Olympios
Olympios
Greek
“Olympian means 'of Olympus' — the mountain home of the Twelve Gods. The word now means superhuman in scale or serenely above human concerns, both meanings accurate to the original.”
Mount Olympus, at 2,917 meters the highest peak in Greece, was where the ancient Greeks located the homes of the twelve major deities. The Olympians — Zeus, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Demeter, and Dionysus — were distinguished from chthonic gods (underground, of the earth) and Titans (the previous generation, defeated). Olympios described anything relating to this divine company.
The Olympic Games at Olympia — a sanctuary in the Peloponnese, distinct from Mount Olympus — were held every four years from at least 776 BCE. The Games were sacred to Zeus Olympios: a religious festival as much as athletic competition. The sanctuary at Olympia contained Pheidias's colossal chryselephantine statue of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Olympic truce (ekecheiria) halted all wars during the Games.
The word 'olympian' in English carries a specific emotional register: serene detachment, superhuman scale, indifference to petty human concerns. The gods on Olympus drank nectar and watched human affairs with a mixture of amusement and irritation. To be 'olympian' is to be too elevated for ordinary passions — which can be a compliment or a criticism depending on context.
Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. 'Olympic' now names the world's largest athletic competition, the most-watched television event, and an entire vocabulary of athletic achievement. The sacred mountain's adjective became a brand.
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Today
To be olympian is to be above it all — above petty human conflict, above ordinary passion, above the need for explanation or justification. The gods on Olympus did not explain themselves. That is both their authority and their limitation.
The Games carry the mountain's name into every four-year cycle. Athletes strive to be olympian in the competitive sense. Very few achieve the theological one.
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