The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios, erected
in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280
BC. It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was constructed to
celebrate Rhodes' victory over the ruler of Cyprus, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, whose son
unsuccessfully besieged Rhodes in 305 BC. Before its destruction in the earthquake of
226 BC, the Colossus of Rhodes stood over 30 meters high, making it one of the tallest
statues of the ancient world.
Siege of Rhodes
In the late 4th century BC, Rhodes, allied with Ptolemy I of Egypt, prevented a massive
invasion staged by their common enemy, Antigonus I Monophthalmus.
In 304 BC a relief force of ships sent by Ptolemy arrived, and Antigonus's army abandoned
the siege, leaving most of their siege equipment. To celebrate their victory, the Rhodians sold
the equipment left behind for 300 talents and decided to use the money to build a colossal
statue of their patron god, Helios. Construction was left to the direction of Chares, a native
of Lindos in Rhodes, who had been involved with large-scale statues before. His teacher,
the sculptor Lysippos, had constructed a 22 meters high bronze statue of Zeus at Tarentum.
Construction The construction began in 292 BC. Ancient
accounts, which differ to some degree, describe the structure as being built with iron tie
bars to which brass plates were fixed to form the skin. The interior of the structure, which
stood on a 15-meter high white marble pedestal near the Mandraki harbour entrance, was then
filled with stone blocks as construction progressed. Other sources place the Colossus on a breakwater
in the harbour. The statue itself was over 30 meters tall. Much of the iron and bronze
was reforged from the various weapons Demetrius's army left behind, and the abandoned second
siege tower may have been used for scaffolding around the lower levels during construction.
Upper portions were built with the use of a large earthen ramp. During the building,
workers would pile mounds of dirt on the sides of the colossus. Upon completion all of the
dirt was removed and the colossus was left to stand alone. After twelve years, in 280
BC, the statue was completed. Preserved in Greek anthologies of poetry is what is believed
to be the genuine dedication text for the Colossus.
To you, o Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus,
when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from
the enemy. Not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of
freedom and independence. For to the descendants of Herakles belongs dominion over sea and
land.
Modern engineers have put forward a plausible hypothesis for the statue construction, based
on the technology of those days, and the accounts of Philo and Pliny who both saw and described
the remains. The base pedestal was at least 60 feet in
diameter and either circular or octagonal. The feet were carved in stone and covered
with thin bronze plates riveted together. Eight forged iron bars set in a radiating
horizontal position formed the ankles and turned up to follow the lines of the legs
while becoming progressively smaller. Individually cast curved bronze plates 60 inches square
with turned in edges were joined together by rivets through holes formed during casting
to form a series of rings. The lower plates were 1 inch in thickness to the knee and 3/4 inch
thick from knee to abdomen, while the upper plates were 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick except
where additional strength was required at joints such as the shoulder, neck, etc.
Destruction
The statue stood for 56 years until Rhodes was hit by the 226 BC Rhodes earthquake, when
significant damage was also done to large portions of the city, including the harbour
and commercial buildings, which were destroyed. The statue snapped at the knees and fell over
onto the land. Ptolemy III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but
the oracle of Delphi made the Rhodians afraid that they had offended Helios, and they declined
to rebuild it. The remains lay on the ground as described
by Strabo for over 800 years, and even broken, they were so impressive that many traveled
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 653, an Arab force under Muslim caliph Muawiyah I captured Rhodes, and according
to The Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, the statue was cast down and sold to a Jewish
merchant of Edessa who loaded the bronze on 900 camels. There is compelling evidence that
long before the Arab invasion all traces of the Colossus had already disappeared. The
stereotypical Arab destruction and the purported sale to a Jew possibly originated as a powerful
metaphor for Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the destruction of a great statue, and would have
been understood by any 7th century monk as evidence for the coming apocalypse.
The same story is recorded by Barhebraeus, writing in Syriac in the 13th century in Edessa:
"And a great number of men hauled on strong ropes which were tied round the brass Colossus
which was in the city and pulled it down. And they weighed from it three thousand loads
of Corinthian brass, and they sold it to a certain Jew from Emesa". Theophanes is the
sole source of this account and all other sources can be traced to him.
Posture
The harbour-straddling Colossus was a figment of medieval imaginations based on the dedication
text's mention of "over land and sea" twice and the writings of an Italian visitor who
in 1395 noted that local tradition held that the right foot had stood where the church
of St John of the Colossus was then located. Many later illustrations show the statue with
one foot on either side of the harbour mouth with ships passing under it. References to
this conception are also found in literary works. Shakespeare's Cassius in Julius Caesar
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 dishonorable graves
(even if the walking may suggest a Colossus on land rather than spanning water). Shakespeare
alludes to the Colossus also in Troilus and Cressida and in Henry IV, Part 1.
The New Colossus, an 1883 poem by Emma Lazarus engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside
the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1903, contrasts the latter with:
The brazen giant of Greek fame with conquering limbs astride from land to
land
While these fanciful images feed the misconception, the mechanics of the situation reveal that
the Colossus could not have straddled the harbour as described in Lemprière's Classical
Dictionary. If the completed statue had straddled the harbour, the entire mouth of the harbour
would have been effectively closed during the entirety of the construction; nor would
the ancient Rhodians have had the means to dredge and re-open the harbour after construction.
The statue fell in 224 BC: if it had straddled the harbour mouth, it would have entirely
blocked the harbour. Also, since the ancients would not have had the ability to remove the
entire statue from the harbour, it would not have remained visible on land for the next
800 years, as discussed above. Even neglecting these objections, the statue was made of bronze,
and engineering analyses indicate that it could not have been built with its legs apart
without collapsing from its own weight. Many researchers have considered alternative positions
for the statue which would have made it more feasible for actual construction by the ancients.
There is also no evidence that the statue held a torch aloft, the records simply say
that after completion, the Rhodians kindled the "torch of freedom." A relief in a nearby
temple shows Helios standing with one hand shielding his eyes and it is quite possible
that the colossus was constructed in the same pose. While we do not know what the statue
looked like we do have a good idea of what the head and face looked like as it was of
a standard rendering at the time. The head would have had curly hair with evenly spaced
spikes of bronze or silver flame radiating, similar to the images found on contemporary
Rhodian coins. Location of the ruins
Media reports in 1989 initially suggested that large stones found on the seabed off
the coast of Rhodes might have been the remains of the Colossus; however this theory was later
shown to be without merit. Another theory published in an article in
2008 by Ursula Vedder suggests that the Colossus was never in the port, but rather was part
of the Acropolis of Rhodes, on a hill today named Monte Smith, which overlooks the port
area. The temple on top of Monte Smith has traditionally thought to have been devoted
to Apollo, but according to Vedder, it would have been a Helios sanctuary. The enormous
stone foundations at the temple site, the function of which is not definitively known
by modern scholars, are proposed by Vedder to have been the supporting platform of the
Colossus. The fortress of St Nicholas is also posited as the location. The fort's floor
contains an anomalous circle of sandstone blocks which may have been the statues foundation
while curved blocks of marble incorporated in the structure, too finely cut to have been
made for the purpose, may be the remains of a marble base that sat upon the sandstone
foundation. See also
12 Jin Ren The Rhodes Colossus
List of statues by height References and sources
References
Sources Ashley, James R.. The Macedonian Empire: The
Era of Warfare Under Philip II and Alexander the Great, 359-323 B.C.. McFarland & Company.
p. 75. ISBN 0-7864-1918-0. Gabriel, M.H. BCH 16, pp. 332–42.
Haynes, D.E.L. "Philo of Byzantium and the Colossus of Rhodes" The Journal of Hellenic
Studies 77.2, pp. 311–312. A response to Maryon.
Maryon, Herbert, "The Colossus of Rhodes" in The Journal of Hellenic Studies 76, pp. 68–86.
A sculptor's speculations on the Colossus of Rhodes.