A real landmark and at the same time a supernatural seat of gods: In his basic work on Mount Olympus, a scientist clarifies what religious and political role the mountain played in antiquity and how it has retained its symbolic power to this day. Due to the double meaning and the mysterious character, the mountain range advanced to a multi-layered projection surface. The spectrum ranged from religious ideas and political instrumentalizations to the tourist and symbolic uses of today, reports Achim Lichtenberger from the University of Münster.
The highest peak rises almost 3000 meters into the sky over Greece: It seems understandable that the ancient people identified the highest mountain range of their homeland with the seat of the gods. According to mythology, Zeus, the father of the gods, lived and enthroned there, surrounded by his family in light-filled splendor. As is well known, this idea is deeply rooted culturally: The term “Olympus” still has a distinctive meaning for us. However, so far there are hardly any scientific works that specifically deal with the symbolic mountains and their history. With the publication “Der Olymp. Seat of the gods between heaven and earth ”, Lichtenberger is now closing this research gap, reports the University of Münster. The archaeologist’s book is based on extensive research into the complex information about the mythological mountains.
Earthly, but also heavenly and everywhere
Lichtenberger emphasizes a fundamental aspect: “The knowledge of the geographical location and its place in people’s imagination are nowhere as far apart as at Olympus.” Because, as he explains, nobody saw the real world of the peaks in antiquity: mountaineering was not common at the time and so the mountain range remained remote and mysterious. The highest peak of Mount Olympus was not climbed until 1912. “Olympus remained a largely unknown but geographically present place for a long time,” says Lichtenberger. In this it differed from Hades – the ancient underworld, which had no real geographical equivalent. “In the case of Olympus, the double meaning gave rise to ideas that shimmered between the real mountain and the supernatural seat of gods,” explains Lichtenberger. The image of the seat of gods was also viewed in a spatially detached manner and, like “heaven”, was universally transferable.
In antiquity, ideas about Olympus were strongly influenced by Homer’s “Illias”, reports Lichtenberger. With the ancient poet, too, the mythological residence of gods was the focus and less the place. The unearthly character also dominates in the images of the time – there is hardly any representation of the mountain topography. On the other hand, the region around the real Olympus was always of strategic importance and the scene of armed conflicts. In antiquity, this resulted in a double perception of a mythological and an actual place, reports the author. Interestingly, as he explains, this dual principle is also found later in Christianity: Jerusalem is initially a real city in Palestine and a place of religious events. In the Apocalypse of John, however, a heavenly Jerusalem is also presented. “Comparable to the idea of Olympus, we find the same three-way cut from earthly to heavenly to potentially everywhere”, says Lichtenberger.
Political instrumentalization and curiosities
As he further reports, the Macedonian kings knew how to use the combination of the symbolic and geographical meaning for their propaganda purposes. At the foot of Mount Olympus, which was on their territory, they built in the 4th to 5th centuries BC. The city of Dion – the name means something like city of Zeus. As Lichtenberger explains, it was a “cultural acceptance offensive” that was intended to counter the lack of recognition of the Macedonians as Greeks. The message of the Macedonian kings was as it were: “Look !: The Greek gods live with us”.
King Archelaos I also had his own Olympic Games hosted in Dion – in addition to those in Olympia, which was far from the mountain range on the Peloponnese peninsula. Philip II later continued the appropriation of Olympus through depictions of Zeus in coinage, and there are also noticeably many references to Olympus in the literary works at the Macedonian court. “This appropriation shows that the Macedonian culture belongs to the Greek culture, and at the same time it is differentiated from other non-Greeks,” says Lichtenberger.
As the author makes clear in the eight-chapter book, the multifaceted nature of Mount Olympus ultimately made it a key testimony to Greek cultural history. Its symbolic power is still reflected today in tourism strategies and in popular culture. In some cases, this has produced curious flowers, as the scientist illustrates using examples. Lichtenberger presents examples of how the term “Olympus” should lend shine or a humorous whistle. For example, there is a scratching post for cats called “Olympus” with a “raised” high plateau and a mobile toilet cubicle in which one can evidently be enthroned “heavenly”.
Source: University of Munster, Original publication: Achim Lichtenberger: Der Olymp. Seat of the gods between heaven and earth, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2021.