The Statue of Zeus

One of the most famous Wonders of the Ancient World is the Statue of Zeus. The statue at Olympia was a 12.4 m (41 ft) tall seated figure created by the Greek sculptor Phidias in approximately 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. In Greek mythology, Zeus is the sky and thunder god who reigns as King of the Gods of Mount Olympus. The sculpture was a chryselephantine sculpture made of ivory plates and gold panels mounted on a timber structure. Zeus sat on an ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stone-encrusted painted cedarwood throne. It was one of the Ancient World's Seven Wonders. The statue was lost and destroyed in the fifth century AD; only ancient Greek descriptions and coin depictions of its appearance survive.

The Eleans, custodians of the Olympic Games, commissioned the Zeus statue in the latter half of the fifth century BC for their newly completed Temple of Zeus. The Eleans hired artist Phidias, who had previously created the enormous statue of Athena Parthenos atop the Parthenon, in order to outdo their Athenian competitors.

The statue took up half the aisle of the temple that was designed to hold it. The Zeus was a chryselephantine sculpture with ivory and gold panels on a wooden substructure. There is no copy in marble or bronze, while there are recognizable but only approximate counterparts on coins from nearby Elis, as well as Roman coins and engraved jewels.

The statue was adorned with a sculpted wreath of olive sprays and wore a gilded robe made of glass and engraved with animals and flowers, according to the 2nd-century AD geographer and traveler Pausanias. It held a tiny chryselephantine statue of crowned Nike, goddess of triumph, in its right hand, and a scepter inlaid with several metals, supporting an eagle in its left. The throne was adorned with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory and had painted figures and wrought pictures. Zeus' golden sandals rested on a footstool adorned in relief with an Amazonomachy. Painted screens blocked the entrance beneath the throne. The statue was destroyed along with the temple when it was destroyed by fire in 425 AD.

Location: The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Greece

Built: 435 BC