See Delphi and Die

VIII

Dawn brought sunlight and harmony to the broad, wooded valley A cockerel woke us early, then went on crowing all day long We rose from our beds like good tourists, hungry for breakfast and history Tourists revive fast Once I had cleaned off yesterday evening's cattle dung from my boots, we were ready for the next long day of stress

We were staying at the Leomdaion, courtesy of one Leomdas of Naxos, who had cannily provided his descendants with an income by building this enormous old hostel for visiting VIP's The four-square monster had a quiet central courtyard with shrubs, water features, and a few chairs, where the night-watchman, who doubled as the day porter at present, told us with relish that he did not provide breakfast out of season Luckily the boys came back from a walk, bearing pastries, we spread ourselves in one of the outer colonnades and while we were eating, the porter gave in to the chance to make a quick drachma, and reported that his sister would make us evening meals We thanked him, and made him accountable for our luggage Helena asked if he had seen anything of her brother Aulus, but he said not We went out to play

Like our German friends, the porter had regaled us with stories of how, if the Games had been in progress, all the peaceful area around our hostel would have been overwhelmed For weeks, Olympia became a vast festival camp Outside the sporting and sacred areas sprawled tented sites, after they were cleared of their crowded marquees when the Games ended, the ground would be covered with a hot mulch of trash and human squalor According to the porter, it rivalled the mounds of slurry from the cattle of King Augeus which Hercules had sluiced away in myth

There was no natural water source, and no latrines had ever been provided until we Romans came Except in the Aids, as they called the walled-m sacred area, a reek of human waste would hang