Temple of Zeus, Olympia
About
The largest temple in the Peloponnese, and everything about it is scaled to the statue inside. Pheidias' Zeus sits enthroned in gold and ivory, roughly twelve metres high and so close to the ceiling that visitors come away saying the god could not stand without lifting the roof off. Olive oil is poured on the floor in front of him to keep the ivory from cracking in the damp of the Alpheios valley. The east pediment shows Pelops readying the chariot race that gave the games their founding story. Every fourth summer the sanctuary fills; in 117 CE the festival is still running on its ancient count.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
In ancient writing
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.10–11
Built from the spoils of Pisa, roofed in Pentelic marble cut to look like tiles, and holding Pheidias's seated Zeus — a god who, if he stood, would take the roof off.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →