The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The giant gold and ivory wonder of the ancient world
“Whereas we just wonder at the other six wonders, we kneel in front of this one in reverence.”
- Philo of Byzantium
Towering over worshippers at about 40 feet tall, the great god of thunder, king of all the Olympian gods sat, draped in gold, on an ivory throne. The colossal statue was built c. 435 BCE and was housed in the temple of Zeus at Olympia, in Greece.
The Greek geographer Strabo wrote that the sculpture was so large that had the god of thunder stood up from his throne, he would ‘unroof the temple’ (Strabo, Geography, VIII.3.30). Having deities seated was a common method used in Greek art to make them seem even more colossal in the confines of the space provided.
Despite how impressive the measurements sound, however, the ancient travel writer Pausanius wrote that they meant nothing compared to the in-person grandeur of the sculpture:
‘I know that the height and breadth of the Olympic Zeus have been measured and recorded; but I shall not praise those who made the measurements, for even their records fall far short of the impression made by a sight of the image.’
The Sculptor
The great chryselephantine (ancient Greek for ‘gold and ivory’) statue was designed by the famed Greek sculptor and architect, Phidias.
It was Phidias who supervised the building projects on the Acropolis and the Parthenon sculptures. He even created another chryselephantine giant sculpture, a statue of Athene, the goddess of war and wisdom, in the Parthenon. Building the goddess, however, would turn out to be his downfall. Phidias had some powerful enemies who clearly wanted to take him down, they first accused him of embezzlement but when he could prove himself innocent, they then made more powerful accusations, accusing him of insulting the gods themselves through hubris. Supposedly, the sculptor had sneakily depicted himself and the famed Athenian statesman Pericles on the shield of his magnificent sculpture of Athene.
Ancient Commentary
The Greek travel writer Pausanius (c. 110 — c. 180) wrote that the king of the gods himself approved of his image, sending down a lightning bolt of appreciation when Pheidias prayed to him for his approval of the sculpture
The Greek orator and historian Dio Chrysostom (c. 40 — c. 115 AD) also praised Phidias’ work:
Among men, whoever might be burdened with pain in his soul, having borne many misfortunes and pains in his life and never being able to attain sweet sleep, even that man…standing before this image, would forget all the terrible and harsh things one must suffer in human life.
The statue wasn’t only renowned by the Greeks though. The Romans were also impressed by its grandeur, and, by the accounts of the Roman historian Suetonius, the emperor Caligula wanted the statue to be brought to Rome and decapitated, with his own giant head replacing that of the god’s. Seemingly making a mammoth statement about his own supposed godliness. His plan was apparently thwarted when the great god himself, embodying his statue, laughed so loudly that the scaffolding collapsed and Caligula’s workmen ran away.
Olympia
Apart from emphasizing his enormous size, the seated position on a throne added to the stately, mature and rather peaceful way Zeus is depicted. He is also holding a sceptre, rather than his usual thunderbolt. Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides, in The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: New Approaches, argues that he is being portrayed as a force of justice rather than violence to reflect the democratic rule of Athens and Elis, where the sculpture was situated, as well as the divinity of Olympia and the sacred games.
This magnificent likeness was built in Olympia of all places because of Zeus’ connection to the Olympic Games. Although today the games are a purely secular event, in ancient Greece they were a festival in honour of the god of thunder. Lengthy sacrifices and prayers were made to the god before the games could begin and the site of Olympia was covered in shrines and temples.
The Great God
Although we don’t have the remains of the statue itself, we do have evidence of what built it. Archaeologists have uncovered Phidias’s workshop on the site, including the very tools that carved the ivory into the skin of a god. The workshop could be attributed to the sculptor thanks to a cup they unearthed inscribed with the words Pheidio eimi or ‘I belong to Phidias’. Phidias developed a method of creating wooden scaffolding to form the rough shape or ‘skeleton’ of the sculpture before building around it. Zeus’s skin was made of ivory and his clothing was gold. Sat on his throne, Zeus’s feet were 12 metres above the viewer. Mere mortals could only stand before him but not reach the body of the deity.
Aside from the magnificent sheets of gold and ivory which adorned the wooden frame of the statue, other precious materials were used to add intricate detail to the piece. Silver, glass and other jewels decorated the god and showed off the craftsmanship of the workers, such as glass lilies on the deity’s robes.
The deity himself was not the only wonder for the viewer to gape at. In his left hand, the king of the gods holds a much smaller (but still huge) winged woman. She is Nike, the personification of victory (and the name of a modern-day multi-billion dollar sportswear company). Connected to Zeus through being his chariot driver and servant, and to Olympia through being a patron of sporting events and, therefore, the Olympic games, Nike was the perfect addition to Zeus’s otherwise empty hand.
The mighty king wouldn’t be complete without his sceptre, which he holds in his other hand, topped with his signature companion animal, the mighty eagle.
The sculpture is crammed full of scenes from Greek mythology, including sphinxes, Amazons, and Hercules and scenes from his twelve labours. Pausanias writes that at each ‘foot’ of the throne were also four Victories in the form of dancing women.
In front of the sculpture was a pool of olive oil which worked to reflect the gold from the statue and create an ethereal atmosphere. This pool may have also helped to preserve the sculpture as the humidity kept the ivory from cracking. Pausanias claimed that, in the case of Zeus at Olympia, the pool of olive oil was used to protect the ivory from the marshland of Olympia.
The Temple
The temple that housed the god was built in the Doric style and was reported by Pausanias to be 68 feet high. At the apex of the pediment (triangular roof section), underneath a statue of Nike was a shield of gold, depicting the head of Medusa and dedicated to the temple by the city-state of Sparta. The sculptures inside the pediments were depictions of Greek myths, as so often was the case. The Eastern pediment showed a scene from the myth of the chariot race between Pelops and Oenomaus and the Western pediment depicted a popular theme in Greek art: the Centauromachy, a fight between the Lapiths and the centaurs.
Destruction
Sadly, the magnificent structure can only live on in our imaginations, as the temple of Olympia was destroyed in 426 CE and the statue either perished along with it or was taken to Constantinople and burnt in a fire in the 6th century CE.
Fortunately, the sculpture was known and copied all over the Greek world, including through small copies, painted on vases and stamped on coins, such as Alexander the Great’s and the emperor Hadrian’s coinage. Through these images and through written sources, we are able to get a good idea of what the sculpture looked like, although, as evident from the multiple depictions, the absence of the original sculpture allows for some artistic license in interpretations.
Thank you for reading!
If you enjoyed this article, you might want to read about some of the other wonders of the ancient world: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Great Pyramid of Giza.
References
Temple of Zeus and the Palace of Lausus. [Online]
Available at: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/zeus.html
Britannica, 2024. Seven Wonders of the World. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seven-Wonders-of-the-World
Cartwright, M., 2018. Statue of Zeus at Olympia — World History Encyclopedia. [Online]
Available at: https://www.worldhistory.org/Statue_of_Zeus_at_Olympia/
Chaliakopoulos, A., 2022. The Statue of Zeus in Olympia: A Lost Wonder. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thecollector.com/statue-zeus-olympia/
McWilliam, J., 2011. Statue of Zeus at Olympia: New Approaches. s.l.:Cambridge Scholars Pub..
