Writing some 200 years after the Colossus was built, Pliny stokes the sense of wonder that had caused the Colossus to be included in the list of themata : “That which is by far the most worthy of our admiration, is the colossal statue of the Sun, which stood formerly at Rhodes, and was the work of Chares the Lindian.” Pliny’s account puts the statue at “70 cubits”-around 108 to 110 feet (the exact dimensions of Greek cubits varied somewhat from place to place). The principal ancient source for the Colossus’ dimensions is Pliny the Elder’s first-century A.D. Learn why Greek and Roman gods share so many similarities, how the alphabet got its name, and how the legacy of ancient Greece has evolved over thousands of years. Modern art historians do not know what sources he relied on to gather his information, and many dispute the methodology described in his text.įrom artistry to politics, ancient Greece left a considerable impression on world history. However, Philo was writing more than 100 years after the Colossus had been built. Philo wrote: “The artist heaped up a huge mound of earth round each section as soon as it was completed, thus burying the finished work under the accumulated earth, and carrying out the casting of the next part on the level.” Then the statue rose like a building as each new section was attached to the one beneath it. Work began at the bottom, and the feet were put in place first. Philo’s treatise proposes that it was cast in a customized way, different from most statues: It was built in situ, piece by piece. Many questions remain as to what exact methods he employed to build it. Working from 294 to 282 B.C., Chares took 12 years to erect the Colossus. Chares may have conceived his commission with a great statue of Zeus in mind: Sculpted by Phidias for the temple of Zeus at Olympia, this statue was massive, described as being seven times larger than life. As an offering to Rhodes’s most important divinity, the new statue had to measure up to what it represented-the Rhodians’ victory and the god who made it possible. Respected across the Greek world, he was a pupil of the famous sculptor Lysippus, a favorite artist of Alexander the Great. engineer Philo of Byzantium, explains that the statue required 12 to 13 tons of bronze, “an operation that involved the bronze industry of the entire world.” Sources say that some bronze was scavenged from the abandoned Helepolis, and the rest was purchased with money raised by selling the weapons and armor left behind by Demetrius.Ĭhares of Lindos, a Rhodian sculptor, was commissioned to construct the monument. A treatise entitled On the Seven Wonders of the World, attributed to second-century B.C. To build the massive statue, Rhodes needed bronze, and a lot of it. The island of Rhodes was sacred to him, and he its patron deity. Lord of the sun, Helios drove his chariot across the sky each day. In Greek mythology, Helios was one of the Titans, the gods who ruled over Greece before the Olympians. In gratitude for withstanding the siege, the inhabitants of Rhodes decided to build an extraordinary statue in honor of Helios. In exchange, they would remain politically and economically autonomous. Rhodes and Macedonia agreed that the Rhodians would back Antigonus against his enemies except Ptolemy. Rhodes stood strong, and Demetrius withdrew after an unsuccessful, yearlong siege. Protected by metal plates and armed with catapults, this fearsome weapon failed to bring victory to Demetrius. After several failed attempts to capture the city, Demetrius ordered the construction of a Helepolis (“taker of cities”), a wheeled siege tower that may have stood more than 100 feet tall. The city, also called Rhodes, grew prosperous through trade and built up strong commercial and diplomatic relationships with other Mediterranean powers.Īntigonus sent his son Demetrius to subdue Rhodes in 305 B.C. three city-states on the Mediterranean island of Rhodes (Lindos, Kameiros, and Ialysos) banded together to build a new federal capital and port. historian Diodorus Siculus recorded the fourth-century B.C. Luckily for historians, why the Colossus was built is easily found in the historical record. This vacuum has filled with much speculation and artistic license, but certain clues have helped researchers piece together credible theories about this marvelous structure. Historians have very little information as to what the structure looked like, where it stood, and how it was built. Toppled by an earthquake around 225 B.C., the massive statue stood for a little more than 50 years. Like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (which some say never existed), the exact appearance of the Colossus that towered over the port of Rhodes is a mystery.
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