There are many things to be seen and to be heard in the Greek world [= among the Hellēnes] that are worthy of wonder [thauma]; but the greatest share [of all these wondrous things]—from the standpoint of a given god’s way-of-thinking [phrontis]—goes to the rituals [drōmena] at Eleusis and to the competition [agōn] at Olympia. The sacred [hieron] grove [alsos] of Zeus has been called, ever since ancient times, Altis, by way of deforming the word [alsos]. Likewise in a song [āisma] that Pindar made [poieîn] composed for an Olympic victor, the place is called Altis [Pindar Olympian 10.45]

The temple and the statue [agalma] were made for Zeus from spoils, when Pisa was crushed in war by the Eleians,¹ and along with Pisa, those of the subject population who were fellow conspirators. The statue [agalma] itself was made by Pheidias, as is testified by an inscription written under the feet of Zeus: Pheidias, son of Kharmides, an Athenian, made me. The temple is in the Doric style, and the outside has columns all around it. It is built of native stone.

Its height up to the pediment is sixty-eight feet, its width is ninety-five, its length two hundred and thirty. The architect was Libon, a native. The tiles are not of baked earth, but of Pentelic marble cut into the shape of tiles. The invention is said to be that of Byzes of Naxos, who they say made the images in Naxos, on which is the inscription: To the offspring of Leto was I dedicated by Euergos, a Naxian, son of Byzes, who first made tiles of stone. This Byzes lived about the time of Alyattes the Lydian,¹ when Astyages, the son of Kyaxares, reigned over the Medes.

At Olympia, a gilded caldron stands on each end of the roof, and a Nike, also gilded, is set in about the middle of the pediment. Under the image of Nike has been dedicated a golden shield with Medusa the Gorgon in relief. The inscription on the shield declares who dedicated it and the reason why they did so. It runs thus:

On the outside of the frieze that runs round the temple at Olympia, above the columns, are gilded shields twenty-one in number, an offering made by the Roman general Mummius when he had conquered the Achaeans in war, captured Corinth, and driven out its Dorian inhabitants.

As for the pediments: in the front [= east] pediment there is the yet-to-happen chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos, and preparation for the running [of the race] is being made by both. A sculpture [agalma] of Zeus has been made [pe-poiēmenon] at the middle of the pediment; on the right of Zeus is Oinomaos with a helmet on his head, and, next to him, is Sterope his wife, who was one of the daughters of Atlas. Myrtilos is there also, the charioteer of Oinomaos, and he is sitting in front of the horses, which are four in number. Behind him are two men. They have no names, but they too must be under orders from Oinomaos to attend to the horses.

At the very edge is situated Kladeos, the river which, in other ways also, gets the most honors [tīmai]—after the Alpheios—from the people of Elis. On the left of Zeus are Pelops, then Hippodameia, then the charioteer [hēniokhos] of Pelops, then the horses, and then two men, who are apparently grooms of Pelops. Then the pediment narrows again, and in this part of it is made [pe-poiētai] the Alpheios. The name of the man who was-the-chariot-driver [hēniokheîn] for Pelops is, according to the narrative [logos] of the people of Troizen, Sphairos, but the guide [ex-hēgētēs] at Olympia was saying that he was Killas.

The sculptures in the front [= east] pediment are by Paionios, who came from Mende in Thrace; those in the back [= west] pediment are by Alkamenes, a contemporary of Pheidias, ranking next after him for skill [sophiā] in the making [poiēsis] of statues [agalmata]. What he [= Alkamenes] had on the pediment is the fight [makhē] between the Lapithai and the Centaurs at the wedding of Peirithoös. In the center of the pediment is Peirithoös. Next to him on one side is Eurytion [the Centaur], who has seized [harpazein] the wife of Peirithoös, and then there is Kaineus [= one of the Lapithai], who is coming up to help Peirithoös, and, on the other side is Theseus defending himself against the Centaurs with an axe [pelekus]. One Centaur has just seized [harpazein] a girl [parthenos]; another, a boy [pais] in-the-prime-of-youth [hōraios]. Alkamenes, I think, made [poieîn] these things this way because he had learned from the verses [epē] of Homer that Peirithoös was a son of Zeus, and because he knew that Theseus was the fourth [inclusive] generation removed from Pelops.

At Olympia, most of the deeds [erga] of Hēraklēs are [represented] there. Above the doors of the Temple have-been-made [passive of the verb poieîn] [the following representations]:

• the hunting-down of the Arcadian Boar,

• the matters with regard to Diomedes of Thrace

• also with regard to Gēryonēs in Erytheia,

• also, in connection with Atlas, what [weight] he [= Atlas] is carrying, [the weight] that he [= Hēraklēs] is about to receive-in-relay [ek-dekhesthai],

• and [now] he is purging the land, [getting rid] of the manure, for the sake of the people of Elis.

Then, [looming] above the doors of the rear-chamber [of the Temple],

• there he is, removing the band-that-girds-the-waist of the Amazon,

• and then there are the matters having to do with the Hind

• and [having to do with] the Bull at Knossos

• and [having to do with] the Birds at Stymphēlos,

• also having to do with the Hydra

• and, in the land of the people of Argos, with the Lion.

Most of the labors [erga] of Hēraklēs are represented at Olympia. Above the doors of the temple is carved the hunting of the Arcadian boar, his exploit against Diomedes the Thracian and that against Geryones at Erytheia; he is also about to receive the burden of Atlas, and he cleanses the land from dung for the people of Elis. Above the doors of the rear chamber, he is taking the waistband from the Amazon; and there are the stories of the deer, of the bull at Knossos, of the Stymphalian birds, of the hydra, and of the Argive lion.

As you enter the bronze doors you see on the right, before the column, Iphitos being garlanded by a woman, Ekhekheiria [‘Truce’], as the elegiac couplet on the statue says. Within the temple stand columns, and inside also are porticoes above, with an approach through them to the statue [agalma]. There has also been constructed a winding ascent to the roof.