Classical Greek Travel Log
On my next stop on this trip I decided to visit one of the temples of the Olympian Gods, to see the temple of the leaders of the gods, Zeus. After seeing the appreciation and worship of Athena, who's is the daughter of Zeus in mythology, I wanted to see how they would treat Zeus as well. I traveled to Olympia to find the temple and what I saw was amazing. The temple was huge and had many columns built in and around it. A lot of the building looked like it was made of marble and gold for the sculpture of the gods around it. There are also many designs on the outside of the building telling stories of the history of the gods.
Inside of the Temple is a state of the god Zeus who was also created by Pheidias. The statue was over 40 feet tall, which was was around the same height as the statue of Athena, and he held a scepter in one hand and a winged victory in the other. The statue was made of gold and ivory, which I believe was the materials made for most of the statues of this time period. I asked around to see who built this temple and how long it took for them to build it. The temple was designed by Libon of Elis and it took around 20 years to build. The temple was dedicated to Zeus after the Triphylian war and was another site of worship of the Olympian Gods. I had also heard some negative issues with the construction of this building.
Apparently, the construction of this building took a toll on the subjects that lived in this area and the areas around the temple. It caused a lot of poverty for the people because the men were required to pay almost everything they had to build the temple. The taxes were also raised by the ruler at the time who a lot of the locals considered a tyrant. The temple was beautiful in architecture but at the cost of the well being of the people.
Sources:
Primary- Rackham, H., trans. “Aristotle Politics .” Perseus Digital Library. Harvard University Press. Accessed November 29, 2022. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook&highlight=zeus.
Secondary- “Temple of Zeus.” olympia-greece.org. Accessed November 29, 2022. http://www.olympia-greece.org/templezeus.html.
Robel Wendweson
5 chapters
28 Nov 2022
Temple of Zeus
November 28, 2022
|
Olympia, Greece
On my next stop on this trip I decided to visit one of the temples of the Olympian Gods, to see the temple of the leaders of the gods, Zeus. After seeing the appreciation and worship of Athena, who's is the daughter of Zeus in mythology, I wanted to see how they would treat Zeus as well. I traveled to Olympia to find the temple and what I saw was amazing. The temple was huge and had many columns built in and around it. A lot of the building looked like it was made of marble and gold for the sculpture of the gods around it. There are also many designs on the outside of the building telling stories of the history of the gods.
Inside of the Temple is a state of the god Zeus who was also created by Pheidias. The statue was over 40 feet tall, which was was around the same height as the statue of Athena, and he held a scepter in one hand and a winged victory in the other. The statue was made of gold and ivory, which I believe was the materials made for most of the statues of this time period. I asked around to see who built this temple and how long it took for them to build it. The temple was designed by Libon of Elis and it took around 20 years to build. The temple was dedicated to Zeus after the Triphylian war and was another site of worship of the Olympian Gods. I had also heard some negative issues with the construction of this building.
Apparently, the construction of this building took a toll on the subjects that lived in this area and the areas around the temple. It caused a lot of poverty for the people because the men were required to pay almost everything they had to build the temple. The taxes were also raised by the ruler at the time who a lot of the locals considered a tyrant. The temple was beautiful in architecture but at the cost of the well being of the people.
Sources:
Primary- Rackham, H., trans. “Aristotle Politics .” Perseus Digital Library. Harvard University Press. Accessed November 29, 2022. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook&highlight=zeus.
Secondary- “Temple of Zeus.” olympia-greece.org. Accessed November 29, 2022. http://www.olympia-greece.org/templezeus.html.
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