Ancient Statue of Liberty

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Everyone knows the New York "Statue of Liberty", a gift from France to America, but not everyone knows that sometimes it is also called "The Modern Kolos". In ancient times there was a so-called "Colossus of Rhodes", a likeness of our modern "Statue of Liberty". The ancient "Statue of Liberty" stood more than twenty-five centuries ago at the entrance to the harbor to the island of Rhodes.

The "Colossus" stood about at the same height as the American "Statue of Liberty" today. And even today the Kolos of Rhodes is one of the brightest seven wonders of the world of the ancient world.

History of the city of Rhodes

The island itself called Rhodes was then quite an important and very promising center in the economy of the ancient world. He was at the south-western edge of Asia Minor, where the very Aegean Sea intersects with the Mediterranean. The city on the island was built in the far 408 BC. and was conceived to take advantage of the best natural harbor from the island on the north coast.

In the year 357 BC. the island of Rhodes was first conquered by the Mausolus himself, who fell from the Persians in 340 BC, and was later captured by the great Alexander of Macedon in 332 BC. After the death of the great Alexander at an early age of fever, his generals for a long time fought among themselves for the possession of the vast kingdom of Alexander. Three of them, Ptolemy, Seleucus and Antigous, still divided the possessions among themselves.

The Rhodians supported Ptolemy (who, following the Deleuze, ruled Egypt) in this struggle for freedom. This angered Antigous, who sent his own son Demetrius to capture and punish the city of Rhodes.

The war turned out to be very long and a lot of blood was spilled. Demetrius brought with him a 40-thousand army. It was much more than the population of all Rhodes. Also, his forces complemented the Aegean pirates.

The city was protected by very powerful, high walls. During the siege a wooden sedimentary tower was used. However, during the storm this large tower was destroyed, thanks to which the Rhodians won. Demetrius built another siege tower almost 150 feet high and with a basement area of ​​about 75 square meters. The tower was also equipped with a catapult and bark of trees to protect the attackers from the archers. There even were provided reservoirs for water in case of fighting fire from fire arrows. This powerful tower was firmly mounted on iron wheels and could be moved to the very walls of the city.

When Demetrius again attacked the city, the defenders managed to stop this machine with the help of all the dirt and impurities that the inhabitants themselves poured from the walls of the city. By that time it had been almost a year of siege, and the fleet from Egypt had already arrived. Demetrius had to retreat, leaving his tower on the spot where it was.

Statue of Colossus of Rhodes

To properly celebrate the victory and its long-awaited freedom, the Rhodians decided to build a huge statue in honor of their god Helios. They took and remelted the bronze machines left by Demetrius for exterior decoration, and the logs of the super tower served as the basis for the figure. According to the historian Pliny, who lived several centuries after the construction of the Colossus of Rhodes, the construction took approximately 12 years. Other historians argue that the beginning of the work began somewhere in 304 BC.

The Colossus statue was 110 feet high, on a fifty-foot pedestal next to the harbor. The statue itself was decorated in all the old traditions of the Greek style "nude", on the head a crown with thorns, and shielded by the right hand from the rising sun, holding a cloak over the left hand. Other sources also say that in his right hand Helios had a torch, which then served as a lighthouse.

It was built of bronze plates and an iron case (quite similar to today's Statue of Liberty: copper on a steel frame.) According to the records, Pilon of Byzantium wrote that for the statue itself, approximately 15 tons of bronze and about 9 tons of iron were used. of the same size and weighs 225 tons.The colossus, which then consisted of weaker materials, was supposed to weigh no less, perhaps even more.

Ancient historians also say that inside the statue itself were several stone pillars as the main frame. The iron bars were driven into the stone and connected with the bronze outer shell. Each bronze plate poured very carefully and then settled in its place and connected with adjacent plates and with an iron frame. The statue itself was made of clay.

The architect of this great construction was Hares from Linda, the sculptor - Fodian, a participant in the siege of the city. Hares already had the experience of building large-scale statues. His teacher, Lysippos, erected a 60-foot statue, a likeness of Zeus. Hares before making the statue made several different reduced models of the statue, then used as a cheat sheet during construction. On the last three-foot copy, there was a building. For the prototype, Hares used bronze plates and skin.

On the white pedestal with a white marble construction began. With the manufacture of each level of the statue, he fell asleep in bulk. By this method, Hares killed two birds with one stone: thanks to the embankment it was more convenient to cover the plates with the plates above, and also the unfinished statue of Helios was hidden from the views of curious onlookers.

Hares and could not live to complete the construction of the Colossus of Rhodes. There are several legends about the death of the architect. The first legend says that when the "Colossus" was almost completed, someone pointed to one small defect in the design. The sculptor put his hands on himself.
Another legend is more interesting, it says that the city authorities wanted to double the height of the statue. Hares just doubled the construction budget, he did not take into account that the amount of materials for construction is increased eight-fold. This fact brought him to complete bankruptcy and suicide.
At the moment there is no evidence of the veracity of any version.

The fate of the ancient statue

When the construction was completed and the embankment was removed, all the inhabitants were very much surprised by the beauty and grandeur of the Colossus of Rhodes. But ironically, the statue stood only 56 years and was destroyed by an earthquake, when the statue collapsed, huge pieces of the figure lay along the bay for centuries.
Many tourists came to look at the wreckage, not all could grab even the big finger of Helios. More and more legends appeared around the statue. There were legends that the "Colossus" was even so large that ships entering the harbor floated under Helios, whose feet were widely on different sides of the harbor.
To exaggerate it is visible liked. Today's historians do not even know 100% of the place where the statue was placed.

Until 977, the pieces of the "Colossus" simply lay while the Arab conquerors did not sell the statue to the merchants for scrap, they say that most of the debris fell into the hands of the Syrian rich. The legend also says that to transport the remains of the "Colossus" it took about 900-odd camels. Yet the sad yet end of one of the wonders of the world.

Recently, there was an idea to restore the "Colossus of Rhodes". Even there were attempts to restore the statue in 2004 to the opening of the Athens Olympics. But there were many opponents who argued that this would be a mockery of the cultural heritage of Greece.