The Seven Wonders - Statue of Zeus at Olympia The Statue of Zeus at Olympia The statue of Zeus in the temple at Olympia stood more than 40 feet high (Copyright Lee Krystek, 2011) In ancient times one of the Greeks most mportant festivals, the Olympic Games, was held every four years in honor of the King of their gods, Zeus. Like our modern Olympics, athletes traveled from distant lands, including Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and Sicily, to compete. The Olympics were first started in 776 B.C. and held at a shrine to Zeus located on the western coast of Greece in a region called Peloponnesus. The games helped to unify the Greek city-states and a sacred truce was declared. Safe passage was given to all traveling to the site, called Olympia, for the season of the games. The Temple at Olympia The site consisted of a stadium - where the competitions were actually done - and a sacred grove, or Altis, where a number of temples were located.

The shrine to Zeus here was simple in the early years, but as time went by and the games increased in importance, it became obvious that a new, larger temple, one worthy of the King of the gods, was needed. Between 470 and 460 B.C., construction on a new temple was started. The designer was Libon of Elis and his masterpiece, The Temple of Zeus, was completed in 456 B.C.. Seven Quick Facts Function: Shine to Greek God Zeus Destroyed: Fire 5th Century A.D. Size: Height around 40 ft. (12m) Made of: Ivory and gold-plated plates on wooden frame. Other: Remains of the workshop where it was built was found during an excavation in the 1950's This temple followed a design used on many large Grecian temples. It was similar to the Parthenon in Athens and the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. The temple was built on a raised, rectangular platform. Thirteen large columns supported the roof along the sides and six supported it on each end. A gently-peaked roof topped the building.

The triangles, or "pediments," created by the sloped roof at the ends of the building were filled with sculpture. Under the pediments, just above the columns, was more sculpture depicting the twelve labors of Heracles, six on each end of the temple. Though the temple was considered one of the best examples of the Doric design because of its style and the quality of the workmanship, it was decided the temple alone was too simple to be worthy of the King of the gods. To remedy this, a statue was commissioned for the interior. It would be a magnificent statue of Zeus that would become one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Another artist interpretation of the Statue of Zeus. (Copyright Lee Krystek, 1998) A Statue Worthy of the King of the Gods The sculptor chosen for this great task was a man named Phidias. He had already rendered a forty-foot high statue of the goddess Athena for the Parthenon in Athens and had also done much of the sculpture on the exterior of that temple. After his work in Athens was done, Phidias traveled to Olympia around 432 B.C.

to start on what was to be considered his best work, the statue of Zeus. On arriving he set up a workshop to the west of the temple. He would take the next 12 years to complete the project. According to accounts, the statue when finished was located at the western end of the temple. It was 22 feet wide and more than 40 feet tall. The figure of Zeus was seated on an elaborate throne. His head nearly grazed the roof. The historian Strabo wrote, "...although the temple itself is very large, the sculptor is criticized for not having appreciated the correct proportions. He has depicted Zeus seated, but with the head almost touching the ceiling, so that we have the impression that if Zeus moved to stand up he would unroof the temple..." The Lincoln Memorial with its single large statue and columns probably is very much like the temple of Zeus except the statue of the King of the Gods was more than double the height of Lincoln. Others who viewed that temple disagreed with Strabo and found the proportions very effective in conveying the god's size and power. By filling nearly all the available space, the statue was made to seem even larger than it really was.

Philo of Byzantium, who wrote about all of the wonders, was certainly impressed. "Whereas we just wonder at the other six wonders, we kneel in front of this one in reverence, because the execution of the skill is as incredible as the image of Zeus is holy�" In 97 A.D. another visitor Dio Crysostomos declared the image was so powerful that, "If a man, with a heavy heart from grief and sorrow in life, will stand in front of the statue, he will forget all these." In his right hand the statue held the figure of Nike (the goddess of victory) and in its left was a scepter "inlaid with every kind of metal..." which was topped with an eagle. Perhaps even more impressive than the statue itself was the throne made out of gold, ebony, ivory and inlaid with precious stones. Carved into the chair were figures of Greek gods and mystical animals, including the half man/half lion sphinx. Construction of the Statue An engraving made by Philippe Galle in 1572 was his interpretation of the statue and its associated temple. The figure's skin was composed of ivory and the beard, hair and robe of gold.

Construction was by a technique known as chryselephantine where gold-plated bronze and ivory sections were attached to a wooden frame. Because the weather in Olympia was so damp, the statue required care so that the humidity would not crack the ivory. It is said that for centuries the decedents of Phidias held the responsibility for this maintenance. To keep it in good shape the statue was constantly treated with olive oil kept in a special reservoir in the floor of the temple that also served as a reflecting pool. Light reflected off the pool from the doorway may also have had the effect of illuminating the statue. The Greek traveler Pausanias recorded that when the statue was finally completed, Pheidias asked Zeus for a sign that the work was to his liking. The god replied by touching the temple with a thunderbolt that did no damage. According to the account a bronze hydria (water vessel) was placed at the spot where the thunderbolt hit the structure. Besides the statue, there was little inside the temple. The Greeks preferred the interior of their shrines to be simple. The feeling it gave was probably very much like the Lincoln Memorial or Jefferson Memorial with their lofty marble columns and single, large statues.

However with a height greater than 40 feet, the statue of Zesus was more than twice as tall as Lincoln's likeness at his memorial on the mall in Washington D.C.. Copies of the statue were made, but none survive, though pictures found on coins give researchers clues about its appearance. A 1908 artist's conception of the temple at Olympia in Greece. Despite his magnificent work at Olympia, Phidias ran into trouble when he returned home. He was a close friend with Pericles, who ruled the Athens. Enemies of Pericles, unable to strike at the ruler directly, attacked his friends instead. Phidias was accused of stealing gold meant for the statue of Athena. When that charge failed to stick, they claimed he had carved his image, and that of Pericles into the sculpture found on the Parthenon. This would have been improper in the Greeks' eyes and Phidias was thrown into jail where he died awaiting trial. His masterpiece lived on, however. It was damaged in an earthquake in 170 B.C. and repaired.

However, much of its grandeur was probably lost after Emperor Constantine decreed that gold be stripped from all pagan shrines after he converted to Christianity in the early fourth century A.D.. Then in 392 A.D. the Olympics were abolished by Emperor Theodosius I of Rome, a Christian who saw the games as a pagan rite. After that according to the Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos, the statue was moved by a wealthy Greek named Lausus to the city of Constantinople where it became part of his private collection of classical art. It is believed that the remains of the statue were destroyed by a fire that swept the city in 475 A.D.. However, other sources say the statue was still at the Olympic Temple when it burned down in 425 A.D.. Modern Excavations The first archaeological work on the Olympia site was done by a group of French scientists in 1829. They were able to locate the outlines of the temple and found fragments of the sculpture showing the labors of Heracles. These pieces were shipped to Paris where they are still on display today at the Louvre. The next expedition came from Germany in 1875 worked at Olympia for five summers.

Over that period they were able to map out most of the buildings there, discovered more fragments of the temple's sculpture, and located the remains of the pool in the floor that contained the oil for the statue. In the 1950's an excavation uncovered the workshop of Phidias which was discovered beneath an early Christian Church. Archaeologists found sculptor's tools, a pit for casting bronze, clay molds, modeling plaster and even a portion of one of the elephant's tusks which had supplied the ivory for the statue. Many of the clay molds, which had been used to shape the gold plates, bore serial numbers which must have been used to show the place of the plates in the design. A 19th century expedition poses on the jumbled ruins of the Temple of Zeus. Today the stadium at the site has been restored. Little is left of the temple, though, except a few jumbled columns on the ground. Of the statue, which was perhaps the most wonderful work at Olympia, all is now completely gone.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia - How the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Work | HowStuffWorks How the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Work Prev Next Zeus, king of the Greek gods, was embodied in larger-than-life form in the Temple at Olympia in ancient Greece . Olympia was a sacred site and the location of the Olympic games . The temple represented Greek architecture's fascination with proportion. It was 210 feet (64 meters) tall with 72 Doric columns. The pediment and metopes (eaves beneath the roof) were sculpted, and imposing bronze doors opened to reveal the wonder housed within. Written accounts described that temple visitors shuddered and cowered under the shadow of Zeus' mighty statue. The Greek artist Phidias was commissioned to create this likeness of the god. His work began in 450 B.C. and concluded eight years later with a legendary masterpiece of ivory and gold. Ivory was an unusual choice for sculptural media, but it might have been a natural choice for the king of the gods, given its rarity [source: Times ]. Phidias sculpted Zeus sitting ramrod-straight in a bejeweled throne.

The statue measured 50 feet (12 meters) high, and observers noted that if Zeus were to rise from his throne, his head would likely burst through the ceiling. Up Next Seven Wonders of the World Pictures Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the statue was Zeus' expression. His eyes appeared to penetrate even the most hardened souls to elicit piety [source: Smithsonian ]. He held an object in each hand: in the right, a statue of Nike (goddess of victory) and in the left, a scepter adorned with an eagle. Zeus' throne was carved with images from mythology of gods, demigods and other heroes. Legends say that Phidias asked for Zeus' blessing when he finished his sculpture. In response, a bolt of lightning struck the temple. There is some debate about the statue's reign as master of the temple. While some sources claim that the statue was placed in the temple around 450 B.C., others estimate the date 430 B.C. With Christianity's encroaching threat to the ancient gods, some Greeks paid to have their beloved statue removed to safety in Constantinople, which is modern-day Istanbul.

Christians shut down the temple in 391 A.D., and the statue was guaranteed safe-keeping until either 462 or 475 A.D., when it was burned in a fire. We know quite a bit about the statue. Just as United States' currency depicts important monuments and faces, ancient Greek coins featured the prominent statue of Zeus. This currency gives us details about his appearance, and we can judge how strong an attraction the statue had to tourists based on how far they carried coins from Olympia. And in 1950, a major archaeological breakthrough came when Dr. Emil Kunze and his team found the remains of Phidias' workshop next to the temple's ruins. Using evidence from inch-long to 18-inch-long terra cotta and iron molds, Kunze was able to reconstruct what the statue might have looked like and how it might have been built. Kunze theorized that the statue was built from thin plates of gold stretched across wood model. From the immortal god to the immortalization of an ordinary king, our exploration of the ancient wonders takes us back to Turkey next. Gentleman of Brave Metal Phidias was well-known in the ancient world.

In addition to the statue of Zeus, he also sculpted the statue of Athena for the Parthenon in Athens. Artistically, he was quite innovative. He really broke the mold sculpting Zeus -- most statues of the classical era were made from marble. Phidias earned a reputation for perfection in the mathematical world, too. The golden ratio, also known asphi, comes from his name [source: Times ]. The masterful works of ancient sculptor Phidias | Ancient Origins 17 November, 2014 - 12:58 mrreese The masterful works of ancient sculptor Phidias (Read the article on one page) Phidias was a master sculptor in ancient Greece. Very little is known of his life, but his accomplishments are famous throughout the world. Phidias worked masterfully with bronze and other materials, and he created colossal statues in commemoration of Greek gods and events. While none of his original works have been confirmed to be in existence today, we are able to view replicas of his creations, which have been attributed to Phidias through ancient writings. It is believed that Phidias lived from 480 through 430 BC.

He was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect, and he is often referred to as one of the greatest sculptors of Classical Greece, which lasted through the 4 th and 5 th centuries BC. He was the son of Charmides of Athens, and it is believed that his masters were Hegias and Hageladas. Ancient critics highly praised the ethos or “permanent moral level” of his works, and Demetrius called his statues “sublime” and “precise.” Unfortunately, none of Phidias’ works have been conclusively identified in modern times. Like most classical Greek sculptures and paintings, it is likely that all of Phidias’ works were destroyed. However, Roman copies of his work were created, and can be viewed to this day in honor of the works that he created so masterfully. Marble statue of “Heracles”, attributed to Phidias. ( Wikipedia ) Phidias’ earliest works were in celebration of the Greek victory against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon during the Greco-Persian Wars in 490 BC.

His first commission was a group of national heroes with Miltiades, a renowned Olympic chariot-racer who played a very important role in the battle of Marathon, serving as the central figure. This large bronze work at Delphi also included the figures of Greek gods Apollo and Athena and several Attic heroes. Two of Phidias’ later works became the most prominently known among the ancient Greeks. Around 432 BC, Phidias created a massive chryselephantine figure of Zeus in the temple of Zeus at Olympia, Greece, and one of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon in Athens. Statues made of chryselephantine, a sculpting medium of ivory and gold, were of a high status in ancient Greece. Many replicas of Phidias’ Zeus and Athena statues have been created, from ancient times through to the present. It is said that he established the conceptual images of Zeus and Athena. Left: 2nd century CE sculpture, small replica of the Athena Parthenos of Phidias ( Wikipedia ). Right: Artist’s impression of Zeus sculpture by Phidias ( Wikimedia ) Phidias’ was celebrated widely for both his bronze and chryselephantine statues.

To identify and understand the works of Phidias, we must take clues from ancient writings. According to Plato, Phidias rarely, if ever, used marble for his sculptures, although it was a very popular sculpting medium at the time. It is the writings of Plato that ascribe most of Phidias’ works to him. Plutarch writes of Phidias having superintended the works of Pericles on the Acropolis. In celebration of the victory at Marathon, Pericles commissioned Phidias to create the sculptures. Some inscriptions show that marble blocks to be used for pedimental statues of the Parthenon were not brought to Athens until after Phidias’ death. It is believed that most of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon came from Phidias’ atelier, or workshop, although he had passed away by that point. His pupils, Alcamenes and Agoracritus, are likely to have created the works at the Parthenon. Geographer Pausanias credits Phidias with creating the original bronze Lemnian Athena, for Athenians living on Lemnos.

The Goddess statue by Phidias was said to be colossal ( Source ) Several years ago, Phidias’ workshop at Olympia (where he created the Statue of Zeus) was discovered. It was excavated from 1954 – 1958, revealing tools, terracotta molds and a cup bearing the inscription "I belong to Phidias." Through these discoveries archaeologists have been able to confirm the date of the statue and recreate the techniques used to build it. The supposed workshop site of Phidias at Olympia , A.Salt ( Creative Commons ) It is unfortunate that we are unable to view Phidias’ original works to this day. We can still marvel at the masterpieces he created by viewing replicas and recreations, and as time goes on these masterpieces will continue to remain as a legacy of his immense contribution to the cultural and artistic heritage of Greece.

Featured image: 1868 Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends ( Wikipedia ) Phidias, Greek Sculptor Phidias Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends (1868) by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Phidias was an Athenian sculptor, the son of Charmides, and is generally acknowledged as the greatest ancient Greek sculptor and instigator of the classical style of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Although few facts are known about his life, it is believed he lived from around 490 until 430 BC. No originals of his work exist, but his recognition as a renowned sculptor has been guaranteed due to the praise of ancient writers, as well as the influence his sculptures had on the development of the art. He gained most of his fame for his two enormous chryselephantine (gold and ivory) sculptures: One of Athena in the Parthenon, and the other of Zeus at Olympia. These statues had such a profound impact that they determined all subsequent conceptions of Athena and Zeus.

Various people have been rumoured to be responsible for his training: Hegias of Athens, Agelades of Argos and the painter Polygnotus of Thasos. We know of two of Phidias' own pupils, noted by Pausanias, who were also his 'eromenoi' (younger boys taken as lovers by older men). The first, Agoracritus, went on to produce the sculpture of Nemesis at Rhamnus. The second, Pantarkes of Elis, won the boy's wrestling at Olympia in 436 B.C and seems to have been greatly admired by Phidias. This is confirmed by Pausanias' report that the boy was used by Phidias as a model for one of the figures that decorated his great statue of Zeus at Olympia. The piece was in the form of a triumphant athlete that stood at the base of the statue. Clement of Alexandria also writes that Phidias carved the words 'Kalos Pantarkes'('Pantarkes is beautiful') onto Zeus' little finger. Phidias is known to have been closely connected with Pericles, as his friend and also as his adviser.

When Pericles rose to power in 449 B.C. he set out to beautify Athens once more after the victory over Persia. Phidias was placed in charge of artistic activities as the superintendent of public works. He was commissioned to build the major statues for the city, and was paid by Pericles with money from the Delian League. It is generally believed that Phidias directed and supervised the construction of the Parthenon, as well as designing the sculptural decoration, of which the surviving pieces can be found in the British museum (the Elgin Marbles). The marble blocks that were to be used for the pediment statues of the building date from 434 BC, which is probably after Phidias' death. Therefore it is a possibility that much of the work was carried out by assistants or pupils, such as Agoracritus. Interestingly though, the mathematical golden ratio is represented by the Greek letter 'phi', taken from Phidias' name. This is because Phidias employed the ratio in making the Parthenon sculptures, which perfectly exhibit the proportions of the golden ratio.

There are varying accounts of Phidias' death, but it is generally acknowledged that he became the target of Pericles' political enemies, due to his close connection with him. Targetting Phidias was an attempt to harm Pericles' status. They first accused him of stealing gold from the Athena Parthenos in 432 BC, however Phidias was able to prove his innocence. They then charged him with impiety, based on the fact that he had included portraits of Pericles and himself in the decorations of Athena's shield. It was formerly believed that Phidias died in prison shortly after this, however it is now more likely that he was exiled to Elis were he lived out the rest of his days. Phidias' colossal statue of Athena was housed in the Parthenon, known as the Athena Parthenos and recognised as the symbol of Athens, dating from 447 - 439 BC. As the original is lost, we form a general idea of the statue from Roman copies, as well as its representation on coins and gems.

The chryselephantine statue stood 38 feet high, depicting the goddess standing upright with a spear in her left hand and a winged Nike (goddess of victory) in her right hand. She wore a helmet and a tunic covered by her characteristic snaked aegis, with an ornate shield and a serpent (representing Erichthonius) by her side. Her chiton (tunic) is fixed at the waist by two entwined serpents. In the middle of her helmet a sphinx is depicted, with a griffin shown in relief on either side. Her hair falls down in front of her breastplate, which bears a picture of Medusa's head in ivory. The flesh of her arms and face were also carved of ivory; the drapery made of beaten sheets of gold. This meant that the statue actually made up a great deal of the Athenian treasury, and in 296 BC Lachares replaced the gold with bronze in order to pay his army. Several ancient copies survive, the most notable being the Varvakeion Athena from 130 AD and the uncompleted Lenormant Athena; both are now in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Phidias' second work on the same scale as the Athena Parthenos, was his gigantic statue of Zeus for the temple in Olympia. Dating from around 435 BC, the statue was counted as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It depicted Zeus seated on an huge throne, the back of which rose above his head, making the statue 42 feet high, occupying the full height of the temple. All that survives to give us an idea of what the sculpture looked like, are some small engraved coins from Elis, which show the composition of the figure and the rendering of the head. Zeus was bearded and wearing a cloak that was covered in sculpted decorations. In his right hand he held a Nike, and in his left was a sceptre with an eagle on top. Like the Athena Parthenos, the piece was chryselephantine, with ivory flesh and gold drapery. In 1958 a workshop was excavated at Olympia that is believed to have been where Phidias made his Zeus, on account of a drinking cup found there inscribed with the words 'I belong to Phidias'.

Some tools and terracotta moulds were discovered which establish that gold was hammered into the moulds and then further decorated with glass and gems. Other works that we know of by Phidias include two other statues of Athena for the Acropolis. The first, the Athena Promachos, was 30 feet high and therefore the tallest Athenian sculpture before Phidias went on to build the Athena Parthenos. The second was the Lemnian Athena, dedicated by colonists who were sent from Athens to Lemnos. There were also two further chryselephantine sculptures: an Athena for Pellene and an Aphrodite for Elis. Statue of Zeus at Olympia - Wonders of Greece Statue of Zeus at Olympia National Wonders It is one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World that was listed by Herodotus in his famous list. The statue was 12 meters (39 feet) tall. Herodotus said that statue occupied a whole room at western of the temple o Zeus in Olympia (about 150 Km west of Athens), the city where Greeks celebrated the original Olympics games.

The statue was made by the Greek sculptor Phidias (who made also the statue of Athena in the Parthenon) in honor to the king of the Greek gods and it was the most famous master piece of art of all Greece. The statue was an ideal representation of the best classical style. It was made of ivory with gold plating. There are not copies of the statue; therefore we don’t know its exactly shape. But, the traveler Pausanias made around II century AD a detailed description of the statue and the throne on it rested. Besides, there are many Roman coins and engraved gems that represents to the Zeus at Olympia. According to the description of Pausanías, the statue was wreathed with shoots of olive and it rested on a wonderful throne of cedar wood, which was ornamented with ebony, gold, precious stones and ivory. In his right hand a figure of Victory made from ivory and gold. In his left hand, his scepter adorned with precious metals and an eagle perched on the scepter. The sandals and the robe of Zeus were made of gold.

History The temple that hosted the statue was constructed from 466 to 456 BC approximately and was designed by the Greek architect Libon who was native from Elis a town near Olympia. This temple was built with a classic Doric style very similar to the Parthenon in Athens. Obviously the main piece in the temple was the statue, which was constructed around 432 by Phidias. Greeks thought, the statue was the incarnate god. This statue was very impressive and it was the most important chryselephantine sculpture (a cult statue of high status in the ancient Greece).The legend says that Phidias was asked about what inspired him: If he went to Olympus to see Zeus or if Zeus was under from the Olympus to pose for Phidias. Phidias answered then that he was inspired by one of the verses of the Iliad of Homer: “He spoke, the son of Kronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows, and the immortality anointed hair of the great god swept from his divine head, and all Olympus was shaken”. Because of the climate in Olympia, which was so damp, the statue required care so that the humidity would not crack the ivory.

Therefore Phidias had the responsibility of the maintenance of the statue which was treated with oil constantly. In the first century Caligula ordered to transport the statue to Rome, but this attempt failed because the scaffolding constructed to do this work collapsed. The statue of Zeus presided the Olympics games until 393 AD, when the Roman emperor Theodosisus I decided to abolish the games and close the temple, because Rome became Christian and both temple and games were considered pagan manifestations. The reasons and circumstances of the destruction of the statue are not clear. A tradition compiled by the Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos says that the statue was carried to Constantinople and was destroyed in the great fire in 475. Another version says that it was burned with the temple in 425 AD. Recently between 1954 and 1958, archeologists have found in excavations in Olympia several tools and terracotta mold with the inscription “I belong to Phidias” very near location where Pausanius said the Phidias’ workshop was. These objects have allowed to scientists to confirm the date of statue’s creation.

Now, there are several statues that maintain the spirit of the Zeus at Olympia, one of the most famous of them is the statue in honor to Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. In this statue Lincoln is depicted seated on a huge throne as well as Zeus in the legendary statue of Olympia The statue of the Zeus at Olympia and its history has been from 2500 years ago, a great source of inspiration for artists of all times and it is still now one of the most famous works of art of the history. Statue of Zeus at Olympia Facts Home > Facts > Wonders of the World Facts > Statue of Zeus at Olympia Facts Statue of Zeus at Olympia Facts Statue of Zeus at Olympia Facts The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was created by a sculptor named Phidias. It took him 12 years, from 430 to 422 BC, to complete the statue. Zeus was considered the king of the Greek gods and this magnificent statue was created to honor him. It was placed in the Temple at Olympia, a shrine to Zeus where Olympic Games took place every four years. The statue was destroyed by fire in the fifth century A.D.

Interesting Statue of Zeus at Olympia Facts: The Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus. Zeus was considered to be the ‘Father of gods and men'. He was the king of all the other gods. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was about 42 feet tall. The statue was made of a wooden frame and covered in ivory and gold panels. The sculptor Phidias had previously created a similar sized statue of the goddess Athena. The sculpture of Athena was made for the Parthenon in Athens. Phidias set up a workshop west of the Temple at Olympia where he would complete most of the work on the Statue of Zeus. The size of the Statue of Zeus was so large that if Zeus stood up he would have put his head through the roof of the temple. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was destroyed by fire in the fifth century A.D. and there were no copies ever found. All the details of the statue today are taken from depictions on coins and ancient Greek descriptions. The frame of the statue was made of wood. The statue required special care because the Olympia was a very damp place and humidity could damage the statue. Olive oil was applied to the statue regularly to keep the wood from deteriorating.

A visitor to the Statue of Zeus in 97 A.D., Dio Crysostomos described the statue as being made of gold, ebony, ivory and precious stones. He also said that there were images of animals (such as the half lion/half man sphinx) and Greek gods carved into the chair. In Zeus' right hand was a figure of the goddess of victory Nike. In his left hand he held a scepter topped with an eagle. The statue was damaged by an earthquake in 170 BC but it was repaired. When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the early fourth century A.D., he ordered that all gold be stripped from any pagan shrines, including the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. The Olympics were abolished in 392 A.D. by Emperor Theodosius I of Rome. He also felt that the games were a pagan ritual. One theory states that a Greek art collector named Lausus moved the statue to Constantinople. It became part of his private collection. In 475 A.D. a fire swept through Constantinople and the statue was destroyed. Another theory states that the statue was still in its original place in the Olympic Temple in 425 A.D.

when it burned down. Archaeologists discovered Phidias' workshop in the 1950s. During their excavation they found the tools that he used to create the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. Related Links: Olympia, Phidias' statue of Zeus - Livius This page is a stub. It will be expanded to a normal article. Olympia, Phidias' statue of Zeus Zeus of Phidias: statue of the Greek supreme god Zeus in Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . Coin with Phidias' statue of Zeus The Athenian sculptor Phidias already had a great reputation when in 437 BCE he and his colleagues Colotes and Panaenus settled in Olympia to make the statue of the supreme god of the Greeks, Zeus, in whose honor the Olympic Games were held. The temple of Zeus in Olympia The statue is now lost, but is shown on coins and gems, and was described by the Greek author Pausanias . From this evidence, we known that the god was shown as a seated figure of about twelve meters high. In one hand, he carried a statue of Nike, in the other a scepter.

All kinds of other figures, like lions and sphinxes, warriors fighting against Amazons, more Nikes, and mythical beasts surrounded the main body. The statue was made of gold and ivory, and was carefully repaired when necessary. In the fourth century CE, when the statue was almost eight centuries old, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great ordered it to be dismantled, and had it transported to Constantinople , the new capital of the Roman empire. The subsequent history of Phidias' Zeus has not been recorded. This page was created in 2010; last modified on 30 July 2016. Home » Articles » Place » Olympia » Olympia, Phidias' statue of Zeus Author Statue of Zeus at Olympia - 必应 Sign in Statue of Zeus at Olympia The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about 13 m (43 ft) tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there.

A sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels over a wooden framework, it represented the god Zeus sitting on an elaborate cedar wood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold and precious stones. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was lost and destroyed during the 5th century AD with no copy ever being found, and details of its for ... (展开) rm are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins. Coin from Elis district in southern Greece illustrating the Olympian Zeus statue (Nordisk familjebok) 关于Statue of Zeus at Olympia，网友们最关心的问题 1 Statue of Zeus at Olympia Description The great seated statue as fashioned by Phidias occupied half the width of the aisle of the temple built to house it. "It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," the geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, "he would unroof the temple." The Zeus was a chryselephantine sculpture, made with ivory and gold panels on a wooden substructure. No copy in marble or bronze has survived, though there are recognizable but only approximate versions on coins of nearby Elis and on Roman coins and engraved gems.

In the 2nd century AD, the geographer and traveler Pausanias gave a detailed description. The statue was crowned with a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. It had gold sandals, and a golden robe carved with animals and lilies. In its right hand was a small chryselephantine statue of crowned Nike, goddess of victory. Its left hand held a sceptre inlaid with many metals, supporting an eagle. The throne was decorated in gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory. According to the Roman historian Livy, the Roman general Aemilius Paulus (the victor over Macedon) saw the statue and “was moved to his soul, as if he had seen the god in person,” while the 1st century AD Greek orator Dio Chrysostom declared that a single glimpse of the statue would make a man forget all his earthly troubles.

According to a legend, when Phidias was asked what inspired him—whether he climbed Mount Olympus to see Zeus, or whether Zeus came down from Olympus so that Phidias could see him—the artist answered that he portrayed Zeus according to Book One, verses 528 – 530 of Homer's Iliad: ἦ καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ' ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίων ἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτος κρατὸς ἀπ' ἀθανάτοιο μέγαν δ' ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον. He spoke, the son of Cronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows, and the immortally anointed hair of the great god swept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken.

The sculptor also was reputed to have immortalised his eromenos, Pantarkes, by carving "Pantarkes kalos" into the god's little finger, and placing a relief of the boy crowning himself at the feet of the statue. Statue of Zeus at Olympia Loss and destruction According to Suetonius, the Roman Emperor Caligula "gave orders that such statues of the gods as were especially famous for their sanctity or for their artistic merit, including that of Zeus at Olympia, should be brought from Greece, in order to remove their heads and put his own in their place." Before this could happen, the emperor was assassinated (AD 41); his "approaching murder was foretold by many prodigies. The statue of Jupiter at Olympia, which he had ordered to be taken to pieces and moved to Rome, suddenly uttered such a peal of laughter that the scaffolding collapsed and the workmen took to their heels." The circumstances of the statue's eventual destruction are unknown.

The 11th-century Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos records a tradition that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion, in AD 475. Alternatively, it perished along with the temple, which burned down in AD 425. Earlier loss or damage is implied by Lucian of Samosata in the later 2nd 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 loot." Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias' workshop The approximate date of the statue (the third quarter of the 5th century BC), was confirmed in the rediscovery (1954–1958) of Phidias' workshop, sited more or less where Pausanias said the statue of Zeus was constructed. Archaeological finds included tools for working gold and ivory, ivory chippings, precious stones and terracotta moulds.

Most of the latter were used to create glass plaques, and to form the statue's robe from sheets of glass, naturalistically draped and folded, then gilded. A cup inscribed "ΦΕΙΔΙΟΥ ΕΙΜΙ" or "I belong to Phidias" was found at the site. ^ Phidias from encyclopædiabritannica.com. Retrieved 3 September 2014 ^ Statue of Zeus from encyclopædiabritannica.com. Retrieved 22 November 2006 ^ Alaa K. Ashmawy. The Seven Wonders: The Statue of Zeus at Olympia]." Retrieved on 2 December 2001. ^ Gisela M. A. Richter, "The Pheidian Zeus at Olympia" Hesperia 35 .2 (April–June 1966:166-170) pp. 166f, 170. Details of the sculpture in this article are corroborated in the Richter article. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.11.1-.10).

Pausanias was told that the paintings on the throne were by the brother of Phidias, Panaenus. ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, XLV. 28, 5.: “Iovem velut praesentem intuens motus animo est.” ^ Or.12.51 ^ Zamarovský, Vojtěch. Za sedmi divy světa. p.186. ^ Iliad, I, 528-530 ^ John Grimes Younger, Sex in the Ancient World from A to Z, p. 95. Routledge; Abingdon and New York, 2005. ^ Suetonius, Gaius 22.2; compare Cassius Dio, 59.28.3. ^ Suetonius, Gaius, 57.1. In Roman religion Jupiter was the equivalent of Zeus.

^ Richter, 1966, note 1, citing Georgius Kedrenos, Historiarum Compendium §322c, in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae 34, vol. I, p. 564. ^ Lucian, Timon, 4. ^ Lucian's dialogue Timon the Misanthrope, translated by H. W. Fowler And F. G. Fowler. ^ James Grout, The Workshop of Pheidias, Encyclopaedia Romana (accessed 31 July 2013) graygreece - 7 Wonders- Statue of Zeus 7 Wonders- Statue of Zeus The Statue of Zeus Creation and Location The Statue of Zeus is one of the greatest ancient world wonders. It was located in Olympia, an area of the northern Peloponnesus (Krystek). The incredible Olympic games were held here in the ancient world in a stadium ("Cleveleys.co.uk"). Besides the stadium at Olympia there were also numerous temples dedicated to the Greek Olympic gods ("Krystek").

The greatest of these temples was the temple of Zeus, king of the gods ("Cleveleys.co.uk"). It was here in this grand temple that the Statue of Zeus was located (Woods, 47). The statue was finally completed in the year 433 B.C. by the sculpter Phidias (Woods, 47). Phidias was one of the greatest sculpters of the ancient Greek world. His incredible sculpture of Zeus would go on to become one of the ancient world's world wonders. The famous Statue of Zeus How It Was Taken Care of The statue of Zeus was kept preserved for a very long time because of the constant care it was given ("Krystek"). After being built, it was taken great care of until Rome came to power (Woods, 47). Before Roman Times, the statue was constantly treated with olive oil to keep it in good condition ("Krystek"). Eventually, this olive oil would become a reflecting pool ("Krystek"). However, during Roman times the statue almost fell apart due to constant neglect ("Krystek"). After Roman times, treating the statue resumed and it was saved from destruction since it was being taken care of again.

In 170 B.C., the statue was somewhat damaged from a large earthquake ("Krystek"). After that, roman emperor Constantine decreed that the gold be stripped from all pagan shrines because of his conversion of the Romans to Chritianity (Krystek). Eventually the world wonder, the Statue of Zeus would be destroyed during Byzantium times (Woods, 47). About Phidias and His Works of Art Phidias not only sculpted this amazing statue of Zeus, but he also sculped the statue of Athena, goddess of wisdom, in the Parthenon at Athens ("Cleveleys.co.uk"). Basically, Phidias made his statue of Zeus enormous. The statue itself was about 43 feet tall and 22 feet wide (Woods, 47). This statue also took up the whole width of the temple's aisle. Many people said that if the Zeus in Phidias' sculpture stood up from the throne he was sitting on, his head would have broken through the roof of the temple ("Krystek").

Phidias, the incredible man, that sculpted the Statue of Zeus How the Statue Was Built and What It Was Built Out of Phidias used many expensive materials to make his awesome sculpture (Woods, 47). Zeus' body was carved out of ivory, a material that you could only get from the tusks of elephants (Woods, 47). Phidias sculpted the Zeus' hair and beard out of pure gold (Woods, 47). The statue's eyes were also set with beautiful gemstones (Woods, 47). Also, Zeus' throne had the Greek gods and other mystical animals carved into it, the technique Phidias used to carve was called Chryselephantine ("Krystek"). Phidias had Zeus holding a much smaller statue of Nike, the winged goddess of victory in his right palm ("Krystek"). This minuscule statue of Nike was made out of glass sheet. Lastly, the statue of Zeus was holding a gorgeous shining scepter in his left hand (Woods, 47). This scepter was made out of gold as well.

Phidias finally had sculpted a golden eagle, the animal that represents Zeus on top of the statue's magnificent scepter (Woods, 47). Although the outsides of the statue were made out of magnificent materials, the inside was made of a frame work of wood (Woods, 47). Most definitely this statue was made out of incredible materials. The Destruction of the Statue The statue of Zeus was taken great care of except druing Roman times (Woods, 47). The Statue of Zeus was moved to Constantinople by the wealthy Greek Lauses and it became part of his collection of classical Greek art ("Krystek"). The remains of the statue were destroyed in a fire in 475 A.D. ("Krystek"). Another theory to the destruction of this magnificent statue was that in 425 AD, Zeus' Olympic temple burned down and the statue was destroyed along with the temple ("Krystek"). The ruins of the Temple of Zeus, which held the Statue of Zeus. What Ancient People Thought of the Statue Many people of the ancient world absolutely loved the statue of Zeus. Some people had very positive thoughts about it while a few others had negative thoughts about it.

The Greek historian Strabo was one of the few people who critcized the statue ("Krystek"). He did this by saying Phidias depicted Zeus' head almost level with the ceiling of the temple when Zeus was in a sitting position ("Krystek"). Strabo said Phidias made the proportions of the statue wrong since Zeus' head would unroof the temple if he stood up ("Krystek"). Many others believed that Strabo was incorrect. Other people who viewed the statue believed that the proportions showed Zeus' immense power and size, and that made the sculpture even better ("Krystek"). Some famous people of the ancient world such as Philo of Byzantium and Dio Crysostomos had positive thoughts of the sculpture ("Krystek"). Philo said that whereas we wonder at the other six wonders, we knell before the Statue of Zeus in reverence because the skill of Phidias is as incredible as the image of Zeus is holy ("Krystek"). Dio Crysostomos, another person who loved the Statue of Zeus said that if a man who had many sorrows and was full of grief stood in front of the statue, that man would forget all of those thoughts ("Krystek").

Obviously, many people adored the Statue of Zeus, whereas a few people disliked it. Conclusion In conclusion, obviously the Statue of Zeus is one of the greatest world wonders. One of these reasons is because the genius classical Greek sculpture Phidias sculpted it ("Krystek"). The statue was also great since it was created using such expensice and beautiful materials such as gold and ivory ("Woods, 47"). Also the Statue of Zeus most definitely represents massive godly power through the statues emensity ("Krystek"). Lastly, many people in the ancient Greek world had positive thoughts about the Statue of Zeus and absolutely adored it ("Krystek"). Clearly the Statue of Zeus is a great classical Greek work of art and is one of the greatest world wonders that has ever existed. Work Cited Lee Krystek. “The Statue of Zeus at Olympia.” Unmuseum.org. . (2011.) “The Seven Wonders of the World.” Cleveleys.co.uk. . Woods, Michael. Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece. Minneapolis: Lerner publishing group, Inc, 2009.

Question: The Statue of Zeus, sculpted by Phidias , was located at which place in Greece ?
Answer: OLYMPIA