The Statue of Zeus
This
gold and bejeweled statue was commissioned in 438 B.C. by the Council
of Olympia in reverence for Zeus, the ruler and most powerful of the
Olympian gods. The great statue was the work of the Athenian sculptor
Phidias and was constructed inside the Parthenon, the great temple
overlooking the city.
According to Philo of Byzantium, this was the most inspiring of all
the seven wonders of the ancient world: ‘Whereas we greatly admire the
other six wonders, we kneel in front of this one in reverence…’. The
statue of Zeus was later destroyed along with its temple after an
earthquake in 170 B.C.
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