View source for Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens

{{short description|Ancient Greek temple in Athens}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox building
| name                = Temple of Olympian Zeus
| native_name         = Ναός του Ολυμπίου Διός
| image               = L'Olympieion (Athènes) (30776483926).jpg
| image_size          = 300px
| caption             = Temple of Olympian Zeus
| building_type       = [[Temple]]
| architectural_style = [[Classical architecture|Classical]]
| location            = [[Athens]], Greece
| start_date          = 561–527 BC
| completion_date     = 131 AD
| architect           = Antistatis, Kallaischros, Antimachides and Phormos
}}
The '''Temple of Olympian Zeus''' ({{langx|grc|Ναὸς τοῦ Ὀλυμπίου Διός}}, {{Lang|grc-Latn|Naós tou Olympíou Diós}}), also known as the '''Olympieion''' or '''Columns of the Olympian Zeus''', is a colossal temple in the centre of [[Athens]], now in ruins. It was dedicated to "Olympian" [[Zeus]], a name originating from his position as head of the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian gods]]. Construction began in the 6th century BC during the rule of the Athenian [[tyrant]]s, who envisioned building the greatest temple in the ancient world, but it was not completed until the reign of Roman Emperor [[Hadrian]] in the 2nd century AD, some 638 years after the project had begun. During the Roman period, the temple, which included 104 colossal columns, was renowned as the largest temple in Greece and housed one of the largest [[cult (religious practice)|cult]] statues in the ancient world.

The temple's glory was short-lived, as it fell into disuse after being pillaged during a [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] invasion in 267 AD, just about a century after its completion. It was probably never repaired, and was reduced to ruins thereafter. In the centuries after the [[fall of the Roman Empire]], it was extensively quarried for building materials to supply building projects elsewhere in the city. Today, a substantial part of the temple remains intact, notably 16 of the original gigantic columns, and it is now the center of a historical precinct.

==History==
===Classical and Hellenistic periods===
[[File:Olympieion2_copy.jpg|thumb|left|Likely appearance of the temple during antiquity]]

The temple is about {{Convert|500|m|mi|1|abbr=on}} south-east of the [[Acropolis of Athens|Acropolis]] (in the middle between Acropolis and [[Ardittos hill]]), and about {{Convert|700|m|mi|1|abbr=on}} south of the center of Athens, [[Syntagma Square]]. Its foundations were laid on the site of an ancient outdoor sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. An earlier temple had stood there, constructed by the tyrant [[Peisistratos (Athens)|Peisistratus]] around 550 BC. The building was demolished after the death of Peisistratus and the construction of a colossal new Temple of Olympian Zeus was begun around 520 BC by his sons, [[Hippias (tyrant)|Hippias]] and [[Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus)|Hipparchos]]. They sought to surpass two famous contemporary temples, the [[Heraion of Samos]] and the second [[Temple of Artemis]] at [[Ephesus]]. Designed by the architects [[Antistates]], [[Callaeschrus]], [[Antimachides]] and [[Phormos]], the Temple of Olympian Zeus was intended to be built of local [[limestone]] in the [[Doric order|Doric style]] on a colossal platform measuring {{convert|41|m|ft|abbr=on}} by {{convert|108|m|ft|abbr=on}}. It was to be flanked by a double [[colonnade]] of eight columns across the front and back and twenty-one on the flanks, surrounding the [[cella]].

[[File:Columns in details on the Temple of Olympian Zeus.jpg|thumb|upright|200px|Corinthian columns detail]]

The work was abandoned when the tyranny was overthrown and Hippias was expelled in 510 BC. Only the platform and some elements of the columns had been completed by that point, and the temple remained in that state for 336 years. The temple was left unfinished during the years of [[Athenian democracy]], apparently because the Greeks thought it was [[hubris]] to build on such a scale. In his treatise ''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]'', [[Aristotle]] cited the temple as an example of how tyrannies engaged the populace in great works for the state (like a [[white elephant]]) and left them no time, energy or means to rebel.<ref>Aristotle, ''Politics'', Book V, chapter 11</ref>

It was not until 174 BC that the [[Seleucid]] king [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]], who presented himself as the earthly embodiment of Zeus, revived the project and placed the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] architect [[Decimus Cossutius]] in charge. The design was changed to have three rows of eight columns across the front and back of the temple and a double row of twenty on the flanks, for a total of 104 columns. The columns would stand {{convert|17|m|ft|abbr=on}} high and {{convert|2|m|ftin|abbr=on}} in diameter. The building material was changed to the expensive but high-quality [[Pentelic]] marble and the [[classical order|order]] was changed from Doric to [[Corinthian order|Corinthian]], marking the first time that this order had been used on the exterior of a major temple. However, the project ground to a halt again in 164 BC with the death of Antiochus. The temple was still only half-finished by that stage.

Serious damage was inflicted on the partly built temple by [[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]]'s sack of Athens in 86 BC. While looting the city, Sulla seized some of the incomplete columns and transported them to Rome, where they were re-used in the [[Temple of Jupiter (Capitoline Hill)|Temple of Jupiter]] on the [[Capitoline Hill]]. A half-hearted attempt was made to complete the temple during [[Augustus]]' reign as the first [[Roman emperor]], but it was not until the accession of Hadrian in the 2nd century AD that the project was finally completed, around 638 years after it had begun.

===Roman era===
In 124–125 AD, when the [[Philhellene]] Hadrian visited Athens, a massive building programme was begun that included the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. A walled marble-paved precinct was constructed around the temple, making it a central focus of the ancient city. Cossutius' design was used with few changes and the temple was formally dedicated by Hadrian in 132, who took the title of "[[Panhellenion|Panhellenios]]" in commemoration of the occasion.<ref>Goette, Hans Rupprecht. ''Athens, Attica and the Megarid: An Archaeological Guide''. p. 100. Routledge, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-4152-4370-4}}.</ref> The temple and the surrounding precinct were adorned with numerous statues depicting Hadrian, the gods, and personifications of the Roman provinces. A colossal statue of Hadrian was raised behind the building by the people of Athens in honor of the emperor's generosity. An equally colossal [[chryselephantine]] statue of Zeus occupied the cella of the temple. The statue's form of construction was unusual, as the use of chryselephantine was by this time regarded as archaic. Hadrian may have been imitating [[Phidias]]' famous statue of [[Athena Parthenos]] in the [[Parthenon]], seeking to draw attention to the temple and himself by doing so.<ref>Arafat, K. W. ''Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers''. p. 174. Cambridge University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-5216-0418-5}}</ref>

[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] describes the temple as it was in the 2nd century:
:Before the entrance to the sanctuary of Zeus Olympios [in Athens] – Hadrian the Roman emperor dedicated the temple and the statue, one worth seeing, which in size exceeds all other statues save the colossi at Rhodes and Rome, and is made of ivory and gold with an artistic skill which is remarkable when the size is taken into account – before the entrance, I say, stand statues of Hadrian, two of Thasian stone, two of Egyptian. Before the pillars stand bronze statues which the Athenians call ‘colonies.’ The whole circumference of the precincts is about four states, and they are full of statues; for every city has dedicated a likeness of the emperor Hadrian, and the Athenians have surpassed them in dedicating, behind the temple, the remarkable colossus. Within the precincts are antiquities: a bronze Zeus, a temple of [[Cronus|Kronos]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]] and an enclosure of [[Gaia]] (Earth) surnamed Olympias. Here the floor opens to the width of a cubit, and they say that along this bed flowed off the water after the deluge that occurred in the time of [the mythical king] [[Deukalion]], and into it, they cast every year wheat meal mixed with honey. On a pillar is a statue of [[Isokrates]] . . . There are also statues in Phrygian marble of [[Persians]] supporting a bronze [[Sacrificial tripod#Ancient Greece|tripod]]; both the figures and the tripod are worth seeing. The ancient sanctuary of Zeus Olympios the Athenians say was built by Deukalion, and they cite as evidence that Deukalion lived at Athens a grave which is not far from the present temple. Hadrian constructed other buildings also for the Athenians: a temple of [[Hera]] and Zeus Panellenios (Common to all Greeks).<ref>Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 18. 6 – 9</ref>

The temple was badly damaged during the [[Sack of Athens (267 AD)|sack of Athens by the Heruli]] in 267 AD. It is unlikely to have been repaired, given the extent of the damage to the rest of the city and was completely destroyed by an earthquake in the 5th century. Material from the ruined building was incorporated into a basilica constructed nearby during the 5th or 6th century.<ref>"Athens." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture. Ed. John B. Hattendorf. Oxford University Press, 2007.</ref>

===Medieval and modern periods===
[[File:Louis-Francois Edward Cassas - The temple of Olympian Zeus.jpg|thumb|The temple in 1787, painted by [[Louis-François Cassas]]]]
[[File: Tempio di Zeus Olimpo apr2005 04.jpg|thumb|Ruins and a column that collapsed in 1852 from a fierce wind, in the foreground]]

Over the following centuries, the temple was systematically quarried to provide building materials and material for the houses and churches of medieval Athens. By the end of the [[Byzantine]] period, it had been almost totally destroyed; when [[Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli]] (Cyriacus of Ancona) visited Athens in 1436 he found only 21 of the original 104 columns still standing.

[[File:Constantinou Dimitrios - The Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis in the background - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|This photograph of 1865 by [[Constantinou Dimitrios]] shows above the last two columns of the main group, a small stone structure in which had lived an ascetic or [[Stylite]]]]

The fate of one of the columns is recorded by a Greek inscription on one of the surviving columns, which states that "on 27 April 1759 he pulled down the column". This refers to the [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish]] governor of Athens, Mustapha Agha Tzistarakis, who is recorded by a chronicler as having "destroyed one of Hadrian's columns with gunpowder" in order to re-use the marble to make plaster for the [[Tzistarakis Mosque]] that he was building in the [[Monastiraki]] district of the city. During the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] period the temple was known to the Greeks as the Palace of Hadrian, while the Turks called it the Palace of [[Belkis]], from a Turkish legend that the temple had been the residence of [[Solomon]]'s wife.<ref>Freely, John. ''Strolling Through Athens: Fourteen Unforgettable Walks through Europe's Oldest City''. pp. 209–214. Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2004. {{ISBN|978-1-8504-3595-2}}.</ref>

Fifteen columns remain standing today and a sixteenth column lies on the ground where it fell during a storm in 1852. Nothing remains of the [[cella]] or the great statue that it once housed.
{{clear}}

==Excavation==
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}

The temple was excavated in 1889–1896 by [[Francis Penrose]] of the British School in Athens (who also played a leading role in the restoration of the [[Parthenon]]), in 1922 by the German archaeologist [[Gabriel Welter]] and in the 1960s by Greek archaeologists led by [[Ioannes Travlos]]. The temple, along with the surrounding ruins of other ancient structures, is a historical precinct administered by Ephorate of Antiquities of the Greek Interior Ministry.

==Present==
[[File:Temple-of-Olympian-Zeus-Athens-198X.jpg|thumb|The temple amidst the modern city of Athens]]

Today, the temple is an open-air museum, part of the unification of the archaeological sites of Athens. As a historical site it is protected and supervised by the Ephorate of Antiquities.

===Mythodea 2001===
On 28 June 2001, [[Vangelis]] organized the [[Mythodea]] Chorus at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in the context of [[NASA]]'s Mars mission. Sopranos [[Jessye Norman]] and [[Kathleen Battle]] participated in the concert which was covered by 20 television networks from America, Australia, Canada, Japan and European countries, under the direction of Irish filmmaker [[Declan Lowney]]. The chorus arrangement brought thousands of people inside the Olympic venues, and outside the temple, into the empty streets of Athens. Joining Norman and Battle were the [[London Metropolitan Orchestra]] and the [[Greek National Opera]], as well as over a hundred people dressed in ancient Greek clothing. The screen mounted at the Olympia connected visual images of ancient Greek performances — vases, frescoes and statues — that invested music with images of the planet Mars.<ref>{{cite web| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061103212845/http://active.naftemporiki.gr/news/story.asp?id=145537| title=Συναυλία Β. Παπαθανασίου στο Ολυμπιείο| trans-title=Concert of B. Papathanasiou at Olympia| newspaper=[[Naftemporiki]]| location=Piraeus| date=27 June 2001| url=http://active.naftemporiki.gr/news/story.asp?id=145537| archive-date=3 November 2006| access-date=30 September 2016| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.in.gr/news/article.asp?lngEntityID=144547|title=Αντίστροφη μέτρηση για τη ''Μυθωδία'' του Β. Παπαθανασίου| trans-title=Magical sounds at Olympia| date=27 June 2001| website=in.gr| access-date=10 June 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050208013648/http://www.in.gr/news/article.asp?lngEntityID=144547| archive-date=8 February 2005| url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Ellinais 2007===
On 21 January 2007, a group of [[Hellenism (religion)|Greek pagans]] held a ceremony honoring Zeus on the grounds of the temple. The event was organized by [[Ellinais]], an organization which won a court battle to obtain recognition for Ancient Greek religious practices in the fall of 2006.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.ekathimerini.com/39655/article/ekathimerini/news/zeus-worshippers-want-to-head-for-acropolis| title=Zeus worshippers want to head for Acropolis| newspaper=[[Kathimerini]]| location=Piraeus| date=17 July 2006|access-date=27 November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218004032/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2811383|title=Modern Pagans Honor Zeus in Athens| first=Paris| last=Ayiomamatis| work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]| date=17 February 2007| url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2811383&page=2| archive-date=18 February 2007| access-date=10 June 2016| url-status=live}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of Ancient Greek temples]]
* [[Architecture of Ancient Greece]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Darling, Janina K. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4F-v35--l_gC&q=temple+olympian+zeus Architecture of Greece]''. pp.&nbsp;201–203. Greenwood Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-3133-2152-8}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Tölle-Kastenbein |first1=R. |title=Das Olympieion in Athen |date=1994 |location=Köln-Böhlau}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Temple of Zeus in Athens}}
* [http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh355.jsp?obj_id=2488 Hellenic Ministry of Culture: Temple of Olympian Zeus website]
* [http://travels.co.ua/engl/greece/athens/zeus/index.html Temple of Zeus: photo album and description]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140718133919/http://www.go-2-nice-places.com/2014/06/temple-of-olympian-zeus-athens.html Temple of Zeus photos]
* {{APOD |date=23 December 2006|title=The Analemma and the Temple of Olympian Zeus}}
* [https://athensbylocals.com/temple-of-olympian-zeus-and-arch-of-hadrian/ Temple of Olympian Zeus: Description in English, Photos, Opening Hours, Ticket prices]

{{Landmarks in Athens}}
{{Authority control}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Olympian Zeus, Temple Of, Athens}}
[[Category:6th-century BC establishments in Greece]]
[[Category:2nd-century religious buildings and structures]]
[[Category:Landmarks in Athens]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek buildings and structures in Athens]]
[[Category:Culture of ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Unfinished buildings and structures]]
[[Category:Temples in ancient Athens]]
[[Category:Temples of Zeus|Athens]]
[[Category:6th-century BC religious buildings and structures]]
[[Category:Ruins in Greece]]
[[Category:Antiochus IV Epiphanes]]
[[Category:Hadrian]]