Living on Olympus

Visiting the Olympic's Athlete Village, I could not help but think back to Greek mythology and the many classes I took in junior high school . 

Olympus was the residence of the divine family, the twelve most important ruling gods and goddesses of ancient Greece, who therefore were called the Olympians. There they all lived together in an enormous palace, high above the clouds. Olympus often it is identified also as some mysterious region far above the earth.Olympus is not the equivalent of heaven. According Homer, Poseidon says that he rules the sea, Hades the dead, Zeus the heavens, but Olympus is common to all three.

The builders of the palace at Olympus were the Cyclopes, gigantic one-eyed Titans who were freed by Zeus from Tartarus and in thanks gave him his famous thunderbolts. Hephaestus, the talented god of the smiths and the forge created all the furnishings and artwork on Olympus, even making some of the chairs and tables able to move themselves in and out of the celestial hall.In between was a square court, open to the sky, with private rooms on either side belonging to the other five Olympian gods and five Olympian goddesses. 

 

Homer says that no wind ever shakes the untroubled peace of Olympus; no rain ever falls there or snow; but the cloudless firmament stretches around it on all sides and the white glory of sunshine is diffused upon its walls. (From Thomas Bullfinch's "The Age of Fables")

 

Yeah, it was a lot like that...