Coordinates: 37°38′16″N 21°37′48″E

Temple of Zeus, Olympia

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia was an ancient Greek
temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the god Zeus. The Temple of Zeus
temple, built in the second quarter of the fifth century BC, was
the very model of the fully developed classical Greek temple of
the Doric order.[1]

Contents
Setting
Wilhelm Lübke's illustration of the temple
Architectural features
as it might have looked in the fifth century
Sculpture and decorations BC
Statue of Zeus
Subsequent history
See also
References
External links

Setting
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap

The Temple of Zeus was built on an already ancient religious General information
site at Olympia. The Altis, an enclosure with a sacred grove,
Type Greek temple
open-air altars and the tumulus of Pelops, was first formed
during the tenth and ninth centuries BC,[2] Greece's "Dark Architectural style Ancient Greek
Age", when the followers of Zeus had joined with the followers architecture
of Hera.[3] Location Olympia, Greece
Construction started c. 470 BC
Architectural features Completed c. 457 BC

The temple was of peripteral form, with a frontal pronaos Destroyed 426 (sanctuary),
(porch), mirrored by a similar arrangement at the back of the 522, 551
building, the opisthodomos. The building sat on a crepidoma Height 68 feet (20.7 m)
(platform) of three unequal steps, the exterior columns were
Technical details
positioned in a six by thirteen arrangement, two rows of seven
columns divided the cella (interior) into three aisles. An echo Size 230 by 95 ft (70 by
of the temple's original appearance can be seen in the Second 29 m)
Temple of Hera at Paestum, which closely followed its form. Design and construction
Pausanias visited the site in the second century AD and states Architect Libon
that the temple's height up to the pediment was 68 feet Other designers Paeonius,
(20.7 m), its breadth was 95 feet (29.0 m), and its length 230
feet (70.1 m).[4] It was approached by a ramp on the east side. Alcamenes

Because the main structure was of a local limestone that was

unattractive and of poor quality, it was coated with a thin layer of
stucco to give the appearance of marble so as to match the sculptural
decoration. It was roofed with tiles of Pentelic marble, cut thin
enough to be translucent, so that on a summer's day, "light
comparable to a conventional 20-watt bulb would have shone
through each of the 1,000 tiles."[5] Plan of the temple.

From the edge of the roof projected 102 waterspouts or gargoyles in

the shape of lion heads, of which 39 are extant. Incongruities in the
styles of the spouts provide evidence that the roof was repaired
during the Roman period.[6]

Sculpture and decorations

The sculptural decoration, in imported Parian marble [7] featured
carved metopes and triglyph friezes, topped by pediments filled with
sculptures in the Severe Style, now attributed to the "Olympia Pedimental sculptures in the
Master" and his studio. Archaeological Museum of Olympia

The Eastern pediment depicts the chariot race between Pelops and
Oenomaus while the Western pediment features a centauromachy
with Theseus and the Lapiths. The god Apollo is featured on the
western pediment pointing towards the human side in the
centauromachy, indicating his favor, and towards the northern side
of the temple.[8] Pausanias reports in his Description of Greece
(5.10.8) that the Eastern pedimental sculpture was created by
Paeonius and the Western sculpture was carved by Alcamenes. The
metopes from the temple depict the twelve labours of Heracles.

Statue of Zeus Detail of a metope from the Temple

of Zeus at Olympia, featuring
Heracles and the Cretan bull
The temple housed the renowned statue of Zeus, which was one of (Archaeological Museum of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Chryselephantine Olympia, Greece)
(gold and ivory) statue was approximately 13 m (43 ft) high, and was
made by the sculptor Phidias in his workshop on the site at Olympia.
The statue's completion took approximately 13 years (470–457 BC) and was one of Classical Greece's
most revered artistic works.

The installation of the colossal statue coincided with substantial modification of the cella. The internal
columns and their stylobates were dismantled and repositioned, which likely necessitated retiling the
roof. The original floor, paved with large blocks of shell stone, was covered with water-resistant lime,
which may have helped protect the statue's ivory against humidity.

Subsequent history
The Roman general Mummius dedicated twenty-one gilded shields after he sacked Corinth in 146 BC;
they were fixed at the metopes of the eastern front side and the eastern half of the south side.

In AD 426, Theodosius II ordered the destruction of the sanctuary during the Persecution of pagans in
the late Roman Empire.[9]

Archaeologists have long postulated that the already ruined Temple

was destroyed by the earthquakes of AD 522 and 551, known to have
caused widespread damage in the Peloponnese, although a 2014
paper hypothesizes that the columns may have been "intentionally
pulled down by ropes during the early Byzantine period". Flooding
of the Kladeos river (Foundoulis et al., 2008), or by tsunami (Vott et
al., 2011), led to abandonment of the area in the 6th century.
Eventually the site was covered by alluvial deposits of up to 8 meters
deep.[10]
Temple of Zeus, Olympia
The site of the ancient sanctuary
of Olympia, long forgotten
under landslips and flood
siltation, was identified in 1766 by the English antiquarian Richard
Chandler. In May 1829, the French team of archaeologists of the
"Scientific Expedition of Morea" (under the direction of Léon-Jean-
Joseph Dubois and Abel Blouet) identified with certainty and
partially excavated the Temple of Zeus for the first time,[11][12]
Temple of Zeus, Olympia (by Abel taking several fragments of the metopes to the Musée du Louvre
Blouet, 1829) (with the authorization of the Governor of Greece, Ioannis
Kapodistrias).[11][13] Systematic excavation began in 1875, under the
direction of the German Archaeological Institute, and has continued,
with some interruptions, to the present time.[14]

See also
List of Ancient Greek temples
List of Greco-Roman roofs
Apollon of Olympia

References
1. by Temple of Zeus (https://web.archive.org/web/20070205202041/http://traumwerk.stanford.edu:345
5/Archaeopaedia/243) at Archaeopaedia, Stanford University
2. (Hellenic Ministry of Culture: The sanctuary site at Olympia, including the Temple of Zeus (http://odys
seus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2358)
3. Preceding the Temple of Zeus in the temenos at Olympia were the Iarchaic structures: "the temple of
Hohepa, the Prytaneion, the Bouleuterion, the treasuries and the first stadium." (http://odysseus.cultu
re.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2358)
4. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 5.10.3 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tl
g001.perseus-eng1:5.10) via Perseus Digital Library
5. Patay-Horváth, András (2015). New Approaches to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia: Proceedings of
the First Olympia-Seminar, 8th-10th May, 2014 (https://books.google.com/books?id=83_WCgAAQBA
J). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-8191-3.
 6. Frazer, James George. 1913. Pausanias's Description of Greece 3. 3. (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=NcPNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA496) London: Macmillan. p. 496. OCLC 263716831 (https://www.wo
rldcat.org/oclc/263716831)
7. Osborne, Robin. Archaic and Classical Greek Art. Oxford. p. 170. ISBN 9780192842022.
8. Neer, Richard. Greek Art and Archaeology: A New History, c. 2500-c. 150 BCE. Thames & Hudson.
p. 229. ISBN 9780500288771.
9. ANTIQUITY - A Quarterly Review of Archaeology. No. 113 MARCH 1955.
10. Alexandris, Argyris & Psycharis, Ioannis & Protopapa, Eleni. (2014). THE COLLAPSE OF THE
ANCIENT TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA (https://www.academia.edu/9730433/THE_COLLAPSE_
OF_THE_ANCIENT_TEMPLE_OF_ZEUS_AT_OLYMPIA_REVISITED)
11. Guillaume-Abel Blouet, Expedition scientifique de Morée ordonnée par le Gouvernement Français;
Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l'Attique (https://dig
i.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/blouet1831) (Volume I, 1831) Abel Blouet, Amable Ravoisié, Achille
Poirot, Félix Trézel et Frédéric de Gournay, Firmin Didot, Paris.
12. Eugène Emmanuel Amaury Duval, Souvenirs (1829-1830), Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie,
imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885.
13. Yiannis Saïtas et al., L'œuvre de l'expédition scientifique de Morée 1829-1838, Edited by Yiannis
Saïtas, Editions Melissa, 2011 (1st Part) - 2017 (2nd Part).
14. Olympia (https://web.archive.org/web/20070611073608/http://www.dainst.org/index_548_en.html) at
the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut

· Pausanius Description of Greece (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%

3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D5%3Achapter%3D11%3Asection%3D1)

External links
Collection of images of the building layout and sculptures of the temple of Zeus (http://employees.on
eonta.edu/farberas/arth/ARTH209/Olympia_Temp_Zeus.html)
Ground floor planof the temple by Dörpfeld, (Berlin, 1892) from the library of Universität Heidelberg
(http://diglit.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/curtius1892bd1/0012?&sid=4e30e09413021c16b7707a1d9d6
ede04)

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