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

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about 13 m (42 ft) tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias in circa 430-422 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. A chryselephantine sculpture of plated ivory and gold panels over a wooden framework, it represented the god Zeus sitting on an elaborate cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones, and was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World until its eventual loss and destruction during the fifth century AD. No copy of the statue has ever been found, and details of its form 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)

Description

The great seated statue was created by the Greek sculpter Phidias and it was half occupied with 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 of ivory and gold-plated bronze. No copy in marble or bronze has survived, though there are recognizable but approximate versions on coins of nearby Elis and on Roman coins and engraved gems. A very detailed description of the sculpture and its throne was recorded by the traveler Pausanias, in the 2nd century AD. In Zeus' right hand there was a small statue of crowned Nike, goddess of victory, also chryselephantine, and in his left hand, a sceptre inlaid with gold, on which an eagle perched. Titus Livius records that the Roman general Aemilius Paulus, the victor over Macedon, when he beheld the statue, “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.

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

The date of the statue, in the third quarter of the 5th century BC, long a subject of debate, was confirmed archaeologically by the rediscovery and excavation of Phidias' workshop.

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 Pheidias 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.

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." Caligula was assassinated in AD 41. In Rome other interpretations were placed on the phenomenon: according to Suetonius, Caligula's "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 its eventual destruction are a source of debate: the 11th-century Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos recorded the tradition that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion, in AD 475. Others argue that it perished with the temple when it burned in 425. According to 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 statue."

Photo (2005) of the workshop of Phidias at Olympia

Phidias' workshop rediscovered

Perhaps the greatest discovery came in 1954–1958 with the excavation of the workshop at Olympia where Phidias created the statue. Tools, terracotta moulds and a cup inscribed "I belong to Pheidias" were found here, just where the traveler Pausanias said the statue of Zeus was constructed. This has enabled archaeologists to re-create the techniques used to make the great work and confirm its date.

See also

• List of statues by height

References

Bibliography

• Kenneth D. S. Lapatin, Chryselephantine Statuary in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Oxford University Press (2001) ISBN 0-19-815311-2
• Alfred Mallwitz and Wolfgang Schiering, Die Werkstatt des Pheidias in Olympia I: Olympische Forschungen V, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (1964)
• Wolfgang Schiering, Die Werkstatt des Pheidias in Olympia II: Werkstattfunde: Olympische Forschungen XVIII, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (1991) ISBN 3-11-012468-8

External links

• Colin Delaney, "A Wonder to Behold: The Statue of Olympian Zeus"
• Archaeopaedia: Statue of Zeus With bibliography
• (Ellen Papakyriakou) Olympia: Art: the chryselephantine statue of Zeus
• Michael Lahanas, "The colossal Zeus statue of Pheidias"
• David Fenzl "Recreating Olympic Statuary"
• History.com: the Seven Wonders