Statue of Zeus at Olympia: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Zeus Hermitage St. Petersburg 20021009.jpg|200px|thumb|upright|right|Roman ''Seated Zeus'', marble and bronze (restored), following the type established by Phidias ([[Hermitage Museum]])]] |
[[Image:Zeus Hermitage St. Petersburg 20021009.jpg|200px|thumb|upright|right|Roman ''Seated Zeus'', marble and bronze (restored), following the type established by Phidias ([[Hermitage Museum]])]] |
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==Description== |
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The seated statue, some 12 meters (39 feet) tall, occupied the whole 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 first century BCE, "he would unroof the temple."<ref>[http://www.authenticwonders.com/Wonders/zeus.html The Seven Wonders: The Statue of Zeus at Olympia] by Alaa K. Ashmawy from [http://www.authenticwonders.com/ www.authenticwonders.com]. Retrieved on 30 September 2007.</ref> 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 Roman coins and engraved gems<ref>Gisela M. A. Richter, "The Pheidian Zeus at Olympia" ''Hesperia'' 35 .2 (April-June 1966:166-170) p. 166f, 170. Details of the sculpture in this article are corroborated in Ricter 1966.</ref> A very detailed description of the sculpture and its throne was recorded by the traveller [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], in the second century CE. The sculpture, was wreathed with shoots of [[olive]] and 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 crowned [[Nike (mythology)|Nike]], goddess of victory, also chryselephantine, and in his left hand, a sceptre inlaid with gold, on which an [[eagle]] perched.<ref>"On his head is a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand he holds a figure of Victory made from ivory and gold... In his left hand, he holds a sceptre inlaid with every kind of metal, with an eagle perched on the sceptre. His sandals are made of gold, and his robe is also gold. His garments are carved with animals and with lilies. The throne is decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory." ([[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' 5.11.1-.10). Pausanias was informed that the paintings on the throne were by the brother of Pheidias, Panaenus.</ref> [[Plutarch]], in his ''Life'' of the Roman general [[Aemilius Paulus]], records that 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 Greek orator [[Dio Chrysostom]] declared that a single glimpse of the statue would make a man forget all his earthly troubles.<ref>[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/12*.html#51 Or. 12.51]</ref> |
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The date of the statue, in the third quarter of the fifth century BCE, long a subject of debate, was confirmed archaeologically by the rediscovery and excavation of Phidias' workshop. |
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According to a legend, when Phidias was asked what inspired him -- whether he climbed [[Mount Olympus|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]] |
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<ref name="Seven Wonders of the world">{{cite book |last=Zamarovský|first=Vojtěch|title=Za sedmi divy světa|pages=186 |unused_data=|authorlink|}}</ref>: |
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:: ''ἦ καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ' ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίων'' |
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:: ''ἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτος'' |
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:: ''κρατὸς ἀπ' ἀθανάτοιο μέγαν δ' ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον.'' |
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:: ''He spoke, the son of Kronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows,'' |
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:: ''and the immortally anointed hair of the great god'' |
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:: ''swept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken.'' <ref>[http://www.library.northwestern.edu/homer/html/application.html Iliad, I, 528-530]</ref> |
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The sculptor also was reputed to have immortalized 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.<ref>Sex in the Ancient World from A to Z By John Grimes Younger, p.95. Routledge; Abingdon and New York, 2005</ref> |
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[[Image:Forngrekiska mynt från Elis med bilder efter Fidias staty av Zeus i Olympias Zeustempel.jpg|200px|thumb|Coin of [[Elis]] illustrating the Olympian Zeus (''[[Nordisk familjebok]]'')]] |
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==Loss and destruction== |
==Loss and destruction== |
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Revision as of 03:08, 13 June 2009
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was made by the Greek sculptor of the Classical period, Phidias, circa 432 BCE on the site where it was erected in the temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece. [1]
Loss and destruction
The circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate: the eleventh-century Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos[2] recorded the tradition that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion, in 475.[3] Others argue that it perished with the temple when it burned in 425 CE. 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."[4]
Phidias' workshop rediscovered
Perhaps the greatest discovery came in 1954-58 with the excavation of the workshop at Olympia where Phidias created the statue. Tools, terracotta molds and a cup inscribed "I belong to Pheidias" were found here, where the traveller Pausanius said the Zeus was constructed.[5][6][7] This has enabled archaeologists to re-create the techniques used to make the great work and confirm its date.
Notes
- ^ Statue of Zeus from encyclopædiabritannica.com. Retrieved 22 November 2006.
- ^ Georgius Kedrenos, Historiarum Compendium §322c, in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae 34, vol. I, p. 564, according to Richter 1966 note 1.
- ^ Schobel 1965; Richter 1966.
- ^ Lucian's dialogue Timon the Misanthrope, translated by H. W. Fowler And F. G. Fowler.
- ^ "Phidias", Oxford Dictionary of Art, e-Notes.com
- ^ K. Kris Hirst, "A Walking Tour of Olympia, Greece", about.com
- ^ "Olympia, Workshop of Pheidias", Perseus Building Catalog, about.com
References
- Kenneth D. S. Lapatin, Chryselephantine Statuary in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Oxford U Press (2001) ISBN 0198153112
- 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 3110124688
See also
External links
- "The Statue of Zeus at Olympia"
- 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"
http://www.history.com/content/sevenwonders 37°38′19″N 21°37′46″E / 37.63861°N 21.62944°E