The Temple of Zeus, on which construction begins in about 470 at Olympia, designed by Libon of Elis, will eventually house one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—the monumental statue of Zeus by Phidias, which will be added to the temple around 435 BCE and located towards the back of the naos.
Constructed of limestone and covered with stucco built on a raised rectangular platform of approximately sixty-four by twenty-eight meters, with thirteen ten-meter columns on each side and six at either end, the temple is divided into three sections: the pronaos, naos and opisthodomos.
It is constructed in the Doric order, with carved metopes and triglyph frieze, topped by pediments filled with sculptures in the Severe Style now attributed to the Olympia Master and his studio.
The east pediment, erroneously attributed to Paeonius by Pausanias, depicts, in relief, the myth of the chariot race between Pelops and Oenomaus, with Zeus standing in the center.
The west pediment depicts the legendary battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths.
Apollo stands in the center, flanked by Peirithoos and Theseus (fragments now remain at the Archaeological Museum in Olympia).
A sequence of twelve metopes—six over the pronaos and six over the opithodomos—show the twelve labors of Herakles.
Like the pediments, they are carved from Parian marble.
The temple will be destroyed in the fifth century CE by earthquake.
