STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA

The statue of Zeus at Olympia was made by the Greek sculptor Phidias, circa 432 BC on the site where it ewas erected in the Temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece. The seated statue, some 12 meters tall, occupied the whole width of the aisle of the temple built to house it. The sculpture was wreathed with shoots of olive worked in gold and seated on a magnificent throne of cedarwood.

The date of the statue, in the third quarter of the fifth century BC, long a subject of debate, was confirmed archaeologically by the rediscovery and excavation of Phidias workshop. The sculptor also was reputed to have inmortalised his eromenos, Pantarkes, by carving " Pantarkes Kalos", into the god´s little finger, and placing a relief of the boy crowning himself at the feet of the statue.