Mount Olympos is one of the highest mountains in Greece, the south side of which forms the boundary with Thessaly. Its northern base reaches around the plains of Macedonia, and sometimes it is called a mountain of Macedonia. It forms the eastern end of the Cambunian range and reaches to the sea as far as the mouth of the Peneius River, being separated by the vale of Tempe from Mount Ossa. Its height is 2,973 meters. The lower sides of Olympus are well wooded, but the summit shows wide areas of bare rock. It has a few minor summits; its chief summit is covered with perpetual snow.
Olympus was the chief seat of the third dynasty of gods, of which Zeus was the head. With respect to the concept of heaven and Olympus, heaven was a metaphore for the summit of the mountain, rather than the reverse. Even the story of the giants scaling heaven must be understood in this sense; not that they placed Pelion and Ossa upon the top of Olympus to reach the still higher heaven, but they piled Pelion on the top of Ossa and both on the lower slope of Olympus to scale the summit of Olympus itself, the abode of the gods. When Zeus and his siblings began their war with their father, Cronus, and the other Titans, this contest, usually called the Titanomachia, took place in Thessaly, the Titans occupying Mount Othrys, and the sons of Cronos Mount Olympus. It lasted for ten years, and the Titans were overcome and hurled down below Tartarus. The victorious gods continued to occupy Olympus. Olympus was threatened again by the Aloeidae, Otus and Ephialtes. They were the giant sons of Poseidon by Iphimedeia. They were renowned for their extraordinary strength and daring spirit. At a very young age they threatened the Olympian gods with war and attempted to pile Pelion upon ossa and Ossa upon the slopes of Olympus. They would have accomplished their object had they been allowed to grow up to the age of manhood; but Apollo destroyed them before their beards began to appear.
Homer describes the gods as having their several palaces on the summit of Olympus, as spening their days in the palace of Zeus, around whom they sat in solemn assembly, while the younger gods danced before them, and the Muses entertained them with lyre and song. They were hidden from the view of men upon the earth by a wall of clouds, the gates of which were kept by the Horae. As time went by, the poets made the idea less material and the real abode of the gods is gradually transferred from the summit of Olympus to the sky itself.
Last modified: Mon Nov 30, 1998 / Jeremiah Genest