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Seven Wonders of the World - Statue of Zeus | |
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This is one of the interesting stories
to know about. This statue is associated
with our favorite Olympic games which is
being a widely watched event all over
the world. The only sporting marvel
among all the seven wonders of world
Location:
Olympia the ancient Greek city.
Description:
In ancient times the Greek city states used to play games
every 4 years. This is what is now
called as Olympic games. During those
times truce is declared and wars are
stopped. Players and athletes from all
over the places traveled to a place in
Greece called Peloponnesus. These
Olympic games were started during 776
BC. Incidentally this is the period when
Green calendar starts. These Olympic
games were held in honour of their King
of gods, Zeus. He is also known as God
of Jupiter.
During the 5th century, they decided to have a temple for
their king of gods and Libon was
assigned the task of completing the
work. Libon designed the temple and
Pheidias was asked to build a big statue
for Zeus. Pheidias had good techniques
with him to build big statues. He used
wooden frame to make the outer casings
for the statues in gold. His workshop
still remains and incidentally its size
can accommodate building of such big
statues. He built a statue of
approximately 40 ft height.
The statue was so high that, even while sitting the head of
the god Zeus was near the roof of the
temple. This is what amazed the
historians and poets of those times.
This simply illustrates that the god
Zeus is so big that even if he stands,
the whole roof would come off its place.
Zeus was seated on a throne, draped in
gold robe. Zeus had a wreath around his
head and held a figure of his messenger
in his right hand.
The statue, one among the seven wonders of world was occasionally presented with gifts from rulers.
The most notable one was the woolen
curtain dedicated by the Syrian king.
In the I century AD, Roman emperor Caligula tried to take the
statue to Rome but failed. But before
5th century AD, wealthy Greeks have
moved it to Constantinople which saved
the statue for some more years. After
that a severe fire has destroyed the
statue. Even before this the temple site
was ravaged by floods, landslides and
earthquakes to the extent that the
structure was badly damaged. Now the
remnants of this statue, one among the
seven wonders of world have gone without
even a small trace except for the
reproduction in some of the medieval
coins. | |
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