Friday, July 13, 2012

The Temple of Olympian Zeus

As a part of our art history class, we make site visits to ruins and museums that have items of significance from classical antiquity. Friday, our destination was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Despite the fact that it was the 9th site visit we had made in a matter of two weeks and the fact that we had to be there at 9 am, I was actually really excited to see the temple. I mean come on, it's where Hercules found out he was the son of Zeus and where he finally met Pegasus and vowed to make himself a true hero! Okay, I'm kidding. But seriously, the biggest temple of any god, 104 columns all the way around, a ginormous ivory and gold statue of Zeus inside. How freaking cool is that? Obviously, I was pretty happy to finally see the temple. Although when we got there all I saw was 15 standing columns concentrated into one corner and one collapsed column (there were originally 104). It was kind of sad to see how ruined this temple really was. Trying to imagine it when it was still completely in tact was difficult, but I managed to get an idea of what it must have been like to stand in front of something so massive and to walk inside and pay homage to the enormous statue of Zeus. I tried to imagine actually building it but that didn't work out so well...I've been here for five weeks, seen ruins left and right, yet I still don't understand how, in ancient times, people could build such massive structures out of marble or limestone. You definitely have got to give the ancient Greeks credit for that.




Part of what really enhanced my experience at the temple was having some knowledge of its background and history. The previous week, in our class with Dr. Kaplan, we each presented a report on a site in Athens. Brianna had Olympeion and gave a really interesting presentation about the history of the temple and the site itself. I was really fascinated by the fact that the temple took nearly 600 years to build. Through various reigns and rulers, this temple stood as a constant, never being finished until 600 years after it was originally started by a completely different person with completely different people. Yet, it still got finished and it's still partially standing today. This temple is absolutely incredible; the detail of the massive Corinthian columns and the beauty of the site itself, with the acropolis overlooking it, and Lycabettus hill in the distance. It's a shame the temple had such a short lived glory because all it takes is one quick look to realize how incredibly phenomenal it was.



One thing is for sure: If this temple says anything about what Zeus was believed to be like, he must have been a freaking awesome guy. 

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