Days of Gods and Games

Continuing my examination of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, this week’s post sees another great gargantuan of Greece— the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.

The Greek sculptor Phidias, already renown for his earlier work, the Statue of Athena Parthenon, appropriately crafted his new 40-foot statue in the Temple of Zeus utilizing cedarwood, ivory, gold and ebony.

Seated on an opulent black marble throne, the god of sky, thunder and weather held a second statue in his hand, that of Nike, goddess of victory. In his other hand, he held a staff with a perched eagle. Allegedly, the statue had to be continually covered in olive oil as a safeguard from elemental erosion(!) The Temple of Zeus itself was located in Olympia, then controlled by the city-state of Elis, where every four years, fans congregated to witness its famed athletic games.

After eight years of construction, Phidias completed the statue in 5th Century BC which attracted awestruck onlookers from across the globe and dictated Zeus’s popular image in art, poetry and culture for centuries.

In 426 AD, the temple was destroyed in an earthquake but not before being desecrated and neglected by Roman emperor Theodosius I who banned all pagan cult activity, thus sidelining the Olympic Games for a spell.

But what became of Zeus? No longer a feature of the temple by the 6th Century, the statue of Zeus (formerly) of Olympia had seen renovation and subsequent relocation to Constantinople where anything from a tsunami, earthquake or fire may have claimed it.

That which we know of the majestic Statue of Zeus comes chiefly from its depiction in ancient art and coins. The timeline of its construction might also be a mystery were it not for the discovery of Phidias’ workshop in the 1950s. Little by little, discoveries of the such help us uncover the answers to the same age-old questions— When... where... how... and why?

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Christopher Robinson

The Third Temple

The famous Greek temple in the ancient city of Ephesus built for the goddess Diana has since passed into the historical pantheon as the Temple of Artemis.

Artemis, the Greek version of Diana gave the marble structure its alternate name, the Temple of Diana.

Surrounded by thirty-six ionic columns, the massive temple which housed sculptures, paintings, reliefs and artwork was built throughout a span of 128 years. During this period the Amazons who were believed to have founded Ephesus relied on the temple as a center of worship as well as a place of refuge.

In 356 BC, it was deliberately destroyed by fire on the day that Alexander the Great was allegedly born. The temple would be rebuilt and destroyed again by the Goths before its most legendary version, completed in 550 BC, also came and went. Though defensively built on marshland to safeguard against earthquakes, it later succumbed to a final attack, this time from a mob of Christians in 401 AD.

Today all that survives of the remains is a pile of rubble in a swamp with one reconstructed column erected from the extant ruins to mark the unguarded site.

A somber remnant of such a hallowed monument that saw destruction, rebirth and ultimately glory— in one final phase. The Temple of Artemis quite possibly epitomizes the old teaching adage, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.’

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Christopher Robinson

Never Promised You a Hanging Garden

There once was a magnificently spellbinding garden in the Neo-Babylonian empire— or was there?

Built during the 6th Century BC under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II, the fabled structure was said to feature a dazzling array of plants and flowers as well as sculptures and fountains interconnected among sloping mountain-like terraces.

Conflicting contemporary accounts of the gardens’ location and features as well as the absence of any mention of them in Babylonian records have led many historians to doubt their legend’s legitimacy. The possible existence of a similar site in the Mesopotamian city of Nineveh supports some hypotheses that suggest it was mistakenly imagined to exist in another time and place.

Still others maintain that the gardens were most likely among many treasures in the Babylonian king’s domain and survived for several centuries through different empires.

History, for some reason has shrouded the Hanging Gardens in near darkness. Perhaps the future will shine better light on the ancient mystery and reveal the story behind it. Until then, our imaginations can fill in the blanks and the missing piece of an unceasingly wondrous puzzle.

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Christopher Robinson

Behold the Colossus

Around 280 BC, a sculptor named Chares and a 300-man crew constructed a statue of the Greek god Helios on the island of Rhodes, completing it in only twelve years. The giant bronze figure which stood 108 feet high at the mouth of the city’s harbor was erected in celebration of Rhodes’ liberation from armies in Northern Greece.

For a period of 56 years the Colossus stood at the port attracting mariners from other lands as one of the world’s Seven Wonders.

At some point around 226 BC it was toppled in a devastating earthquake, supposedly snapping at the knees. Its titanic remains were left where they laid for fear of defying a religious oracle. For another 800 years the Colossus, even in ruin, continued to marvel those who beheld its awesome sight.

The precise location of the Colossus remains unknown. Nor is there any certainty regarding its appearance or pose. Much of those inferences are rooted in the poetry and literary references of the Hellenistic period, which lend themselves to vague embellishments.

In Sergio Leone’s 1961 film, The Colossus of Rhodes, Rory Calhoun portrays a Greek soldier who assists in a siege of the Colossus in a plot to overthrow the king of Rhodes. The statue in the film is scaled much larger so as to house arsenals and accommodate armies inside. The Colossus is also depicted as being made of hollowed brass and its massive scale enables it to straddle the harbor to breathtaking effect.

Though its moment in the sun was a fleeting one, the towering figure certainly made an impression. As in Newton’s law of universal gravitation, however, what goes up... must come down.

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Christopher Robinson