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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes — Cambridge, 1940

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#1061

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9 5 8 General Conclusions with regard to

the sea, received by Eros and crowned by Peitho. On either side
of this group were a dozen deities arranged in pairs—on the left,
Zeus and Hera, Hephaistos and Charis, Hermes and Hestia; on the
right, Apollon and Artemis, Athena and Herakles, Amphitrite and
.Poseidon. The whole assemblage was flanked on the left by Helios
in his chariot, on the right by Selene riding her horse or mule.

In front of all this splendour, with its wealth of mythological
meaning, was a bare black pavement of Eleusinian stone, which—
whatever its practical purpose1—aesthetically must have served,
in the half-light of the temple, to isolate the statue from the
spectator and to uplift the whole glittering vision towards the
starry roof.

Pausanias' penultimate comment2 is worth quoting:

'I am aware that the measurements of the Zeus at Olympia in point of heigh*
and breadth are on record3, but I cannot commend those who measured it
For even the measurements they mention fall far short of the impression made
by the image upon such as have seen it. Why, the god himself, they say, bore
witness to the art of Pheidias. When the image was finished, Pheidias prayed
the god to grant a token if the work was to his mind. And, straightway, they
declare, he hurled a thunderbolt into the ground at the spot where down to my
time stood a hydria of bronze.'

What this masterpiece really looked like in the full glory
its ancient setting, we cannot, of course, hope to know. Any
attempt to reconstruct it on paper {supra ii pi. xlvi), pa-1

tiy

from Pausanias' careful enumeration of details, partly from the
small-scale copies of form and features on imperial coins of Ehs

of

1 Infra p. 967. 2 Paus. 5. IT. 9.

3 See Sir J. G. Frazer and H. Hitzig—H. BlUmner ad loc, also G. Q. Gigli

oli

loc. cit. pp. 299—303 ('Le misure'). ^

4 S. B. Smith 'Der Zeus des Phidias auf eleischen Mtinzen' in the Arch. Zeit- 1
xx. 339 f., J. Friedlaender ' Die unter Hadrian in Elis gepragte Miinze mit der Darstelj
der Bildsaule des olympischen Zeus von Phidias' in the Berliner Blatter fur M'111" '
Siegel- und Wappenkunde 1866 iii. 21—26 pi. 30, 1 and 2, J. Overbeck ' Uber den 1 ^
des phidias'schen Zeus' in the Ber. sacks. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Classe 1
pp. 173—190 pi. 1, 1—9, id. Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus pp. 34—45 Mtinztaf. r, 32—34' '.»
J. Friedlaender 'Der Zeus des Phidias auf den Mtinzen von Elis' in the Monatsbe?-^
Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin Phil.-hist. Classe 1874 pp. 498—501 with figs. 1—5, id- .°;0
der Eleer mit dem Zeus des Phidias' in the Arch. Zeit. 1876 xxxiv. 34, L. Stephan
the Compte-rendu St. PH. 1875 PP- l&9—198,^. 'Nachtriige' ii. 1876 pp. 223—^
a tine photographic pi., R. Weil ' Elische Mtinzen mit dem Zeus des Phidias 1 ^
Zeitschr. f. Num. 1880 vii. 110—116 figs. 1—3, id. 'Der Zeus des Phidias auf e yy(i?
Mtinzen der Kaiserzeit' ib. 1912 xxix. 363—382 pi. 10, 1 —10, C. T. Seltw3-11
Temple Coins of Olympia Cambridge 1921 p. 2 ff. Groups A—L pis. 1—8. _ . o0

These articles between them cover all the Zeus-types on the coinage of OlywP1
the latter part of x. vi B.C. onwards. aud
Some at least of the earlier types (e.g. the seated Zeus supra ii. 757 figs- ?° vjtli
701, 1224 fig. 1022) may well be reminiscent of a pre-Pheidiac cult-image. I agree
 
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