The Archeological Museum at Olympia

Archeological Museum at Olympia

The Archeological Museum at Olympia was built opposite the excavation site in a valley northwest of the Kronion hill and officially opened in 1982. Except for the central hall, devoted solely to the pediment and metope sculpture from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, and the corner rooms dedicated to the games, the exhibit galleries are arranged chronologically, proceeding clockwise from the entrance hall from prehistory, through the Classical period, to the Roman.

Click on the thumbnails below in order to see pictures of the exhibits in the Archeological Museum at Olympia. Use your browser's back button to return to this page.

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The Nike of Paionios statue depicts a winged woman. An inscription on the base states that the statue was dedicated by the Messenians and the Naupactians for their victory against the Lacedaemonians (Spartans), in the Archidamian (Peloponnesian) war probably in 421 BCE. It is the work of the sculptor Paionios of Mende in Chalkidiki, who also made the acroteria of the Temple of Zeus. Nike, cut from Parian marble, has a height of 2.115m, but with the tips of her (now broken) wings would have reached 3m. In its completed form, the monument with its triangular base (8.81m high) would have stood at the height of 10.92m, giving the impression of Nike triumphantly descending from Olympus.		A bull statue.

A portion of the west pediment of the temple of Zeus depicting the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs (Centauromachy). Apollo stands in the middle on the composition (leftmost statue) with Theseus, a Centaur and a Lapith woman on his left.	One of the twelve metopes of the temple of Zeus, depicting the labors of Hercules. Each is 1.5 meters square and made of Parian marble. This one depicts Hercules barely able to support the weight of the world while the goddess Athena has only to raise her hand to relieve the burden. Atlas offers him the apples.	A portion of the east pediment of the temple of Zeus depicting the chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaus. Zeus stands in the center of the composition (leftmost statue) with Pelops and Hippodameia on his left. A servant girl kneeling infront of Pelops' quadriga is at the end.