The Humanistic Symbolism of Olympia: a Message from Antiquity for Modern Times

If we want to consider the meaning of Olympia and the role of her far reaching symbolism in human culture, we need first to define the symbol and symbolism as such. When we talk of anything symbolic or symbolism we think about a set of signs, either words or images, and the practice and convention of using them as representations of some ideas or things. A symbol, in turn, according to most dictionaries and encyclopedias, is something which, by convention, can be used for, stands for, or is associated with something else, that it represents or signifies. This word is derived from the Greek symbolon (σύμβολον) which originally meant half of something that was broken in two and which now has a variety of meanings, but the most important seems to be just “sign”. This etymology is one more proof that at least in all European languages the Greek language provided the symbolic meaning of innumerable basic words especially those expressing abstract ideas, institutions, sciences and cultural activities, such as, to give a few examples: system systema (σύστημα), politics from Greek politea (πολϊτεία), academy – academia (ακαδημια), theatre – theatron (θέατρον), drama – drama (δραμα), museum – mouseion) and music mousike (μουσεϊον; μουσική), biology – biologia (βιολογια), technology – technologia (τεχνολογια), philosophy – filosofia (φιλοσοφία). In sport, too, all international languages freely absorbed such words as athletics stemming from the Greek athlesis or athleticos (άθλησις, άθλητικός); stadium – stadion (σταδιον), pentathlon (πενταθλον) or some modern events which, although not practiced in Ancient Hellas, were built on the principles of the Greek language such as decathlon or biathlon (δεκαθλοη; βιαθλοη).