{"id":4495,"date":"2016-12-22T16:54:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T16:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/?p=4495"},"modified":"2017-04-07T14:52:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:52:46","slug":"temple-of-zeus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/cities\/olympia\/temple-of-zeus\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple of Zeus"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the central area of the sanctuary is the Temple of Zeus<\/strong>, which was built by the architect Libon<\/strong>, a native of Elis, with the city’s war booty in the mid Vth<\/sup> century BC (470-457 BC).<\/p>\n

It is a Doric peripteral temple<\/strong>, with six columns across the short sides and thirteen down the long ones, in local limestone, covered in painted stucco.<\/p>\n

Parian marble was used<\/strong> only for certain parts<\/strong> of the entablature and roof, as it was also for the sculptures decorating the pediment and the metopes on the frieze.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Photo credits by Ronny Siegel<\/a> under CC-BY-2.0<\/p>\n

The cell<\/strong> had a double colonnade<\/strong>, on two orders or levels, and was divided into two parts by marble balustrades painted by Panainos<\/strong>, the famous Athenian painter who may have been the nephew of Pheidias.<\/p>\n

In front of the black stone base of the sacred statue was a basin with white marble sides which contained the oil necessary for the upkeep of the ivory parts of the statue.<\/p>\n

The chryselephantine statue of Zeus<\/strong>, one of the seven wonders<\/strong> of the world<\/strong>, depicted the god with Nike in his right hand and a sceptre in his left, seated on an ebony throne<\/strong> decorated with mythological figures and scenes in relief, in the round and encrusted.<\/p>\n

The temple’s metopes and pediments, which are kept in the Museum of Olympia<\/strong>, are regarded as some of the greatest masterpieces of what is known as the Severe style (from 500 to about 450).<\/p>\n

They were executed by a sculptor known as the “master of Olympia”<\/strong> between 470 and 460 BC. The east pediment depicts the preparations for the chariot race between Oinomaos and Pelops<\/strong> (in which the hero defeated the king, thus winning the hand of his daughter Hippodameia) as Zeus, father of the gods, watches on.<\/p>\n

The west pediment depicts the battle between the Lapiths<\/strong> and the Centaurs<\/strong> which ensued when the latter got drunk and attempted to abduct the Lapith women<\/strong>, as Apollo watches on.<\/p>\n

The metopes on the frieze depict the Labours of Herakles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Athens<\/div>\n

Do you want to know more about Olympia<\/strong> and the history of\u00a0Greece?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out our guidebook to Ancient Greece<\/a>, with detailed history and Past & Present images of the Acropolis<\/strong>, the Parthenon<\/strong>, Olympia<\/strong> and all the greatest historical and archaeological sites of Ancient Greece.<\/p>\n

Check out our Guide Book to Ancient Greece<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

How to get to the Temple of Zeus<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the central area of the sanctuary is the Temple of Zeus, which was built by the architect Libon, a native of Elis, with the city’s war booty in the mid Vth century BC (470-457 BC). It is a Doric peripteral temple, with six columns across the short sides and thirteen down the long ones, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[183,190],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4495"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4824,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495\/revisions\/4824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionpubl.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}