The Colossus of Rhodes

Abstract

The Colossus of Rhodes is both the most famous and the least well-known monument of ancient Greece. Numbered among the Seven Wonders of the World, this bronze statue of the god Helios, 34 m in height, was created by the sculptor Chares of Lindos between the years 295 and 283 bc, only to be destroyed by an earthquake in 227 bc. The legends that have spread after its collapse seem so strange and contradictory that, from an archaeological point of view, it has become a minor and almost negligible object, which the best specialists of Greek sculpture hardly mention. This book is the first to propose a comprehensive approach to the Colossus. It envisages the statue in its religious, political, and topographical contexts. It explores its function, its technique, its appearance, its meaning, and its location. It reconsiders the beginnings of the Hellenistic world, marked by the emergence of Rhodes as an imperial power, embodied by the Colossus.