DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0227
PHEIDIAS IN OLYMPIA.
191
CHAPTER XVIII.
PHEIDIAS IN OLYMPIA.
WHATEVER may have been the circumstances under which Pheidias
left Athens and went to Elis, there can be no doubt that he was
honourably received in Olympia, and entrusted with the most impor-
tant task which could fall to the lot of a Greek artist, that of repre-
senting the great King of Gods and men in the most sacred centre
of Hellenic life. We know that Pheidias was already far advanced
in years when he carved his own image on the shield of the Athene
Parthenos, and, as he probably died in his 70th year, his greatest
work must have been executed in the last decade of his life. He
repaired to Elis with a goodly train of pupils and fellow artists, who
willingly subordinated themselves to the unapproachable master, and
sought their chief glory in carrying out his inspired designs. Among
his followers were his brother Patuenus,1 who was associated with him
in the contract as <Tvi>epyo\d/3o$, and was employed where painting was
required ; Colotcs ('qui cum Phidia Jovem Olympium fecerat *2), who
helped Pheidias in the execution of the Olympian Zeus ; and Alca-
vicucs, whom Pausanias ranks next to Pheidias, and who carved the
statues for the western pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
To Pheidias was entrusted, by the general voice of Greeks, the
tremendous task of giving a bodily form to their highest conception
of the Godhead, the Panhellenic Zeus ; a work even greater than that
of representing the virgin Goddess Athene, the tutelary divinity of
Athens. According to the well-known story, the greatest of sculptors
1 Strabo (viii. ]>. 354) calls him his nephew.
• Livius, xxxiv. 87.
191
CHAPTER XVIII.
PHEIDIAS IN OLYMPIA.
WHATEVER may have been the circumstances under which Pheidias
left Athens and went to Elis, there can be no doubt that he was
honourably received in Olympia, and entrusted with the most impor-
tant task which could fall to the lot of a Greek artist, that of repre-
senting the great King of Gods and men in the most sacred centre
of Hellenic life. We know that Pheidias was already far advanced
in years when he carved his own image on the shield of the Athene
Parthenos, and, as he probably died in his 70th year, his greatest
work must have been executed in the last decade of his life. He
repaired to Elis with a goodly train of pupils and fellow artists, who
willingly subordinated themselves to the unapproachable master, and
sought their chief glory in carrying out his inspired designs. Among
his followers were his brother Patuenus,1 who was associated with him
in the contract as <Tvi>epyo\d/3o$, and was employed where painting was
required ; Colotcs ('qui cum Phidia Jovem Olympium fecerat *2), who
helped Pheidias in the execution of the Olympian Zeus ; and Alca-
vicucs, whom Pausanias ranks next to Pheidias, and who carved the
statues for the western pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
To Pheidias was entrusted, by the general voice of Greeks, the
tremendous task of giving a bodily form to their highest conception
of the Godhead, the Panhellenic Zeus ; a work even greater than that
of representing the virgin Goddess Athene, the tutelary divinity of
Athens. According to the well-known story, the greatest of sculptors
1 Strabo (viii. ]>. 354) calls him his nephew.
• Livius, xxxiv. 87.