RT Journal Article T1 Optical transmission properties of Pentelic andParos marble A1 Weigand Talavera, Rosa María A1 García, Pablo A. A1 Campos Acosta, Joaquín A1 Storch de Gracía, Jacobo AB AncientGreek and Roman sources report that the statue of Zeus in Olympia had a head, and in particular eyes, similar to the description of Zeus by Homer, so we think that the statue was visible to the human eye. Since the temple was 12mhigh, and had a small door and no windows, the illumination of the statue by conventionalmedia is questionable. The aimof this paper is to characterize the optical transmission of Paros and Pentelic marble to demonstrate that it was possible to have the Zeus temple illuminated through the roof marble tiles. Spectral absolute transmittance measurements were taken in samples with different thicknesses using a calibrated spectrophotometer, as well as total transmittance measurements using a luxmeter. The results show that both types of marble transmit light and that Pentelic marble has a higher transmittance in the visible range than Paros marble in some cases and hence could have been one reason, among others, to change the type of marble in the roof in antiquity. PB Optical Society Of America SN 1559-128X YR 2015 FD 2015-02-01 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/23019 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/23019 LA eng NO 1. P. Periegeta, Graeciae Descriptio, Rocha-Pereira and M. Helena, eds. (Teubner, 1989–1990).2. Strabo, Géographie, translated from the Greek by Germaine Aujac et François Lasserre (Les Belles Lettres, 1966–1981).3. T. Monsen, Les lois religieuxes des empereurs romaines de Constantin a Theodose II (Editions Du Cerf, 2005).4. A. Mallwitz, Olympia und seine Bauten (Prestel Verlag, 1972).5. J. G. Frazer, Graecia Antiqua: Maps and Plans to Illustrate Pausanias’ Description of Greece (Macmillan, 1930).6. A. Hennemeyer, Licht Konzepte (Schnell und Steiner Verlag, 2011), pp. 102–109.7. P. A. García Pastor, “Una reconstrucción del templo de Zeus de Olimpia: hacia la resolución de los ‘Phidiasprobleme’,” Ph.D. thesis (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2013).http://eprints.ucm.es/24019/8. M. Bass, ed., Devices, Measurements & Properties, Vol. 2 of Handbook of Optics (McGraw-Hill, 1995), Chap. 24.9. ILV: International Lighting Vocabulary, Standard CIE S 017/E:2011, available at http://eilv.cie.co.at. NO © 2015 Optical Society of America DS Docta Complutense RD 7 oct 2024