Around 435 BCE, the people of Elis summoned the greatest sculptor in the Greek world to Olympia. Phidias of Athens had already created the colossal bronze Athena Promachos on the Acropolis and the gold-and-ivory Athena Parthenos inside the Parthenon. Now he was tasked with an even greater commission: a statue of Zeus for the god's own temple at Olympia, the most sacred sanctuary in Greece. What Phidias created would become one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the most revered religious image in antiquity.
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Prophets & Pilgrims·5/5·1′
The place
Olympia - Sanctuary of Zeus & Birthplace of the Olympics
The Statue of Zeus — Wonder of the World
The gold-and-ivory god who brought pilgrims to tears
435 BCE - 475 CEOlympia - Sanctuary of Zeus & Birthplace of the Olympics
Moral of the Story
“True art does not merely represent the divine — it makes the divine present. Phidias created not a statue but an encounter with the god himself.”
Characters
Z
ZeusP
PhidiasN
NikeSource
Pausanias's Description of Greece (Book 5), Strabo's Geography, Dio Chrysostom's Discourses, Philo of Byzantium's Seven Wonders