Ancient Greek Art: The Temple of Zeus at Olympia East Pediment

Okay, we're on to the east pediment from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. I thought I'd start by talking about the story behind this particular pediment. It's to do with a chariot race that happened between King Oenomaeus, who was a local king from Pisa, which is close to Olympia, and Pelops, who came to challenge him for the hand of his daughter, Hippodamia. Now, nobody used to be able to beat this king, but Pelops actually cheated in the chariot race and got his slave Myrtilos to mess with the spokes. And during the race, King Oenomaeus was thrown from the chariot and killed, and Pelops was the one that was victorious and ended up winning Hippodamia's hand. However, he also pushed Myrtilos to his death from a cliff, and whilst he was falling, Pelops was cursed by Myrtilos. He shouted a curse on his family, which actually ended up hitting two generations later with his grandson Agamemnon. So the fact that Pelops' family was cursed, and obviously that curse was fulfilled when Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra, is meant to act as a bit of a moral message to people viewing this pediment at the site of Olympia. And even more interestingly, it faces the Hippodrome, which is where the chariot racing took place. So it's really meant to be there as a reminder to the victors at the games of the consequences of cheating, and also not to incur the wrath of the Greek gods. Now in terms of who we can see, it's Zeus at the centre of the pediment, at the apex, as the god of justice, overseeing the entire chariot race. Either side of him, we've got Pelops and Oenomaeus, and either side of them, we've got the women. Hippodamia, she's there on the right, kind of raising her hand to her chest, and we've got her mother Sterope on the other side, next to Oenomaeus. So the solution used to fill the pediment here is different to what we saw at the temple of Ophira Aegina, where we had gods presiding over a scene of violence. Instead we've got more of a social hierarchy. The god, most important, at the centre, the males, the heroes, either side, then the women, and then the slaves and animals. This is not the first time it's been used, so it's definitely not innovative. We've seen it on the pediment from the Siphonian treasury at Delphi, so feel free to use that as an extra credit example to make that point. But it is a different way of perhaps putting it across this time, because of the lack of action. So Susan Woodford says that this pediment is intense, but wholly without action, and she's right. The figures are very still. In fact, it's the moment before the race, and we're meant to be thinking that Oenomaeus is possibly reading out the rules, so we don't actually see the action. It's more about the drama and the tension, and I'll come now to how that's conveyed. So I want you to have a look at the figure that's at the bottom picture, the old seer, and you can also see where he was positioned on the pediment after the horses, in that middle picture. Now, Iarmus knows the outcome of this race. He knows that King Oenomaeus is going to be killed, and you can see from his expression, raising his hand to his face, in the typical kind of worry or grief pose, that he is concerned for the outcome. But nobody else on that pediment is reacting, so he is this kind of isolated figure, alone, can see the outcome, and that's why scholars particularly like him. We get this idea of he's a moment of mental clarity when everybody else is distracted still. The other interesting point about this pediment is the fact that Iarmus is an old man, and we haven't as yet seen age shown in a more detailed way. So he's got a bald head. He's also got wrinkles on his forehead too, and if we have a look at his pectorals, remember no man boobs or moobs please, we'll also see the effect of the aging on his body. Now, to really make it stand out that he is aged, we've got all the various ages shown on this pediment. So, top picture, if you have a look at Zeus, Pelops and Oenomaeus, these are men in kind of peak physical condition. Those typical exaggerated early classical physiques, with the cuirass aesthetic, and the very heavily defined iliac crest. And we also can, just about on that bottom image, see that next to Iarmus is a young boy as well, playing with his toes. He's completely disinterested in what's going on, so not only does his youthful anatomy contrast him from the seer, but he's got that personality as well. And this is something quite typical of the early classical period, to try and distinguish between individuals. Whilst the males are really well differentiated though, one limitation of this pediment is that the females aren't. So, if you have a look at the top picture again, and the females, Hippodamia on the right and Sterope on the left. Whilst we've got a little bit of differentiation in terms of their body language, so Hippodamia raising her hand to lift up her married woman's veil, quite confident, open body language, and Sterope holding her arms close to her in the closed body language that shows her concern for the race that's about to go ahead, there's not much else to differentiate these women. Their clothing is very similar, their physique is very similar as well. So the women, there's not as much kind of careful attention paid to their differentiation as there has been to the males.