Statue of Zeus

Many people might think that the Olympics is something that has been invented by the more modern generation of man, what they do not know is that the Olympics have been around for hundreds of years. Back in ancient Greece there was a festival held to honor the gods, more importantly the king of the gods, Zeus.

This Festival was called the Olympic games, they were held every four years, it was the biggest event around. Peace treaties were set up and safe passage was guarantied to all those who wanted to participate, this not only gave the people something to look forward to, it also unified Greece and brought the people closer to each other.

The games were held in a place called Olympia (hence the name: the Olympics) and they were played out in a huge stadium, next to the stadium was a place that had temples so that the people could go and worship…the only problem was that as the games grew in popularity, people begun to realize that the temple was not nice enough to be worthy of their king of the gods. A nicer, newer one just had to be built, they did not want to disgrace Zeus in front of all the people that came.

They started building the new temple around 470 to 460 B.C. but it was not until 456 B.C. that the new temple was done, and it was beautiful to behold, a masterpiece that could make them proud. It was called the Temple of Zeus.

There was still a problem though, many people still considered that the new temple was too empty, to plain to be worthy of Zeus; because of this, they decided to brighten up the interior with a statue, a statue that would become one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

They picked a man called Phidias, he had experience in building and decorating temples, one of the temples that he decorated was the Parthenon in Athens, he built a forty-foot statue of the goddess Athena, and he had done much of the exterior work as well. After being called to Olympia for such a great task, he set out immediately to start his work, the statue of Zeus.

The statue was huge, it was placed in the west end of the temple and it was 23 feet wide and 40 feet tall, it was a beautiful elaborate statue of the Zeus sitting on a huge throne. It has been criticized for being so big; they say that the statue was so big that his head grazed the roof of the temple. One historian is noted as saying that if Zeus should try to stand up then his head would go right through the roof of the temple.

Evidently some people thought that Phidias did not pay heed to the correct proportions in making the Statue almost as big as the temple itself, others say that it is a magnificent thing that he did in making Zeus larger then life, they say that it gives the impression of the might that Zeus possessed.

Correct proportions or not, the statue of Zeus was a masterpiece in design, in his right hand the statue holds a statuette representing victory, in his left hand he holds a scepter that had been inlaid with every type of metal. Perched on the top of the scepter was an eagle. It was not only the statue that impressed people; the throne was just as remarkable as the statue itself. It was made out of gold and ivory, into the throne there were carved figures of Greek gods and strange mystical animals.

When Phidias returned home, he got into some deep trouble, because Phidias was a close friend to the ruler of Athens, the enemies of that ruler took out his friends because they could not get to the ruler himself. Phidias was arrested for stealing gold that was intended to be used on the statue in Athens …the only problem was this charge did not stick, they had no evidence. So they came up with something else, they claimed that he had carved his face in to the sculpture at the Parthenon. Phidias was thrown in jail and he soon died awaiting trial.

The master might have died but his masterpiece did not, the statue of Zeus remained on his throne for many years, looking after the Olympic Games that brought a nation together.