Which ancient Greek sculpture was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

The ancient Greek sculpture that was one of the Seven Wonders was the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.

Created by the sculptor Phidias around 435 BC, the statue represented Zeus seated on a richly decorated throne in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. It was a chryselephantine work: ivory plates formed the visible flesh, while gold covered the robe and other elements over a wooden framework. Ancient descriptions place it at roughly 12.4 meters tall, so large that the Greek geographer Strabo imagined Zeus would unroof the temple if he stood up.

The statue’s throne incorporated ebony, ivory, gold, precious stones, and painted decoration. Pausanias, writing in the second century AD, described Zeus wearing a gilded robe decorated with animals and lilies and holding attributes including a figure of Nike.

The Statue of Zeus is sometimes confused with the Colossus of Rhodes, the other statue on the traditional list. The Colossus was a bronze image of Helios, while Olympia’s wonder was a seated image of Zeus made primarily from ivory and gold. The Zeus statue was eventually lost, probably after being moved or destroyed in late antiquity.