Olympus

Olympus, or Olympos, was the domain of the gods in Greek mythology.

According to one account, Olympus was in reality a planet, inhabited by the Olympians. The planet's surface was lush, with trees scattered around. The only known settlement was a large city which appeared to consist of only a huge temple. Here lived Zeus and the other Olympians.



The Fourth Doctor and K9 Mark II were brought to the planet by Prometheus after freeing him. Once there, they were brought to Zeus by Aphrodite. Prometheus was questioned about his actions in stealing life spores and starting life in the universe, and was placed in a confinement cell. Prometheus escaped with the help of the Doctor and K9, and the three left in the TARDIS to other regions of the galaxy. (COMIC: The Life Bringer!)

By another account, the world of Olympus was directly connected to Earth, and could be accessed via a portal atop the mundane Mount Olympus in Greece. Hermes told Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart that Olympus was "not exactly a parallel universe, but an alternative world of transdimensional locations." Hermes considered it "pretty dull" and preferred Earth. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion)

In another account, Olympus was accessible via the belief engine, a mysterious artefact which fell from the sky near Athens in the fifth century BC and responded to the Greeks' prayers. When the Eleventh Doctor and Socrates were transported there, Socrates recognised it as "a realm composed of pure ideas - a higher plane of existence that transcends our physical world", as theorised by his student Plato. Using philosophical riddles, Socrates made the wrathful Zeus doubt his own divinity and existence, causing Olympus to disintegrate. (COMIC: The Chains of Olympus)

According to another account, Olympos was located in Greek Space, a dimension composed of metaphor. The palace was situated atop a snowy mountain. Panda found that its "dimensions were pleasingly classical, all pillars and steps and porticos and symmetry and golden sections... It was the building every Greek acropolis was a ghostly echo of." However, he thought the "screaming reds, greens and blues" were gaudy; he later learned that the palace had been painted by Iris Wildthyme, who had been the goddess of the rainbow. (PROSE: Wandering Stars)

By another account, Olympus was one of many realms which existed within the Land of Fiction. One day, the clouds of Olympus parted, and the gods saw Lilliput, Sherwood and Wonderland. (AUDIO: The Wrath of Medusa)