Колосс Родосский

4.3

18 ratings

Rate this place

Level 20 Local Expert

There was a giant statue of the ancient Greek sun god Helios. One of the "Seven Wonders of the World". The work of the famous Rhodes school of sculpture. Around 294-282 BC, the Rhodians, in honor of the heroically sustained siege, ordered the sculptor Hares, a pupil of Lysippus, a statue ten times higher than human height, that is, about 18 meters high. But then the residents of the city demanded to double the height of the statue (up to 32 or 36 meters). Hares worked on the order of the Rhodians for twelve years. The statue he created represented a slender young god with a radiant crown on his head. He stood on a white marble pedestal, leaning back slightly, and stared intently into the distance. The statue could have stood in the port right at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes or at a distance from it. The statue was made of clay, it was based on a frame of stone and iron, and on top it was covered with bronze sheets. For greater stability of the statue, a spear or cloak draperies may have been used as an additional support. Judging by the relief images found on Rhodes, Helios' head was crowned with a crown of rays, and his hand was raised to his forehead. To work on the image of god directly at the site of its installation, Hares used an original technique: with the gradual elevation of the sculpture, an earthen hill around it rose; the hill was subsequently demolished. After the construction was completed, Hares was completely ruined and surrounded by creditors, so he committed suicide. It took 500 talents of bronze and 300 talents of iron (about 13 and about 7.8 tons, respectively) to make the grandiose monument. The colossus also gave rise to a kind of fashion for giant statues, in Rhodes already in the II century BC about a hundred colossal sculptures were installed. It stood for a little over half a century until it was destroyed by an earthquake.

See original · Русский