Zeus In Olympia

The subject for my abstract is the statue of Zeus in Olympia. The statue was fashioned by Phidias and occupied half the width of the aisle of the large temple built to house it. "It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," the geographer Strabo said in the 1st century BC, "he would sunroof the temple.” The statue was a chryselephantine sculpture, made with ivory and gold panels on a wooden substructure. No copy in marble or bronze has lasted this long, though that can be recognized by only certain kinds of currency, Roman coins and some engraved gems. This was important because he was the king of the gods and was very respected and feared. The artist was quoted saying “He spoke, the son of Cronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows, and
You don't see this kind of craftsmanship because now a day it's all made in China. Phidias had even made an another statue of the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, Athena for the Parthenon in Athens Greece. While America made a cheap knockoff in Nashville Tennessee that one was made to made it look like the one in Ancient Greece just in one piece, instead of in ruins. Not much is known about the sculptor Phidias being that this was several thousand years ago, but we do know a little about Phidias. The ancients believed he had some of the greatest sculptors in Athens at the time, Hagias and Geladas. He is often said to be one of the many people who spearheaded the art of Classical Greek designs. Today he is considered by many to be one of the greatest sculptors of all time. In 1950 they rediscovered his workshop where they saw the tools that at the time were state of the Arab and but the awe inspiring statue the would stick around for hundreds of years until it was destroyed. The statue was believed to be made out of bronze, ivory, wood and gold. In Olympia this was a problem because of the humidity and the dampness could damage the statue so the putt olive oil on it on a regular basis. During those 12
When the Olympics were banned in 391 A.D. by the emperor Theodosius I as pagan rituals, the temple of Zeus which was where the statue was being housed was ordered shut and closed forever. Olympia was hit by a string of bad luck in the form of earthquakes, landslides, floods, and possibly the occasional vandalism by people who didn't like the statue and the temple was damaged by fire in the fifth century A.D. It's possible that the statue had been moved by wealthy Greeks citizens to a palace in Constantinople, where it stayed until it was destroyed by a really bad fire in 462 A.D. Today nothing remains at the location of the once ancient, respected, revered and feared temple except rocks and debris, the foundation of the buildings, and fallen columns. What a shame that is the only reason we know what it looks like is because of the Ancient Greek coins had the image made into them, so that is the only way we know what it looks like. The picture above show that it was an awe inspiring. The Olympics were held there every four years and were the highlight of the Greeks pastime. As mentioned early in the paper they liked the games to show off their competitive players in honor, glory, and fame. Things continued to be celebrated around the statue until it was destroyed we really don't know how it was destroyed but it's likeness was imprinted on a coin which was discovered in the artist’s workshop. To this day the statue continues to