of plates of
gold and ivory, laid upon a core of wood or stone. The style was not
new, though its invention was at one time ascribed to Phidias. It came
from the East, but it was now employed for the first time in Greece in
a work of national importance.

In the Athena, the face, neck, arms, hands, and feet were made of
ivory, and the drapery and ornaments, the helmet, the shield, and the
sandals of gold, which as in the case of the statue made for Plataea,
was removable at pleasure. The height of the statue, including the
pedestal, was nearly forty feet. The goddess stood erect, clothed with
a tunic reaching to the ankles, and showing her richly sandalled feet.
She had the aegis on her breast, her head was covered with a helmet,
and her shield, richly embossed with the Battle of the Amazons, rested
on the ground at her side. In one hand she held a spear, and in the
other, an image of Victory six feet high.

A still more splendid work, and one which raised the fame of Phidias
to the highest point, was the statue of the Olympian Zeus, made for
the Eleans. In this statue, Phidias essayed to embody the Homeric
ideal of the supreme divinity of the people of Greece sitting on his
throne as a monarch, and in an attitude of majestic repose. The
throne, made of cedar-wood, was covered with plates of gold, and
enriched with ivory, ebony, and precious stones. It rested on a
platform twelve feet high, made of costly marble and carved with the
images of the gods who formed the council of Zeus on Olympus. The feet
of the god rested on a footstool supported by lions, and with the
combat of Theseus and the Amazons in a bas-relief on the front and
sides. In one hand Zeus held the sceptre, and in the other a winged
Victory. His head was crowned with a laurel wreath; his mantle,
falling from one shoulder, left his breast bare and covered the lower
part of his person with its ample folds of pure gold enamelled with
flowers. The whole height of the statue with the pedestal was about
fifty feet; by its very disproportion to the size of the temple it was
made to appear still larger than it really was. This statue was
reckoned one of the wonders of the world. In it the Greeks seemed to
behold Zeus face to face. To see it was a cure for all earthly woes,
and to die without having seen it was reckoned a great calamity.

The downfall of Pericles, due to the jealousies of his rivals, carried
with it the ruin of Phidias, his close friend, to w