“If Zeus moved to stand up he would unroof the temple,” – so said the Greek historian, Strabo, about the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. The statue was built the Greek sculptor Phidias.
In 456 BC, the Greek architect Libon completed the building of a magnificent temple at Olympia. This temple was dedicated to Zeus, in whose honor the Olympics were held every four years. Before the competitions, all participants paid their respects to Zeus at his temple. Although Libon’s temple was a wonder in itself, the Greeks felt that it was too ordinary. So they put statue in it.
Phidias was given the task of building the statue. He first erected a wooden frame, to which he attached plates of ivory and sheets of gold. Interestingly, his workshop was as big as the temple itself, making it possible for him to build the statue there. After carving out the various pieces separately, Phidia assembled them in the temple. However, by the time he had finished, the seated statue of Zeus almost touched the roof! That was probably why Strabo imagined that Zeus would have knocked off the roof!
