Statue of Zeus at Olympia

A fanciful reconstruction of Phidias' statue of Zeus, in an engraving made by Philippe Galle in 1572, from a drawing by Maarten van Heemskerck.

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
• Great Pyramid of Giza • Hanging Gardens of Babylon • Statue of Zeus at Olympia • Temple of Artemis • Mausoleum of Maussollos • Colossus of Rhodes • Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia is one of the classical Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was carved by the famed Classical sculptor Phidias circa 435 B.C.E. in Olympia, Greece.

The seated statue occupied the whole width of the aisle of the temple that was built to house it, and was 40 feet. "It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," the geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century B.C.E., "he would unroof the temple." Zeus was a chryselephantine sculpture, made of ivory and accented with gold plating. In the sculpture, he was seated on a magnificent throne of cedarwood, inlaid with ivory, gold, ebony, and precious stones. In Zeus' right hand there was a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, and in his left hand, a shining sceptre on which an eagle perched. Plutarch, in his Life of the Roman general Aemilius Paulus, records that the victor over Macedon “was moved to his soul, as if he had beheld the god in person,” while the Greek rhetorician and philosopher Dio Chrysostom, 1st century C.E., wrote that a single glimpse of the statue would make a man forget his earthly troubles.

Perhaps the greatest discovery in terms of finding out about this wonder came in 1958 with the excavation of the workshop used to create the statue. This has led archaeologists to be able to re-create the technique used to make the great work.

Roman Seated Zeus, marble and bronze (restored), following the type established by Phidias, (Hermitage Museum).

File:Forngrekiska mynt från Elis med bilder efter Fidias staty av Zeus i Olympias Zeustempel.jpg

Coin of Elis illustrating the Olympian Zeus .

King of the gods

Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Ζεύς Zeús, genitive: Διός Diós), is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus. In Greek mythology he was the bringer of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds. Zeus's symbols were the thunderbolt (his weapon), eagle, bull, and the oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical Zeus also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently envisaged by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

He was also protector of cities, the home, stranger, and supplicants. Statues of Zeus appeared in forecourts of houses all over Greece, while mountaintop shrines attracted scores of pilgrims. But the most revered object of worship was the Statue of Zeus in a sacred grove between two rivers at Olympia. Noted Dio Chrysostom: "If anyone who is heavy-laden in mind were to stand before this statue, he would forget all the griefs and troubles of this mortal life."

Presiding Over the Games

There are many myths and legends surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games. The most popular legend describes that Heracles was the creator of the Olympic Games, and built the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honor to his father Zeus, after completing his 12 labors. According to that legend he walked in a straight line for 400 strides and called this distance a "stadion" (Greek: "Στάδιον")- (Roman: "stadium") (Modern English: "Stage") that later also became a distance calculation unit. This is also why a modern stadium is 400 meters in circumference length. Another myth associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of ἐκεχειρία (ekecheiria) or Olympic Truce. The date of the Games' inception based on the count of years in Olympiads is reconstructed as 776 B.C.E., although scholars' opinions diverge between dates as early as 884 B.C.E. and as late as 704 B.C.E.

From then on, the Games quickly became much more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, contests alternating with sacrifices and ceremonies honoring both Zeus, who was said to be presiding over the games, and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia famous for his legendary chariot race, in whose honor the games were held. The number of events increased to twenty, and the celebration was spread over several days. Winners of the events were greatly admired and were immortalized in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and the period between two celebrations became known as an 'Olympiad'. The Greeks used Olympiads as one of their methods to count years.

Destruction

The circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate: some scholars argue that it perished with the temple in the fifth century C.E., others argue that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion (Schobel 1965). According to Lucian of Samosata in the later second century, "they have laid hands on your person at Olympia, my lord High-Thunderer, and you had not the energy to wake the dogs or call in the neighbours; surely they might have come to the rescue and caught the fellows before they had finished packing up the swag." A common line of thought suggests it was destroyed by a meteor.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bernard and Yalouris. Olympia: The Sculptures of the Temples of Zeus, Phaidon, 1967. ASIN B000NKQ3NU
• Dillon, Matthew, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece, Routledge, 1997. ISBN 978-0415127752
• Nardo, Don. Greek Temples, Franklin Watts, 2002. ISBN 978-0531162255
• Pedley, John. Sanctuaries and the Sacred in the Ancient World, Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-6521809351

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