Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about 12.4 m (41 ft) tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus.

The statue was a chryselephantine sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels on a wooden framework. Zeus sat on a painted cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The statue was lost and destroyed before the end of the 6th century AD, with conflicting accounts of the date and circumstances. Details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins and art.

History

The statue of Zeus was made for the people of Elis, who organized the Olympic Games. They wanted to create something amazing in their new Temple of Zeus, so they asked the famous sculptor Phidias to build it. Phidias had already made a huge statue of Athena for a building in Athens.

The statue of Zeus was very large—about as wide as the aisle of the temple. A traveler named Strabo said it looked like if Zeus stood up, he might break the roof of the temple! The statue was made with special materials: ivory for the skin and gold panels for clothing, all set on a wooden frame. Although no exact copies of the statue survive today, we can see rough images of it on old coins from the area of Elis and from Roman artwork.

A visitor named Pausanias described the statue in detail. Zeus wore a golden robe with pictures of animals and flowers. In one hand, he held a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, and in the other, a scepter with an eagle on top. The chair Zeus sat on was beautifully decorated with paintings, gold, shiny stones, dark wood, and ivory. His golden shoes rested on a small stool that showed a battle scene carved into it. The space under the chair had painted screens to block the view.

Pausanias also told us that the statue was regularly rubbed with olive oil to keep the ivory looking good. The floor in front of the statue was covered with black tiles and had a marble edge to catch any oil that spilled.

A Roman general named Aemilius Paullus saw the statue and felt it was so lifelike that he thought he was seeing a real god. Another speaker, Dio Chrysostom, said just one look at the statue could make someone forget all their worries.

Phidias was once asked how he would make his statue of Zeus look. He said he would use words from an old poem by Homer to guide him.

Loss and destruction

According to the Roman historian Suetonius, the Roman Emperor Caligula wanted to take famous statues of the gods, including the one of Zeus at Olympia, and replace their heads with his own. However, the emperor died before this could happen.

In 391 AD, the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius I banned participation in pagan cults and closed the temples. The sanctuary at Olympia was no longer used. The exact way the statue was destroyed is not known. One story says it was taken to Constantinople and destroyed in a big fire in 475 AD.

Another possibility is that the statue was destroyed when the temple caught fire in 425 AD. Even earlier, in the 2nd century, the writer Lucian of Samosata mentioned that the statue had already been harmed.

Phidias' workshop

In the 1950s, archaeologists found the workshop where the famous sculptor Phidias made the Statue of Zeus. They discovered tools for working with gold and ivory, along with pieces of ivory and precious stones. They also found terracotta moulds that were likely used to create glass plaques for the statue’s robe. A cup with an inscription saying “I belong to Phidias” was also found, though some think it might not be real.