DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0288
AGE OF ZEUS TEMPLE AT OLYMPIA.
255
like the bronze curls found on the ^ginetan statues : around the eyelids seem
tc have been metal eyelashes ; and in their sockets were eyeballs, perhaps of
precious stone. B t all these details, so strange for marble, we forget in gazing
at the face, from which kindliness beams, as from the small head from Meligu (p.
208), but here far better expressed. These precious fragments show us that
the artists of the time had gained a certain assurance and vigor of expression
in portraiture which is truly delightful in contrast to the tentative ideal works
of older times, such as the colossal Hera head described above on p. 210.
While foreigners were enriching
Olympia with single works, the people
of Elis itself did not remain behind,
but now erected, as it seems, on the
site of an older, humbler shrine, a glo-
rious temple to Zeus, more in keeping
with the exalted spirit of the clay. The
means for its erection were furnished
by the booty taken in a successful war,
fought in Olymp. 77, against the rebel-
lious people of Pisatis in Elis.454 The
temple was begun, according to infer-
ences drawn from the recent excava-
tions, soon after this (472-468 B.C.;
see p. 250).455 After the battle at
Tanagra, which took place about fif-
teen years later, 457 B.C. (Olymp.
80. 4), the Lakedaimonians, according
to Pausanias, affixed to the temple
summit a record of their victory on
a shield ; this shows that the structure
had by that time received its roof.456 A large part of this very inscribed
shield is one of the latest discoveries, and is an incontrovertible witness to
the early completion of the temple, being in form such that it must have been
affixed to the roof when finished.457 It is probable, that for the eightieth return
of the Olympic festival, the summer of 460 B.C., the sacred structure stood
complete,—a grateful sight for the pilgrims wandering thither from all parts
of Greece. As recent researches made by Loeschke have shown, its great tem-
ple-statue by Pheidias was probably begun, not very long after, and consecrated
in the summer of the eighty-third Olympic festival.45s
This temple was a building of the sterner Doric style, built by a native
architect, Libon by name. Its foundations, a//a-\va\h, and columns were of
shell conglomerate, a coarse native stone, which received a coating of fine,
painted stucco on the exposed parts. But the building received also sculp-
Fig. 127. Portrait Head discouered at Olympia, perhaps
of Phormis the Arcadian. Olympia.
255
like the bronze curls found on the ^ginetan statues : around the eyelids seem
tc have been metal eyelashes ; and in their sockets were eyeballs, perhaps of
precious stone. B t all these details, so strange for marble, we forget in gazing
at the face, from which kindliness beams, as from the small head from Meligu (p.
208), but here far better expressed. These precious fragments show us that
the artists of the time had gained a certain assurance and vigor of expression
in portraiture which is truly delightful in contrast to the tentative ideal works
of older times, such as the colossal Hera head described above on p. 210.
While foreigners were enriching
Olympia with single works, the people
of Elis itself did not remain behind,
but now erected, as it seems, on the
site of an older, humbler shrine, a glo-
rious temple to Zeus, more in keeping
with the exalted spirit of the clay. The
means for its erection were furnished
by the booty taken in a successful war,
fought in Olymp. 77, against the rebel-
lious people of Pisatis in Elis.454 The
temple was begun, according to infer-
ences drawn from the recent excava-
tions, soon after this (472-468 B.C.;
see p. 250).455 After the battle at
Tanagra, which took place about fif-
teen years later, 457 B.C. (Olymp.
80. 4), the Lakedaimonians, according
to Pausanias, affixed to the temple
summit a record of their victory on
a shield ; this shows that the structure
had by that time received its roof.456 A large part of this very inscribed
shield is one of the latest discoveries, and is an incontrovertible witness to
the early completion of the temple, being in form such that it must have been
affixed to the roof when finished.457 It is probable, that for the eightieth return
of the Olympic festival, the summer of 460 B.C., the sacred structure stood
complete,—a grateful sight for the pilgrims wandering thither from all parts
of Greece. As recent researches made by Loeschke have shown, its great tem-
ple-statue by Pheidias was probably begun, not very long after, and consecrated
in the summer of the eighty-third Olympic festival.45s
This temple was a building of the sterner Doric style, built by a native
architect, Libon by name. Its foundations, a//a-\va\h, and columns were of
shell conglomerate, a coarse native stone, which received a coating of fine,
painted stucco on the exposed parts. But the building received also sculp-
Fig. 127. Portrait Head discouered at Olympia, perhaps
of Phormis the Arcadian. Olympia.