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Destination Olympia, 5th Century BC

Zeus Photo courtesy of IOC Olympic Museum Collections

Destination Olympia, 5th Century BC SWITZERLAND LAUSANNE  •  Olympic Museum  •  Ongoing   Destination Olympia, 5th Century BC is an exhibition-display where, through a combination of illusion and reconstruction, the visitor will find himself in the 5th century BC, first in Elis, the city where the athletes gathered one month before the Olympic events. Under the watchful eye of Pericles, he will recall the birth of democracy. In the stoa, he will stop in the discovery area, where he will learn how to make ceramics and can try on a himation or a chiton. After passing through the portico of a family house, he will pause in the andron, reclining on a couch to admire the mosaic specially produced for this occasion. In the palaestra, to the strains of the aulos, he will try his hand at the ancient Olympic disciplines and, in the ephebes room, listen to the teachings of Sophocles and Plato. A passage through the trees, symbolising the 58 km between the two cities, will then bring him to Olympia, the sanctuary where the Games were held over six days. He will visit Phidias's workshop, which produced one of the Seven Wonders of the World: the chryselephantine statue of Zeus. He will learn about architecture inside a life-size column of the temple to the "Father of the Gods". Using an interactive terminal, he will bring this sacred setting to life. By the time he leaves Olympia, he will have understood the importance of a victory, not just to an athlete, but also his city. The exhibition concludes with the text of the edict by Theodosius I, prohibiting all pagan festivals. The Games would not be revived until 1,503 years later, in 1896 in Athens. Olympic Museum of Lausanne Web Site Contact: The Olympic Museum 1, Quai d'Ouchy 1001 Lausanne Switzerland Tel: (41) 21 621 65 11 email this item to a friend