Color engraving by Ferdinand Knab/The Bridgeman Art Library/Getty Images
The massive gold statue of the king of the
Greek gods was built in honor of the original Olympic games, which began in the ancient city of Olympia.
The statue, completed by the classical sculptor Phidias around 432 B.C., sat on a jewel-encrusted wooden throne inside a temple overlooking the city. The 40-foot-tall (12-meter-tall) figure held a scepter in one hand and a small statue of the goddess of victory, Nike, in the other—both made from ivory and precious metals.
The temple was closed when the Olympics were banned as a pagan practice in A.D. 391, after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The statue was eventually destroyed, although historians debate whether it perished with the temple or was moved to Constantinople (now
Istanbul) in Turkey and burned in a fire.
In ancient times one of the Greeks most important festivals, the Olympic Games, was held every four years in honor of the King of their gods, Zeus. Like our modern Olympics, athletes traveled from distant lands, including Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and Sicily, to compete. The Olympics were first started in 776 B.C. and held at a shrine to Zeus located on the western coast of Greece in a region called Peloponnesus. The games helped to unify the Greek city-states and a sacred truce was declared. Safe passage was given to all traveling to the site, called Olympia, for the season of the games. - For full article see:
http://www.unmuseum.org/ztemp.htm
Interesting Fact:
The Lincoln Memorial with its single large statue and columns probably is very much like the temple of Zeus except the statue of the King of the Gods was more than double the height of Lincoln.
The Lincoln Memorial
A 1908 artist's conception of the temple at Olympia in Greece.
