Even though you'll be eager to see the ancient site, you might want first to head across the road to the museum, which reopened after extensive renovations in 2004. The collection makes clear Olympia's astonishing wealth and importance in antiquity: Every victorious city and almost every victorious athlete dedicated a bronze or marble statue here, and the site was something of an outdoor museum of the finest bronze and marble sculpture. Most of the exhibits are displayed in rooms to the right and left of the main entrance and follow an essentially chronological sequence, from severe Neolithic vases to baroque Roman imperial statues, neither of which will probably tempt you from heading straight ahead to see the museum's superstars. Labels are in Greek, English, and German.

Among the collection’s highlights is a monumental sculpture from the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus showing the battle of the Lapiths (Greeks who lived in Thessaly) and centaurs—the triumph of civilization (the Lapiths) over barbarism (those brutish centaurs)—as the magisterial figure of Apollo, the god of reason, looks on. On the east pediment, Zeus oversees the chariot race between Oinomaos, the king of Pisa, and Pelops, the legendary figure who sought the hand of Oinomaos’s daughter. Crafty Pelops loosened his opponent’s chariot pins, thereby winning the race, the girl, and the honor of having the entire Peloponnese named after him. At either end of the room, sculptured metopes show scenes from the Labors of Hercules, including the one he performed at Olympia: cleansing the stables of King Augeus by diverting the Alpheios River.

The museum’s standout, Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus, has a room to itself. The glistening white marble (the torso said to be worn smooth by the admiring hands of temple assistants) depicts the divine messenger Hermes about to deliver the newborn Dionysos to the mountains, where he was raised by nymphs. As legend has it, Zeus conceived Dionysus with his mortal lover Semele but was forced to hide the infant from his ever-jealous wife, Hera. The plump baby thrived and grew up to become the god of wine, revelry, and theater. The work is typical of Praxiteles, the 4th-century-B.C. sculptor whose graceful, intimate creations in marble often depicted the gods as humanlike. Transporting as the work is, scholars have long been debating the possibility that it’s a copy by a contemporary or even a Roman master.

The monumental sculpture from the Temple of Zeus is probably the finest surviving example of Archaic Greek sculpture. The sculpture from the west pediment shows the battle of the Lapiths (Greeks who lived in Thessaly) and centaurs raging around the magisterial figure of Apollo, the god of reason.

Most scholars think that the message is the triumph of civilization (as represented by the Greek Lapiths) over barbarism—those brutish centaurs. On the east pediment, Zeus oversees the chariot race between Oinomaos, the king of Pisa, and Pelops, the legendary figure who wooed and won Oinomaos's daughter by loosening his opponent's chariot pins. Pelops not only won his bride, but went on to have the entire Peloponnese named in his honor. At either end of the room, sculptured metopes show scenes from the Labors of Hercules, including the one he performed at Olympia: cleansing the foul stables of King Augeus by diverting the Alfios River.

Other Museums

Historical exhibits scattered around Ancient Olympia explore the games and the site. The Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Antiquity ★★ engagingly covers the ancient contests, finger-breaking and eye-gouging and all, with text panels, illustrations, and some gee-whizz artifacts, such as ancient chariot wheels. The Museum of the History of the Excavations in Olympia ★, in the former home of German archaeologists, documents the excavations of Olympia with photos, journals, and letters, beginning with 1766, when British antiquarian Richard Chandler discovered the ruins