The massive gold statue of the king of the Greek gods was built in honor of the original Olympic games, which began in the ancient city of Olympia.
The statue, completed by the classical sculptor Phidias around 432 B.C., sat on a jewel-encrusted wooden throne inside a temple overlooking the city. The 40-foot-tall (12-meter-tall) figure held a scepter in one hand and a small statue of the goddess of victory, Nike, in the other—both made from ivory and precious metals.
The temple was closed when the Olympics were banned as a pagan practice in A.D. 391, after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The statue was eventually destroyed, although historians debate whether it perished with the temple or was moved to Constantinople (now Istanbul) in Turkey and burned in a fire.
译文:
希腊奥林匹克的宙斯神像
这个大型黄金神像是为了庆祝在奥林匹克所举行的第一届奥运会而建造的。
神像由古典雕刻家菲迪亚斯在公元前432年左右完成，在神殿中，坐在一个宝石镶嵌的木制包金王位上，俯瞰整个城市。神像有40英尺高，一手拿了王杖，另一手则是一个小的胜利女神的雕像。两边都是由象牙和名贵金属打造而成。
在基督教成为罗马帝国的官方宗教信仰后，公元391年，奥运会被作为外教徒事业而禁止时，神殿也被关闭了。
尽管历史学家一直为神像是由于和神殿一起毁坏，还是因为迁移到土耳其的君士坦丁堡（现在的伊斯坦布尔）被一场大火所烧毁这样的问题争论不休，但是，宙斯神像最终还是被摧毁了。