We can fully appreciate the sculpture of the severe style (480-450 B.C.), when contemplating the Poseidon of Artemision, at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, or the Charioteer at the Museum of Delphi. Works of this class are landmarks of the age in which they were produced, and they enable us to comprehend certain aspects of the severe style; but they do not provide an overall picture of the spiritual foundations and artistic conquests of this style. Fortune, however, has saved, for our delight, the most impressive group of sculptures embodying the claims and achievements of the severe style in a supreme and unparalleled creation: the pediments and metopes of the temple of Zeus at Olympia.

On the east pediment  the composition draws its inspiration from the myth of the chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos. We see all the characters of the drama just before the beginning of the race; the two teams, Oinomaos and Sterope on the one side, Pelops and Hippodameia on the other, and next to them, the chariots and charioteers. Between the two teams, the imposing figure of Zeus forms the axis of the pediment. The "severe harmony has never found a more appropriate aesthetic form: the vertical lines of the characters and the spears create a ponderous, hieratic atmosphere of tragedy in the centre of the composition, while on either side the chariots and the kneeling or reclining figures act as a frame, thus strikingly combining two elements that not only function differently, but antithetically; there is the same antithesis between the broad, clear surfaces of the central figures, which are conceived idealistically, as superhuman beings, and the realistic gestures and postures of the secondary figures.

The west pediment  depicts a Centauromachy during which the Centaurs, invited to the wedding of Peirithoos, a Lapith hero, get drunk and try to abduct the bride, Deidameia, and the other women present. This composition differs totally from the one on the east pediment. The incomparable figure of Apollo in the centre is the only one to maintain the vertical majesty of divine quietude; on his left and right, we see Theseus and Peirithoos, and then groups of Lapith men and women grappling with Centaurs, in a rhythmical and impetuous alternating movement, literally caused by opposite tensions, as it fluctuates incessantly from the centre to the two ends and back again, like the ebb and flow of the sea. The scenes depicted here are unequivocally violent, and the antithesis between the smooth virginal beauty of the girls and the bestial deformity of the Centaurs remains unbridgeable.

The contrast between the pediments is quite obvious to the spectator. On the east pediment, everything has come to a standstill, as if with suspended breath; forces are poised in expectation of the tragic conflict. On the west pediment, the conflicting forces have come to grips and are now locked in deadly combat. And yet both pediments are but a supreme expression, in plastic terms, of the tragic element. The power of tragedy is equally perturbing in both; it is only the expression that differs, in its selection of a different phase in the drama.
 

The east pediment illustrates the myth of the chariot race between Oimomaos and Pelops.  The artist has depicted the heroes a few moments before the start of the race.  In the centre stood the majestic figure of Zeus; to his left and right were the two opposed couples: Oinomaos with his wife Sterope, and Pelops with Oinomaos daughter, Hippodameia.  (Archaeologists disagree as to which couple is which).  Next to these central figures are depicted the chariots and several auxiliary figures; at the two corners of the pediment, we see the personifications of the two rivers of Olympia, the Alpheios and the Kladeos.

The west pediment represents a Centauromachy.  Apollo stands in the centre; to his left and right there are groups of Centaurs and Lapiths, engaged in a fierce fight over abducted women.  The heros, Theseus and Peirithoos, stand next to the god.  The figures at the two ends of the pediment, of a later date, replaced the original ones, which had been destroyed by some unknown cause. C.460 B.C.