Figure H (Zeus), East pediment, Temple of Zeus, Olympia, miniature
- Title:
- Figure H (Zeus), East pediment, Temple of Zeus, Olympia, miniature
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Gipsformerei der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (reproduction)
Unknown (Pausanias attributes the East pediment to Paionios, possibly erroneously) (original)
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
470-456 BCE
2009 (image)
- Site:
- Berlin, Germany (reproduction)
Olympia, Greece (original) - Location:
- Goldwin Smith Hall, former Temple of Zeus space, Cornell University
previously, 726 University Avenue
Berlin, Germany (reproduction)
Olympia, Greece (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0654
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 131
645 - File Name:
- CCC_0654.tif
- Original Measurements:
- ca. 315 (H) cm (height of full-sized statue with restored head)
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
miniatures (object genre) - Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Oenomaus (Greek mythology)
Pelops (Greek mythology)
Zeus (Greek deity)
Ancient Olympia (Greece) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 32 x 11 x 6.5 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a restored, miniature, cast reproduction of figure H from the East pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, identified as Zeus. The god stands with his right (proper) foot slightly advanced and is draped from the hips down in a heavy garment that is twisted around his left forearm. He pulls at the drapery with his lowered right hand, and in his left hand he is restored holding a scepter (this might have been a thunderbolt in the original). Zeus' head, missing in the original, is restored here with full beard and turned to the right (proper). The cast is in generally good condition with the exception of the right hand, which has been almost completely chipped away, and some additional cracks and chips. The original, full-sized statue is missing its head and parts of limbs but the torso and upper legs are decently preserved. The subject of the East pediment of the Temple of Zeus is the chariot contest between Pelops and King Oinomaos of Pisa for the hand in marriage of the king's daughter, Hippodameia. Zeus stands at the center between Pelops and Oinomaos and acts as judge of the contest. It is unclear which of the two primary variants of the tale is represented here. If following the more sordid of the versions, the treachery involved in Pelops' victory in the contest was commonly believed to have brought about the curse of his family line, known as the curse of the house of Atreus, but the origin of the curse was also attributed to Pelops' father Tantalos' misdeeds. This object was part of a complete set of restored miniature figures from the East pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia held in Cornell's cast collection. The East and West pediment miniature sets were sculpted by Richard Grüttner and produced by the Gipsformerei in Berlin. After an earthquake in the sixth c. CE toppled the temple, its broken elements were gradually covered and protected under several meters of alluvial deposits from the Alpheios and Kladeos rivers. Many figures and fragments from the Olympia pediments were uncovered by German excavators in the final quarter of the 19th c. Excavations at the site are ongoing. Pausanias' description of the temple pediments (5.10.2-10) sheds great light on the subjects of the pediments and both clarifies and confuses the placement of the figures in relation to each other. Various arrangements of figures have been proposed and scholarly debate on the topic continues.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
- Bibliography:
- Bernard Ashmole and Nicholas Yalouris, Olympia: The Sculptures of the Temple of Zeus (London: Phaidon, 1967)
Hans-Volkmar Herrmann, ed., Die Olympia-Skulpturen. Wege der Forschung, Band 577 (Darmstadt, 1987)
Andrew Stewart, Greek Sculpture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 142-146, 253-254, figs. 262-276
John Boardman, Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period (London: Thames and Hudson, 1985), 33-50, figs. 18-23.6
Gipsformerei, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Katalog der Originalabgüsse, Heft 4, Griechenland und Rom: Freiplastik, no. 1818 - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Olympia, Archaeological Museum (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.