A second of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was the statue of Zeus at Olympia. Like six of the seven wonders, sadly, it is not extant. You cannot travel to see it today like you can visit the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. And unlike some of the other great statues of antiquity, it appears that no copies exist. (The Romans were known to make copies of famous statues at times.) So, all we have to go by is what ancient observers wrote.
Suffice it to say, however, it impressed ancient observers. Let’s look at what they claim.
The Creator of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The statue is the work of Phidias, perhaps the greatest sculptor of ancient Greece. He’s also credited with the two great statues of Athena that stood on the Parthenon of Athens, Athena Promachos and Athena Parthenos. (The Romans relocated the Athena Promachos to Constantinople after it became the empire’s capital.) He also sculpted the Elgin Marbles, the marble sculptures that decorated the Parthenon. Phidias is also, of course, the man from whom the Golden Ratio takes its name. (It’s represented by the Greek letter phi.)
The Athena Parthenos, like the statue of Zeus at Olympia, is a chryselephantine sculpture. Its primary materials are gold and ivory. Reportedly, Phidias required eight years to complete the masterpiece.
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What Ancient Sources Say About the Statue
The statue was of ivory with gold drapery, and sat inside the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. This temple, as you might guess from the name, was connected with the Greek Olympic games. Athletes would enter before their competition. They’d make a sacrifice to Zeus and swear an oath of fairness.
The temple itself was twenty meters high and built from marble with columns like the Parthenon. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was twelve meters tall, causing one ancient commentator to remark that if Zeus stood up he would collapse the temple.
But instead, Zeus sat on a throne of cedarwood decorated with ebony, ivory, gold, and gemstones. He held two things, one in each hand.
The right hand held a statue of Nike, Greek god of victory. (Nike often appears with both Zeus and Athena.) The left hand held a scepter with an eagle perched atop the scepter. A wreath of olive branches crowned the statue, and Zeus’s sandals stood atop a footstool decorated with Greeks fighting Amazons.
Furthermore, ancient accounts also mention that a pool of olive oil surrounded the statue. Caretakers would coat the statue with this oil to help preserve it. The pool of oil also reportedly gave the visual impression of enlarging the statue.
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What Happened to the Statue of Zeus at Olympia?
It nearly met its end in the first century CE. It seems that one Roman Emperor, Caligula, decided that all famous statues must come to Rome. The reason? So their heads could be replaced with sculptures of his head. Not a modest man, it seems. Perhaps it’s for the best, artistically at least, that assassins killed Caligula in 41 CE before this took place.
While the statue dodged that gladius thrust, the Temple of Zeus went into decline in the 390s after Christianity became the only approved religion of the Roman Empire. It’s final fate is unknown. One story has it burning up in a fire in 425 or 426, one possibly set to purge the Roman Empire of pagan religious symbols. Another has it going to Constantinople but perishing in a fire there.
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