Home of the Gods
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece; its summit Mytikas rises 2,917 meters on the border of Thessaly and Macedonia, within sight of the Aegean. Greeks placed the home of the twelve principal gods on its cloud-wrapped heights: Homer describes a seat never shaken by winds, never wet by rain or snow, bathed in clear radiance. There Zeus holds his throne and calls the gods to council; the Horae keep the gates of cloud, the gods feast on ambrosia and nectar poured by Hebe and Ganymede, Apollo plays the lyre, and the Muses answer in song.
From the mountain the ruling gods take their collective name, the Olympians. At its foot lay Dion, the sanctuary where the Macedonians honored Zeus and where Alexander the Great held lavish sacrifices before marching east. Mytikas itself was not climbed until 1913, when two Swiss mountaineers reached it with a local hunter as guide; in 1938 the mountain became Greece's first national park, and its trails now carry hikers and mythology pilgrims alike.
