Considered one of the seven ancient wonders of the Greek world, the statue of Zeus was erected in 432 B.C.E by the Athenian sculptor Phidias. The statue was built at the site of Olympia where the first Olympic games were held in honor of Zeus. The Olympic games were held every four years which were considered to be a ‘great’ year or the mark of a single year in the Greek calendar also known as the Olympiad. The statue depicted Zeus seated inside the Temple of Zeus at a height of 43 feet and it was made from ivory and gold plated bronze. Descriptions of the temple say that Zeus’ seat and throne took up more than half of the width of the building that housed him and that if he were to stand up that he would go right through the roof. In other words, this statue of Zeus was like that of the monument of Abraham Lincoln and stood miraculously for its time. In the right hand of the statue of Zeus stood Nike the Goddess of victory and in his left was a scepter made of gold with a perched eagle alongside it. The best recorded account of the description of the temple of Zeus was made by Pausanias in the 2nd century A.C.E
The destruction of the statue of Zeus has been debated for quite some time and many theories have surfaced based on mixed evidence of recorded accounts from figures that were in observance at that time. One account suggests that the Roman emperor Caligula gave the orders that the statue should be removed and brought back to him so that he may cut the head off and replace it with a replica of himself. However, shortly after he gave this order he was assassinated and many of his workers had turned down this order as an insult to the Gods. It was also recorded in the 11th century that pieces of the statue were carried off to Constantinople and other accounts suggest that it was burned along with the temple in 425 A.C.E with the rise of the Christian empire.
Replicas of the statue exist today such as the God of Jupiter which is a direct translation from the Romans to the Greek God Zeus. One such replica sits in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia and other replicas are available online in 12 inch statues and other sizes. Unlike most of the other ancient Greek wonders, there are no reconstruction ideas or dates set for the statue of Zeus but possibly in the near future there may stand once again a magnificent statue of the seated God of thunder.
Sources:
“Zeus at Olympia” By N.S Gill