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Statue of Olympian Zeus
The statue of Olympian Zeus is the only wonder of the world that turned out to be on the European mainland.
None of the temples of Hellas seemed to the Greeks worthy of the title of a miracle.
And when they chose Olympia as a miracle, they remembered not the temple, not the sanctuary, but only the statue that stood inside.
Zeus had the most direct relation to Olympia.
Every inhabitant of those places perfectly remembered that it was here that Zeus defeated the bloodthirsty Cronus, his own father, who, in fear that his sons would take away his power, began to devour them.
Zeus was saved as well as the fairy tale heroes of all nations were saved: there will always be a kind soul who will feel sorry for the baby.
So Cronus ' wife, Rhea, slipped her husband a large stone instead of Zeus, which he swallowed.
Obviously, Kron swallowed his children whole.
When Zeus grew up and defeated his father, he freed all his brothers and sisters.
Hades, Athena, Poseidon…
The Olympic Games, in particular, were established in honor of this event and began with sacrifices to Zeus.
The main shrine of Olympia was the temple of Zeus with his statue by the great Phidias.
Phidias was famous not only for the statue of Olympian Zeus, but also for the statue of Athena in the Parthenon and the reliefs on its walls.
Together with Pericles, Phidias developed a plan for rebuilding and decorating Athens, which, however, cost Phidias dearly: the enemies of his powerful friend and patron became the enemies of the sculptor.
Their revenge was banal and dirty, but the townsfolk were eager for a scandal: Phidias was accused of concealing gold and ivory during the construction of the statue of Athena in the Parthenon.
The fame of the sculptor turned out to be stronger than the detractors.
The inhabitants of Elis made a bail for the prisoner, and the Athenians considered this an excuse sufficient to let Phidias work in Olympia.
For several years, Phidias remained in Olympia, constructing a statue syncretic in material and known to us from descriptions and images on coins.
The statue of Zeus was located in the temple, the length of which reached 64 meters, the width - 28, and the height of the inner room was about 20 meters.
Zeus, sitting on a throne at the end of the hall, propped his head on the ceiling.
Naked to the waist, Zeus was made of wood.
His body was covered with plates of pinkish, warm ivory, his clothes were golden sheets, in one hand he held a golden statue of Niki, the goddess of victory, with the other he leaned on a high rod.
Zeus was so majestic that when Phidias finished his work, he approached the statue, as if floating above the black marble floor of the temple, and asked: "Are you satisfied, Zeus?"
In response, there was a clap of thunder, and the floor at the feet of the statue cracked.
Zeus was pleased.
There are descriptions of the chair of Zeus, which was decorated with ivory bas reliefs and golden statues of the gods.
The side walls of the throne were painted by the artist Panen, a relative and assistant of Phidias.
Subsequently, the Byzantine emperors transported the statue to Constantinople with all precautions.
Although they were Christians, no one raised a hand against Zeus.
Even Christian fanatics, enemies of pagan beauty, did not dare to destroy the statue.
The Byzantine emperors at first allowed themselves to appreciate high art.
But, to the deep satisfaction of Christian preachers, God punished his pagan rival, thereby punishing the emperors who had gone off the righteous path.
In the V century AD, the palace of Emperor Theodosius II burned down.
The wooden colossus became the prey of fire: only a few charred bone plates and spangles of molten gold remained from the creation of Phidias.
So the seventh wonder of the world also died...
When there is no trace of the monument, there is a temptation (often motivated) to attribute its existence to the human imagination.
A similar fate did not escape the statue of Zeus, especially since no copies of it have been preserved.
In order to make sure that the statue existed and was exactly as described by contemporaries, it was necessary to find at least indirect evidence of its creation.
Already in our time, an attempt was made to find the workshop of Phidias.
The construction of such a statue required many years of work, and therefore Phidias and his numerous assistants needed a solid room.
The statue of Zeus is not a marble block that can be left in the open for the winter.
The remains of an ancient building, rebuilt into a Byzantine Christian church, attracted the attention of German archaeologists who conducted excavations in Olympia.
After examining the building, they were convinced that it was here that the workshop was located - a stone structure, slightly inferior in size to the temple itself.
In it, in particular, tools of sculptors and jewelers and the remains of the foundry "shop"were found.
But the most interesting finds were made next to the workshop in a pit where for many hundreds of years the masters dumped waste and discarded parts of statues.
There we managed to find cast forms of the toga of Zeus, a lot of ivory plates, chipped semi precious stones, bronze and iron nails - in general, a complete and indisputable confirmation that it was in this workshop that Phidias made a statue of Zeus, and exactly as the ancients told.
And to top off all the evidence, the archaeologists found the bottom of a jug in a pile of garbage, on which the words "I belong to Phidias"were scratched.
One might think that fate was especially merciless to the wonders of the world, whose fate was so tragic.
This is not true.
Piles of garbage, towering hills rising in the Middle East, Central Asia, India, China, are traces of cities that once existed there and completely disappeared from the face of the earth, of which not a single house or temple, and often even a name, remains.
Every year brings news about new remarkable discoveries of archaeologists, usually carrying a note of sadness.
The wall paintings in Penjikent told about the palace in this city, which no one will ever see; the statue of the reclining Buddha, discovered in Central Asia, told about many Buddhist temples, of which there is no trace left; the lion capitals of columns and the remains of massive altars in the temple city found in Colchis, tell about buildings and sculptures that have died irretrievably...
If we bring together all the outstanding monuments of antiquity, it turns out that hardly one in a hundred has survived to this day.
Fortunately, this has never deterred people from new attempts to build, sculpt, carve, draw - to express themselves and their time in high art.
And the little that has survived to this day makes it possible to imagine the art of the East, gives us the right to be proud of the great masters of the past, wherever they worked - in India, Syria, Japan, Burma, Ethiopia...
Seven wonders of the world
© Alexey Zlygostev, design, selection of materials, design, development FOR 2001-2015 When copying project materials, it is mandatory to put a link: http://historic.ru/ ' Historic.
En: World History'
