Statue of Zeus at Olympia

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The statue of Zeus at Olympia was made by the sculptor Pheidias around 435 BCE for the great Doric temple of Zeus, completed some twenty years earlier. Ancient writers describe a seated god about twelve metres tall, with a body of ivory and robes of gold on a wooden core, holding a figure of Victory in one hand and a sceptre in the other, on a throne of cedar, ebony, ivory and gems. It sat in a temple that was itself a landmark of classical architecture, in a sanctuary where the Olympic Games were held every four years from the eighth century BCE. The statue was repaired and visited for centuries. It was probably removed to Constantinople in late antiquity, and sources suggest it was destroyed in a fire in the fifth century CE. Nothing of it survives. Excavations at Olympia uncovered Pheidias’s workshop, later converted into a church, and a small cup bearing the inscription “I belong to Pheidias”, a poignant link to the sculptor. Visitors can walk the sanctuary of Olympia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, passing the foundations and tumbled drums of the Temple of Zeus, the stadium, the workshop and the Temple of Hera where the Olympic flame is lit. The Archaeological Museum displays sculpture from the temple’s pediments and metopes, which convey the original grandeur. Visiting in spring or autumn gives pleasant light among pine and olive trees.