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
Location: Peloponnesus (Modern Greece)Built: Around 432 BCFunction: Shine to Greek God ZeusDestroyed: 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
- Statue of Zeus at Olympia
- Sculpture
- The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about 13 m tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. Wikipedia
- Artist: Phidias
- Construction started: 466 BC
- Opened: 435 BC
- Height: 13 m
- Architect: Phidias
- Media: Ebony, Bronze, Ivory, Gold
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.