Statue of Zeus

Statue of Zeus, at Olympia, Greece, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The statue was one of two masterpieces by the Greek sculptor Phidias (the other being the statue of Athena in the Parthenon) and was placed in the huge Temple of Zeus at Olympia in western Greece. The statue, almost 12 m (40 feet) high and plated with gold and ivory, represented the god sitting on an elaborate cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones. On his outstretched right hand was a statue of Nike (Victory), and in the god’s left hand was a sceptre on which an eagle was perched. The statue, which took eight years to construct, was noted for the divine majesty and goodness it expressed. The discovery in the 1950s of the remains of Phidias’ workshop at Olympia confirmed the statue’s date of about 430 bce. The temple was destroyed in 426 ce, and the statue, of which no accurate copies survive, may have been destroyed then or in a fire at Constantinople (now Istanbul) about 50 years later.