The Colossus of Rhodes was a representative statue of Helios, the Greek god of the sun, built in the city of Rhodes during Antiquity. It was erected facing the sea, as a protector of the city and a receiver for the navigators who arrived at the port.
It was approximately 30 meters high and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This statue of great size, beauty and grandeur is the one that least withstood the passage of time of all the wonders, standing just over 50 years, while the other structures considered wonders could be preserved for centuries.
The Colossus of Rhodes over the port. Painting by Ferdinand Knab, 1886.
The Colossus of Rhodes was a symbol of victory and protection by the city of Rhodes after having repelled an invasion carried out by a Cypriot ruler, Antigonus. In this way it served as a warning for anyone who wanted to invade the city.
In approximately 226 BC, an earthquake toppled much of the Colossus, leaving only part of its lower limbs, which would later be looted, dismantled and sold by Arab invaders to a merchant ship that needed more than 900 camels to move the pieces.
At the time of its completion, 30 meters high (the same as the Statue of Liberty today), the Colossus of Rhodes was considered during its existence the tallest bronze statue, or any material, in the ancient world.
History of the Colossus of Rhodes
Thanks to its port, Rhodes represented a strategic point due to its connection between the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.
After being conquered first by Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and then taken over by Alexander the Great, during the 3rd century BC, the city of Rhodes was threatened by Macedonian military forces, which led it to ally itself with King Ptolemy at the time. Of Egipt.
Antígono of Macedonia sent his military forces commanded by his son Demetrio; 40,000 men who faced the soldiers of Rhodes and Egypt for a whole year.
Finally, the Macedonians were repelled and expelled, leaving behind a large quantity of weapons and equipment from the siege that the people of Rhodes used to sell. With that money obtained, they would finance the construction of the Colossus.
This would be commissioned by the Rhodians to Cares de Lindos, who had already demonstrated his ability to work bronze with the construction of a statue of Zeus more than 20 meters high, built in Taranto.
The Rhodians had so much money as a result of their victory, that in principle they wanted a small statue, and seeing that they could build one twice the original size, they decided to invest everything possible in the most ambitious version.
Cares de Lindos would commit suicide before finishing his work, and the Colossus was completed by Laques de Lindos. It was in the year 292 BC when the Colossus would be finished; a 30-meter-high bronze statue erected to commemorate the victory over Demetrius and to honor Helios, god of the Sun and protector of Rhodes.
Destruction
More than sixty years later, an earthquake would partially destroy the statue, leaving only part of its lower limbs.
Then, the Rhodians had considered rebuilding it, but they gave up before the warnings of an Oracle who claimed that its destruction had been the work of Helios himself, seeing himself dissatisfied or offended by such representation.
More than eight centuries later, the arrival of the Muslims to the city of Rhodes would destroy the last vestiges of the Colossus, by dismantling the remaining pieces of its legs and selling them to expeditionary merchants, specifically to a Jew from Edessa.
characteristics
One of the most striking and discussed aspects of the Colossus of Rhodes today is the exact location it occupied in the city of Rhodes.
Although many illustrations and representations place it with each of its legs on the shores that gave sea entrance to the city, experts agree that this would have been impossible, since it would have sunk under its own weight.
Others estimate that in this position he would have blocked the entrance to the city for all the years that its constriction lasted, making Rhodes an easy target for any type of attack.
Another of the theories that are handled is that the Colossus of Rhodes was built on a small hill inside the same city, whose elevation allowed a privileged view over the port and the entrance to the city.
Here the Colossus would be built, facing the sea, without interfering with the daily, political and military activities of the city for many years.
Although many representations and illustrations always place the Colossus on the seashore, the theory of its construction on the hill has been greatly supported, thanks to the investigations of a German archaeologist and researcher, and the presence of stone foundations that could have served as the basis for the Colossus.
Its distance from the sea would also explain how its remains did not end up in the depths after its collapse, since they would have been found today, due to all the investigations carried out around other ancient wonders that have yielded new vestiges, as would be the case of the Lighthouse of Alejandria.
The Colossus of Rhodes today
Due to the majesty of a tall statue that welcomes the city, Greece, and the current city of Rhodes, the reconstruction of a much more modern Colossus of Rhodes has been proposed in the 21st century, and even twice as large. height, serving as a tourist attraction (visitors could access its interior and illuminate the nights of Rhodes) and enhance the symbolism of antiquity.
Despite the ambitions and interests in the project, the deep economic crisis that Greece has suffered for a few years has not allowed for further progress on the reconstruction of this ancient wonder.
References
- Haynes, D. (1992). The technique of Greek bronze statuary. Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
- Haynes, DE (2013). Philo of Byzantium and the Colossus of Rhodes. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 311-312.
- Jordan, P. (2014). Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. New York: Routledge.
- Maryon, H. (2013). The Colossus of Rhodes. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 68-86.
- Woods, M., & Woods, MB (2008). Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Twenty-Firts Century Books.