Olympia
Olympia names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Olympia o-olim'pi-a, a city of ancient Greece
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
o-olim'pi-a, a city of ancient Greece. It was situated on the sacred plain of the Alpheus in Elis, a small country of the Peloponnesus. According to all accounts it was formerly a city of great magnificence. Dust storms, land washed from the neighboring hills, land slips, and silt from the overflowing of the Alpheus have, however, covered the site of the city with earth to the depth of ten or twelve feet. In the latter half of the nineteenth century an association of Germans, led by Ernst Curtius, the writer of Greek history, undertook excavations on an extensive scale. By an arrangement with the Greek government they were required to relinquish all treasures of art discovered, but they were to be permitted to make casts. Many thousands of fragments of sculpture are preserved in a museum established by the government of Greece for that purpose. The central building was found to be a Doric temple of the Olympian Zeus. It formerly contained a statue of Zeus by the sculptor Phidias, reputed to be the greatest work of art produced in Greece. It outranked the statues of Athena and Zeus at Athens. This temple was surrounded by about forty other buildings, including a vast number of shrines, treasure houses, porticoes, banquet halls, baths, fountains, and other structures. They were destroyed during the fifth century of our era by order of the Christian emperor, Theodoric II, who deemed it unwise to preserve attractive relics of paganism. Olympic games in honor of Zeus, the father of the gods, were celebrated here each fourth year. At first they were local. The earlier festivals consisted of foot racing; but later chariot races, wrestling, boxing, throwing the quoit or discus, and hurling the javelin were introduced. Still later, the poets, artists, and orators of Greece contended for popular applause. An immense concourse of people from the farthest isles and colonies of the Greeks came together. The assemblage was so great that the merchants came with their wares, and the games took on the aspect of a great fair such as is held at Nijni-Novgorod or leipsic at the present time. The proclamation of treaties and other matters of importance to the Greeks were made at this time. The Olympics held so important a place in public estimation that the historians reckoned time in Olympiads. The first Olympiad began with the victory of Coroebus in the foot race of the year corresponding to 776 B. C. The games were abolished 394 A.D., about the 293d Olympiad.
Olympia a Elis, in Greece
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Elis, in Greece, on the right bank of the Alpheus, and the seat of the Olympic games. The Sacred Grove (called the Altis) of Olympia, enclosed a level space about 4,000 feet long, nearly 2,000 000 broad, containing both the spot appropriated to the games and the sanctuaries connected etc. The king crowned the victors with with them. It was finely wooded, and in its center stood a clump of sycamores. The Altis was crossed from W. to E. by a road called the "Pompic Way," along which all the processions passed. The most celebrated building was the Olympieium, or Olympium, dedicated to Olympian Zeus. It was designed by the architect Libon of Elis in the 6th century B. c., but was not completed for more than a century. It contained a colossal statue of the god, the masterpiece ma of the sculptor Phidias.
Olympia a city, capita of Washington
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city, capita of Washington, and county-seat of Thurston co.; on the Deschutes river where it enters Budds Inlet, Puget Sound, and on the Northern Pacific Railroad. The city has steamboat connection with Victoria places on Puget Sound as well plac and other as the principal Pacific ports. Here are St. Martin's College (R. C.), Providence Academy, state capitol, the county court house, St. Peter's Hospital, street railroad and electric light plants, waterworks, National banks, and several daily and weekly newspapers. Olympia has a boot and shoe factory, an ice factory, iron works, wooden pipe works, and saw shingle, and flour mills. Pop. (1910) 6,996; (1920) 7,795.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 account already knew Ernst Curtius's German dig, but the biggest finds came later: excavations resumed in the 1930s and after 1950s work identified the workshop of Phidias just west of the temple, complete with moulds and a black-glaze cup scratched "I belong to Pheidias." The statue of Zeus itself remains lost, and the destruction is now credited to Theodosius I's ban on the festival in 393-394, followed by fire and earthquakes, rather than to the "Theodoric II" Aiton's names. Since 1936 the flame for each modern Games has been kindled at the Altis and carried by relay, and the ruins were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989. Olympia, Washington, which Collier's listed at 7,795 people in 1920 with a boot and shoe factory and wooden pipe works, is now a state capital of well over 50,000.
Written for this edition, 2026.