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This statue is of the god Zeus, the Greek king of Gods, for whom the Ancient Olympic games were held. The statue is located at the ancient town of Olympia, on the west coast of modern Greece, about 150 km west of the powerful city-state Athens. The temple of Zeus, in which the statue was placed, was designed by the architect Libon and was built some time around 450 BCE. To the ancient Greeks, the simple, traditional Doric-style temple was too mundane, and variations were needed to make it more impressive. In the end, they decided on a gigantic statue. The famous Athenian sculptor Pheidias was selected to lead the "sacred" task. |
| In the years after the statue was complete, visitors and worshippers traveled from around the ancient world to the temple. In the second century BCEE, the statue was aging rapidly, and repairs were skillfully made. Around 100 CE, Caligula, the reigning Roman emperor at the time, attempted to transport the statue to Rome. However, this attempt failed when the shaky scaffolding constructed by Caligula's workmen collapsed. Soon after the Olympic games were banned in CE 391 by Roman emperor Theodosius I as part of Pagan practices, the famous temple of Zeus was ordered closed. |
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Earthquakes, landslides and floods, further struck Olympia and the temple was damaged by fire in 500 CE. Earlier, wealthy Greeks had transported the statue to a palace in Constantinople. There, it survived until a severe fire destroyed it in 462 CE. Today, the only remains of the statue and temple are rocks, debris, the foundation of the buildings, and fallen columns.
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| By 440 BCE, Pheidias had already begun work on the statue. He had developed a technique to build enormous statues years earlier, with materials such as gold and ivory. This technique required erecting a wooden frame on which sheets of metal and ivory were placed to provide the outer covering. Pheidias' workshop in Olympia still exists, and is identical in size and orientation to the temple of Zeus. There, he sculpted and carved each piece of the statue, before putting them in the temple. When Pheideas finally completed the statue, it barely fitted in the temple. Greek historian Strabo wrote: |
".. although the temple itself is very large, the sculptor is criticized for not having appreciated the correct proportions. He has shown Zeus seated, but with the head almost touching the ceiling, so that we have the impression that if Zeus moved to stand up he would unroof the temple."
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Strabo was right, though many ancient people thought that the sculptor was to be commended, not criticized, about Zeus' height. It was this impression of the statues' size that made it so wonderful, and eligible for the seven wonders. The idea that the king of gods is capable of unroofing a temple fascinated poets and historians. The base of the statue is believed to be 6.5 m (20 ft) wide and 1 meter (3 ft) high. The height of the statue itself was approximately 13 m (40 ft), or the height of a modern 4-story building. |
| The statue was so enormous that historians described the throne more than Zeus body and features. Zeus' throne had legs that were decorated with sphinxes and figures of Nike, the winged goddess of victory. Greek gods and mythical figures also adorned the scene; Greek deities Apollo, Artemis, and Niobe's children were scattered throughout the throne. Greek historian Pausanias wrote:
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"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, as is his robe. His garments are carved with animals and with lilies. The throne is decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory."
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The statue was occasionally decorated with gifts from kings and rulers. One of the most notable of these gifts was a woolen curtain "adorned with Assyrian woven patterns and Pheonician dye" from the Syrian king Antiochus IV.
Many replicas of the statue were made, including a large model at Cyrene (Libya). However, none of them has survived to the present. Early reconstructions, such as the one by von Erlach, are now believed to be rather inaccurate.
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