In his right hand a figure of Victory made from ivory
and gold. In his left hand, his scepter inlaid with all metals, and an
eagle perched on the sceptre. The sandals of the god are made of gold,
as is his robe.

Pausanias the Greek (2nd century AD) 










This is the statue of the god in whose honor the Ancient Olympic
games were held. It was located on the land that gave its very name
to the Olympics. At the time of the games, wars stopped, and athletes came
from Asia Minor,Syria, Egypt, and Sicily to celebrate the Olympics and to 
worship their king of gods: Zeus.


Location

At the ancient town of Olympia, on the west coast of modern Greece,
about 150 km west of Athens

History
The ancient Greek calendar starts in 776 BC, for the Olympic games are
believed to have started that year. The magnificent temple of Zeus was
designed by the architect Libon and was built around 450 BC. Under the
growing power of ancient Greece, the simple Doric-style
temple seemed too mundane, and modifications were needed. The solution:
A majestic statue. The Athenian sculptor Pheidias was assigned for the
"sacred" task, reminiscent of Michelangelo's paintings at the 
Sistine Chapel.

For the years that followed, the temple attracted visitors and worshippers
from all over the world. In the second century BC repairs were skillfully
made to the aging statue. In the first century AD, the Roman emperor Caligula
attempted to transport the statue to Rome.
However, his attempt failed when the scaffolding built by Caligula's workmen
collapsed. After the Olympic games were banned in AD 391 by the emperor
Theodosius I as Pagan practices, the temple of Zeus was ordered closed.
Olympia was further struck by earthquakes, landslides and floods, and
the temple was damaged by fire in the fifth century BC. Earlier, the statue
had been transported by wealthy Greeks to a palace in Constantinople.
There, it survived until it was destroyed by a severe fire in AD 462. Today
nothing remains at the site of the old temple except rocks
and debris, the foundation of the buildings, and fallen columns. 



Description
Pheidias began working on the statue around 440 BC. Years earlier, he
had developed a technique to build enormous gold and ivory statues. This
was done by erecting a wooden frame on which sheets of metal and ivory
were placed to provide the outer covering.Pheidias'
workshop in Olympia still exists, and is coincidentally -- or may be
not -- identical in size and orientation to the temple of Zeus. There,
he sculpted and carved the different pieces of the statue before they were
assembled in the temple. When the statue was completed, it barely fitted in 
the temple. Strabo wrote: 
".. although the temple itself is very large, the sculptor is criticized
for not having appreciated the correct proportions. He has shown Zeus seated,
but with the head almost touching the ceiling, so that we have the impression
that if Zeus moved to stand up he would unroof the temple." 
Strabo was right, except that the sculptor is to be commended, not criticized.
It is this size impression that made the statue so wonderful. It is the
idea that the king of gods is capable of unroofing the temple if he stood
up that fascinated poets and historians alike. The base of the statue was
about 6.5 m (20 ft) wide and 1.0 meter (3 ft) high. The height of the statue
itself was 13 m (40 ft), equivalent to a modern 4-story building. 

The statue was so high that visitors described the throne more than
Zeus body and features. The legs of the throne were decorated with sphinxes
and winged figures of Victory. Greek gods and mythical figures also adorned
the scene: Apollo, Artemis, andNiobe's children. The Greek Pausanias wrote: 
On his head is a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand
he holds a figure of Victory made from ivory and gold... In his left hand,
he holds a sceptre inlaid with every kind of metal, with an eagle perched
on the sceptre. His sandals are made of gold, as is his robe. His garments
are carved with animals and with lilies. The throne is decorated with gold,
precious stones, ebony, and ivory.

The statue was occasionally decorated with gifts from kings and rulers.
the most notable of these gifts was a woollen curtain "adorned with 
Assyrian woven patterns and Pheonician dye" which was dedicated 
by the Syrian king Antiochus IV. 
Copies of the statue were made, including a large prototype at Cyrene
(Libya). None of them, however, survived to the present day. Early
reconstructions such as the one by von Erlach are now believed to be
rather inaccurate. For us, we can only wonder about the true appearance
of the statue -- the greatest work in Greek sculpture.