The Massive Colossus of Rhodes

A Welcoming Giant and Wonder of the Ancient World

Apr 3, 2008

An Incorrect Impression of the Colossus, Public Domain

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek god Helios which stood beside the harbor at Rhodes, welcoming locals and travelers alike.

The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was in many ways the Statue of Liberty of its day.

People traveled from all over the ancient world just to gaze upon its majestic glory and great height. In many ways, the Colossus of Rhodes is even more impressive than this modern day statue.

The Statue of Helios

The statue that stood towering over the harbor at Rhodes (one of the easternmost islands of Greece) was a depiction of the Greek god Helios (the god of the sun, from which we get the word ‘helium’, a gas first discovered in the solar atmosphere).

Though it only stood for a scant 56 years before its destruction by an Earthquake, this statue was grand enough to earn its place as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and in this context is better known as “The Colossus of Rhodes.”

Alexander’s Divided Empire

The story behind the Colossus begins just after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. The formerly great empire which Alexander had conquered became divided, as there was no clear consensus on who should be the great dictator’s imperial successor.

Each of Alexander’s generals seemed to favor different candidates, and thus the “Wars of the Diadochi” broke out (Diadochi means “successors”), ushering in the Hellenistic period of Greek history. But we don’t actually have to worry about this right now.

During this mayhem following Alexander’s death, the island of Rhodes decided to throw their weight behind one potential successor, Ptolemy, who was in control of Egypt. Rhodes was a rather important strategic location in the Mediterranean, so the other Diadochi did not appreciate this turn of events. One of them in particular, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, sent his son Demetrius Poliorcetes with an army of 40,000 to take Rhodes by force in 305 B.C.

The battle for Rhodes fierce one, with Demetrius’ army constructing all sorts of siege equipment but in the end failing to take the city, being forced to flee in 304 B.C. The people of Rhodes were understandably quite happy with the way things turned out, for the odds were certainly against them.

Besides having won a battle against Demetrius, whose name means “besieger of cities,” they were also able to gather up a considerable amount of weaponry and gear left behind by the besiegers and sell it at considerable profit.

And what did they do with this newfound wealth? They built a giant statue of their favorite god, standing right near the ocean, where it could be seen for miles by passing vessels and admired throughout the world.

Construction

The construction of the colossus, as designed by the builder Chares, lasted roughly 12 years, being finally completed in 280 B.C., at the end standing at a height of more than a hundred feet and being made mostly of bronze and iron.

Many famous depictions of the statue place it in the harbor at Rhodes, straddling the two sides as ships pass serenely between its giant legs. This, unfortunately, cannot possibly be the case, both according to historical documents and due to architectural reasons (this would have been a near-impossible feat at the time).

Most likely, the statue stood directly beside the water, gazing down menacingly on ships as they entered the harbor.

So massive was the statue of Helios that when an earthquake struck Rhodes in 225 B.C. and knocked the whole thing down, the tourists didn’t stop coming. Instead of coming to see a massively tall statue, however, they simply came to see the broken pieces of a massively tall statue.

And there those pieces continued to lie for an unprecedented 800 years before being sold to the highest bidder (and now not a single piece of that statue remains).

Pliny the Elder (a famous Roman historian) is said to have remarked that the broken thumb of the Colossus was so large that a man could barely fit his arms around it. While this is cleary an exaggeration, there’s still something rather impressive about a statue that was so revered that even the ruins lay undisturbed for nearly a millennium.

The people of Rhodes did consider rebuilding the statue, but the oracle at Delphi (one of the most famous of the many oracles used by the Greeks for spiritual insight) told them that they had made Helios angry, and thus probably shouldn’t try to build another statue of him anytime soon. So, like the good Greeks they were, they refrained.

There has been talk in recent years of the possibility of rebuilding the statue, however. One can only hope that the wrath of Helios has subsided by now.