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 one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was made by the Greek sculptor of the Classical period, Phidias, circa 432 BC on the site where it was erected in the temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece. [1]

Contents

Description

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

The seated statue, some 12 metres (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 BC, "he would unroof the temple."[2] 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 Elis and Roman coins and engraved gems[3] but a very detailed description of the sculpture and the throne was recorded by the traveller Pausanias, in the second century AD. In the sculpture, he 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, goddess of victory, also chryselephantine, and in his left hand, a sceptre inlaid with metals, on which an eagle perched.[4] 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 beheld the god in person,” while the Greek orator Dio Chrysostom declared that a single glimpse of the statue would make a man forget his earthly troubles.[5]

The date of the statue, in the third quarter of the fifth 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 Phidias could see him -- the artist answered that he portrayed Zeus according to Book One, verses 528 - 530 of Homer´s Iliad [6]:

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 Kronos, 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. [7]
Coin of Elis illustrating the Olympian Zeus (Nordisk familjebok)

Loss and destruction

The circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate: the eleventh-century Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos[8] recorded the tradition that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion, in 475.[9] Others argue that it perished with the temple when it burned in 425 AD. 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."[10]

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.[11][12][13] This has enabled archaeologists to re-create the techniques used to make the great work and confirm its date.

Notes

  1. ↑ Statue of Zeus from encyclopædiabritannica.com. Retrieved 22 November 2006.
  2. ↑ The Seven Wonders: The Statue of Zeus at Olympia by Alaa K. Ashmawy from www.authenticwonders.com. Retrieved on 30 September 2007.
  3. ↑ 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 Richter 1966.
  4. ↑ "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, Description of Greece 5.11.1-.10). Pausanias was informed that the paintings on the throne were by the brother of Phidias, Panaenus.
  5. ↑ Or. 12.51
  6. ↑ Zamarovský, Vojtěch. Za sedmi divy světa. pp. pp. 186. 
  7. ↑ Iliad, I, 528-530
  8. ↑ Georgius Kedrenos, Historiarum Compendium §322c, in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae 34, vol. I, p. 564, according to Richter 1966 note 1.
  9. ↑ Schobel 1965; Richter 1966.
  10. ↑ Lucian's dialogue Timon the Misanthrope, translated by H. W. Fowler And F. G. Fowler.
  11. ↑ "Phidias", Oxford Dictionary of Art, e-Notes.com
  12. ↑ K. Kris Hirst, "A Walking Tour of Olympia, Greece", about.com
  13. ↑ "Olympia, Workshop of Pheidias", Perseus Building Catalog, about.com

References

See also

External links

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World