Description of Greece

​There are indeed many other things that one might see among the Greeks, and some that one might hear of, which are worthy of wonder; but it is especially the rites performed at Eleusis and the games in Olympia that have a share of divine care. As for the sacred grove of Zeus, people have from of old called it Altis, altering the name slightly; and indeed, also for Pindar, who composed a song for a man who was an Olympic victor, the place is named Altis.

​The temple and the statue for Zeus were made from spoils, when the Eleans destroyed Pisa and all the other neighboring peoples who had joined Pisa in revolting in war. That Phidias was the one who made the statue is attested also by an inscription written under the feet of Zeus: “Phidias, son of Charmides, an Athenian, made me.” The workmanship of the temple is Doric, and its exterior is peristyle;

​it is made of local limestone. Its height indeed, reaching up to the pediment, is sixty-eight feet, its width is ninety-five, and its length is two hundred and thirty; its architect was Libon, a local man. The tiles are not of baked clay, but Pentelic stone worked in the fashion of tiles. They say that this invention belongs to a Naxian man, Byzes, who they say made the statues in Naxos upon which there is the inscription: “Euergos of Naxos, son of Byzes, dedicated me to the offspring of Leto, he who first made tiles of stone.” In age, this Byzes lived in the time of Alyattes the Lydian and Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, who was king among the Medes.

​In Olympia, a gilded cauldron is placed on each extremity of the roof, and a Victory stands almost in the middle of the pediment, she too being gilded. Under the statue of Victory, a golden shield is dedicated, having the Gorgon Medusa wrought upon it. The inscription on the shield shows both those who dedicated it and for what reason they did so; for indeed, it says thus: “The temple has a golden bowl, and from Tanagra the Lacedaemonians and their alliance dedicated it as a gift from the Argives, Athenians, and Ionians, as a tithe because of victory in the war.” Of this battle, I made mention also in my Attica history, when going through the monuments at Athens.

​On the outside of the band that runs around above the columns of the temple in Olympia, there are gilded shields, twenty-one in number, a dedication by the Roman general Mummius, who conquered the Achaeans in war, took Corinth, and drove the Dorian Corinthians from their homes.