Wonders _
Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus of Rhodes was a giant statue of the god Helios, erected on the Greek island of Rhodes by Chares of Lindos between 292 BC and 280 BC. It was roughly the same size as the Statue of Liberty in New York, although it stood on a lower platform. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Alexander the Great died at an early age in 323 BC without having had time to put into place any plans for his succession. Fighting broke out among his generals, the Diadochi, with three of them eventually dividing up much of his empire in the Mediterranean area.
During the fighting Rhodes had sided with Ptolemy, and when Ptolemy eventually took control of Egypt, Rhodes and Ptolemaic Egypt formed an alliance which controlled much of the trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Another of Alexander's generals, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, was upset by this turn of events.
In 305 BC he had his son Demetrius (now a famous general in his own right) invade Rhodes with an army of 40,000. However, the city was well defended, and Demetrius had to start construction of a number of massive siege towers in order to gain access to the walls.
The first was mounted on six ships, and these blew over in a storm before they could be used. He tried again with an even larger land-based tower named Helepolis, but the Rhodian defenders stopped this by flooding the land in front of the walls so the tower could not move.
In 304 BC a relief force of ships sent by Ptolemy arrived, and Demetrius's army left in a hurry, leaving the majority of their siege equipment. Despite his failure at Rhodes, Demetrius earned the nickname Poliorcetes, "besieger of cities", by his successes elsewhere.
To celebrate their victory, the Rhodians decided to build a giant statue of their patron god Helios. Construction was left to the direction of Chares, a native of Rhodes, who had been involved with large-scale statues before. His teacher, the famed sculptor Lysippus, had constructed a 60-foot-high statue of Zeus. In order to pay for the construction of the Colossus, the Rhodians sold all of the siege equipment that Demetrius left behind in front of their city.
Construction
Ancient accounts (which differ to some degree) describe the structure as being built around several stone columns (or towers of blocks) on the interior of the structure, standing on a 15-metre-high (50 feet) white marble pedestal near the Mandraki harbour entrance (others claim on a breakwater in the harbor). Iron beams were driven into the stone towers, and bronze plates attached to the bars formed the skinning.
Much of the material was melted down from the various weapons Demetrius's army left behind, and the abandoned second siege tower was used for scaffolding around the lower levels. Upper portions were built with the use of a large earthen ramp. The statue itself was over 34 metres (110 feet) tall. After 12 years, in 280 BC, the great statue was completed.
The statue stood for only 56 years until Rhodes was hit by an earthquake in 224 BC. The statue snapped at the knees and fell over onto the land. Ptolemy III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but an oracle made the Rhodians afraid that they offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it. The remains lay on the ground for over 800 years, and even broken, they were so impressive that many travelled to see them.
Pliny the Elder remarked that few people could wrap their arms around the fallen thumb and that each of its fingers was larger than most statues. In AD 654 an Arab force under Muawiyah I captured Rhodes, and according to the chronicler Theophanes, the remains were sold to a travelling salesman from Edessa. The purchaser had the statue broken down, and transported the bronze scrap on the backs of 900 camels to his home. Pieces continued to turn up for sale for years, after being found on the caravan route.
The Myth
The harbour-straddling Colossus was a figment of later imaginations. Many older illustrations (above) show the statue with one foot on either side of the harbour mouth with ships passing under it: "Š the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land Š" (from "The New Colossus", the poem found at the base of the Statue of Liberty). Shakespeare's Cassius in Julius Caesar (I,ii,13638) says of Caesar:
Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves
Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus of Rhodes was a giant statue of the god Helios, erected on the Greek island of Rhodes by Chares of Lindos between 292 BC and 280 BC. It was roughly the same size as the Statue of Liberty in New York, although it stood on a lower platform. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Alexander the Great died at an early age in 323 BC without having had time to put into place any plans for his succession. Fighting broke out among his generals, the Diadochi, with three of them eventually dividing up much of his empire in the Mediterranean area.
During the fighting Rhodes had sided with Ptolemy, and when Ptolemy eventually took control of Egypt, Rhodes and Ptolemaic Egypt formed an alliance which controlled much of the trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Another of Alexander's generals, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, was upset by this turn of events.
In 305 BC he had his son Demetrius (now a famous general in his own right) invade Rhodes with an army of 40,000. However, the city was well defended, and Demetrius had to start construction of a number of massive siege towers in order to gain access to the walls.
The first was mounted on six ships, and these blew over in a storm before they could be used. He tried again with an even larger land-based tower named Helepolis, but the Rhodian defenders stopped this by flooding the land in front of the walls so the tower could not move.
In 304 BC a relief force of ships sent by Ptolemy arrived, and Demetrius's army left in a hurry, leaving the majority of their siege equipment. Despite his failure at Rhodes, Demetrius earned the nickname Poliorcetes, "besieger of cities", by his successes elsewhere.
To celebrate their victory, the Rhodians decided to build a giant statue of their patron god Helios. Construction was left to the direction of Chares, a native of Rhodes, who had been involved with large-scale statues before. His teacher, the famed sculptor Lysippus, had constructed a 60-foot-high statue of Zeus. In order to pay for the construction of the Colossus, the Rhodians sold all of the siege equipment that Demetrius left behind in front of their city.
Construction
Ancient accounts (which differ to some degree) describe the structure as being built around several stone columns (or towers of blocks) on the interior of the structure, standing on a 15-metre-high (50 feet) white marble pedestal near the Mandraki harbour entrance (others claim on a breakwater in the harbor). Iron beams were driven into the stone towers, and bronze plates attached to the bars formed the skinning.
Much of the material was melted down from the various weapons Demetrius's army left behind, and the abandoned second siege tower was used for scaffolding around the lower levels. Upper portions were built with the use of a large earthen ramp. The statue itself was over 34 metres (110 feet) tall. After 12 years, in 280 BC, the great statue was completed.
The statue stood for only 56 years until Rhodes was hit by an earthquake in 224 BC. The statue snapped at the knees and fell over onto the land. Ptolemy III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but an oracle made the Rhodians afraid that they offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it. The remains lay on the ground for over 800 years, and even broken, they were so impressive that many travelled to see them.
Pliny the Elder remarked that few people could wrap their arms around the fallen thumb and that each of its fingers was larger than most statues. In AD 654 an Arab force under Muawiyah I captured Rhodes, and according to the chronicler Theophanes, the remains were sold to a travelling salesman from Edessa. The purchaser had the statue broken down, and transported the bronze scrap on the backs of 900 camels to his home. Pieces continued to turn up for sale for years, after being found on the caravan route.
The Myth
The harbour-straddling Colossus was a figment of later imaginations. Many older illustrations (above) show the statue with one foot on either side of the harbour mouth with ships passing under it: "Š the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land Š" (from "The New Colossus", the poem found at the base of the Statue of Liberty). Shakespeare's Cassius in Julius Caesar (I,ii,13638) says of Caesar:
Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves