Athens has changed a lot over the centuries and with it many of its famous monuments. Others were damaged and others were the subject of interventions over the years. Some of them are now missing parts that once served a purpose. This is also true for the well-known Olympian Zeus. A photo that led to a domino of revelations.
The image we have today of the Columns is a very specific one. And yet a 160-year-old photograph created a mystery that took a lot of research to solve. It was always a mystery until 2017 when a British writer and researcher, named Paul M.M Cooper, did his own research and simultaneous revelation.
The Olympian Zeus Columns and the Mystery Solved
So in this very old photograph, of 1858, the Olympian Zeus columns have something special. A picture of them like no one had seen before. We are talking about a strange (until its revelation) appendix at the top of the section that remains now from the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Actually, the photo shows something that looks like a small room. A special, mysterious construction that has nothing to do with the original design of the temple that was never completed.
And while at first the British researcher thought it was a processing product, as he found the same photo without the construction, he also found something else. That in fact it was the image which did not have the construct that was forged. That’s because it was removed from that image.
“It turned out that the explanation was that it had to do with the Christian ascetics known as stylists, or “saints of the poles”. The stylists believed that living on top of tall pillars brought them closer to God and at the same time caused sacred physical decline, atoning them from their sins,” he wrote after his research.
Athens and its monuments finally hide more secrets than we know…
External photography source: A.Savin
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Frequently Asked Questions
An 1858 photograph revealed a mysterious small room-like structure at the top of the remaining Olympian Zeus columns that had never been documented before. This strange appendix puzzled researchers for over 160 years until British writer Paul M.M Cooper solved the mystery in 2017.
The stylists were Christian ascetics who believed that living on tall pillars brought them closer to God and caused sacred physical decline to atone for their sins. They constructed the mysterious room-like structure on top of the Olympian Zeus columns as part of their spiritual practice.
Paul M.M Cooper discovered that one version of the photograph had the structure removed through forgery. He then found an 1833 painting by Johann Michael Wittmer that clearly showed the same construction existed, proving it was a real historical addition to the temple.
The Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens was never completed in its original design. Over the centuries, it underwent various interventions and additions, including the mysterious stylist structure discovered in the 1858 photograph, making it a complex monument with multiple historical layers.
It took 160 years to solve the mystery because researchers couldn't distinguish between an original photograph with the structure and a forged version without it. The discovery of an 1833 painting by Johann Michael Wittmer finally provided concrete proof of the stylist construction's authenticity.
