their worshippers moved, tended to dwell in the highest mountain in the
neighbourhood, and the mountain thereby became Olympus.
The name, then, explains itself. The Olympians are the mountain gods of
the old invading Northmen, the chieftains and princes, each with his
_comitatus_ or loose following of retainers and minor chieftains, who
broke in upon the ordered splendours of the Aegean palaces and, still
more important, on the ordered simplicity of tribal life in the
pre-Hellenic villages of the mainland. Now, it is a canon of religious
study that all gods reflect the social state, past or present, of their
worshippers. From this point of view what appearance do the Olympians of
Homer make? What are they there for? What do they do, and what are their
relations one to another?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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