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Statue of Zeus at Olympia

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   A fanciful reconstruction of Phidias' statue of Zeus, in an engraving
   made by Philippe Galle in 1572, from a drawing by Maarten van
   Heemskerck
   Enlarge
   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 is one of the classical Seven Wonders of
   the Ancient World. It was carved by the famed Classical sculptor
   Phidias ( 5th century BC) circa 435 BC in Olympia, Greece.

   The seated statue occupied the whole width of the aisle of the temple
   that was built to house it, and was 40 feet (12 meters) tall. "It seems
   that if Zeus were to stand up," the geographer Strabo noted early in
   the 1st century BC, "he would unroof the temple." Zeus was a
   chryselephantine sculpture, made of ivory and accented with gold
   plating. In the sculpture, he was 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 Nike, the goddess of
   victory, and in his left hand, a shining sceptre on which an eagle
   perched. Visitors like the Roman general Aemilius Paulus, the victor
   over Macedon, were moved to awe by the godlike majesty and splendor
   that Phidias had captured.

   The circumstances of its eventual destruction are a source of debate:
   some scholars argue that it perished with the temple in the 5th century
   AD, others argue that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it
   was destroyed in the great fire of the Lauseion (Schobel 1965).
   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."

   Perhaps the greatest discovery in terms of finding out about this
   wonder came in 1958 with the excavation of the workshop used to create
   the statue. This has led archaeologists to be able to re-create the
   technique used to make the great work.
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