An Alternative Timeline for the Colossus of Rhodes

The Ancient Near East Today ^ | December 2024 | Michael Denis Higgins

[SunkenCiv]

...The usual story is that the fragments remained untouched for 880 years until the invasion by the Umayyad caliph Muawiya I. However, literary and geological evidence suggest a more complex, and more likely, story involving several reconstructions, finishing with a devastating earthquake in 142...

The little we know about the statue comes from the frustratingly brief writings of Philo... Strabo... and Pliny... however none of these authors describe what it actually looked like, apart from its height. It is generally assumed that the head of Helios resembled that on Rhodian coins... and that it topped a rather austere vision of the god, perhaps holding a torch with a spear or military cloak...

The account continues that the bronze fragments of the statue were left untouched on the ground for 880 years until the invasion of the Arabs...They gathered the remains, transported them to Syria and sold them to a Jewish merchant. However, this seems a very unlikely scenario and the story was probably invented at a much later date for political reasons...

the Greek historian Eusebius... suggests a shorter and more complex story... The first restoration seems to have been shortly after the earthquake in 226... ...

ell for a second time during an earthquake in 107... This earthquake must have been relatively minor as it did not leave a notch in the cliffs... Later Byzantine historians relate that the Colossus was restored during the reign of Vespasian... and again during Hadrian's time, perhaps in association with an official visit in 123... we do not know of a nearby earthquake between the reigns of Vespasian and Hadrian.

[SunkenCiv]

Figure 4: Erosional notches in cliffs record periods of sea-level stability, when waves erode at a single level in weakly tidal seas like the Mediterranean. Such notches are used to reconstruct the uplift and submergence produced during earthquakes.

Image by the author, after Higgins, 2023.

"Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms," the Roman author and philosopher Pliny the Elder said of the Colossus, "and its fingers are larger than most statues." According to legend, the construction not only functioned as a lighthouse, guiding ships to and from Rhodes's bay, but was also thought to come alive to defend the island if it was threatened by attacker.

Huge! A Colossal Statue of Ancient Greece That Lives on in Legend | Tim Brinkhof | Artnet News | October 13, 2024

[SunkenCiv]

[Bigg Red]

Mark

[chajin]

Of course it’s all conjecture, but in the article I found it interesting that the reconstruction would have been an alteration to include contrapposto, as would be expected in Hellenistic sculpture

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Starting with your linked article about the Colossus of Rhodes, I began looking up the location of Rhodes on the Aegean Sea and from there began reading about the Phoenicians and their sea and land trade routes to the products they manufactured and their lack of a monetary system for international trade and their use of barter.

That’ was a pleasant 45 minutes! Now I want to spend an entire summer in Greece and Turkey exploring ancient sites and museums. Unfortunately, next summer is fully booked with a trip with my sister and BIL through Glacier, the Bitterroot River Valley, Banff and Lake Louise, then a fall trip to Ireland and Scotland.

My wife has little interest in ancient history or anthropology (actually, let me rephrase — she has ZERO interest), so I may need to go spend a summer in the Aegean and Mediterranean by myself.

[SunkenCiv]

Banff — I’d like to go there just for the placename. :^) I think there’s a large scenic hotel there.

[Jimmy Valentine]

I have been there and will tell not to miss Rhodes. It is beautiful and there is so much to see and do. Remember that for a while the Knights of Malta were there

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I was looking at some photos of Rhodes. My gosh, it is really beautiful! I’ve never been to Greece or Turkey and I’m missing a lot.

[Bigg Red]

Rhodes is magnificently preserved in parts as they were in the time of the Knights. Do it.

I was blown away visiting the museum in Heraklion. It is one thing to learn of these artifacts in school, but it is such a privilege to stand before them. I was enraptured.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

" it is such a privilege to stand before them. I was enraptured."

I feel that way whenever I'm at any historical site. I try to imagine the people who were there, what they were experiencing, how they lived, what they accomplished and what they built.

Here's a recent example. We were driving through Oregon a couple weeks ago and, at a rest stop in Chiloquin, there was an historical marker for the Pacific Railroad Survey. A survey party stopped there August 20, 1855. They were searching for a practicable route from Sacramento, CA to the Columbia River. Now remember that California only got populated by Anglos starting in 1849, just six years prior. And the first commercial railroad was built in 1826. It was the Granite Railway in Massachusetts, only 29 years before this expedition. There weren't many people in the west and the government was already conducting four surveys for east-west transcontinental railway routes and a north-south route in California and Oregon.

That's amazing progress in a short period of time -- about the same amount of time for the introduction of the personal computer, internet, and mobile phones to go from first prototypes to broad commercial acceptance and widespread usage.

I was reading about the great expansion of the Phoenicians and their technologies and artworks. So many similarities to our recent past!

I haven't spent much time at ancient sites in Europe and hope to visit more. Thanks for the info and encouragement!

[SunkenCiv]

> My wife has little interest in ancient history or anthropology (actually, let me rephrase — she has ZERO interest), so I may need to go spend a summer in the Aegean and Mediterranean by myself.

Aegean — I’ve never been there, but the ‘gateway drug’ is to start having Greek food with her, say, once a month.

Santorini has the ancient ruins of Akrotiri on the north edge, high up. The whole island is a lot of up and down walking by the look of it. Crowds are somethin’ else I believe (2.5 million visitors a year, mostly during a ten or so week period). Great sunsets. Finicula to get from the shore debarkation point up the hill. Accommodations are very tourist-oriented from there all around to the north and west. There are excursions of a few hours over to the active part of the volcano, go swimming in warm water.

There are a LOT of YouTube vids on Aegean islands, also on taking an Aegean cruise which obviously takes care of the accommodation needs and has the advantage of island hopping, including to Santorini.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

” the ‘gateway drug’ is to start having Greek food with her”

LOL...I’ll have to give that a try. We have a Greek restaurant in Coeur d’Alene I have yet to try.

[Windcatcher]

I’m half Greek and grew up with it. I’d give a lot for a Greek restaurant around me. Sadly they’re rare in the extreme.

[SunkenCiv]

Stuffed grape leaves with lamb makes a nice side. :^) Baklava for one of the desserts (;^). Sometimes baklava isn’t as good as other times, but I’ve *never* had bad baklava. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

Maybe there’s a Greek or mixed ethnic grocery store. That’s where I get my sides. Come to think of it, I’ve not done that in a long while, seems like a good project for tomorrow, gotta drive out of The Boonies and head to not-so-big city...

[Windcatcher]

I’m just a few miles outside Philly, in Delco. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a pizza place, hoagie place, or cheesesteak place (often one and the same), but finding Greek food? Very, very hard.

[Jimmy Valentine]

I will add that there few pleasures in life greater than floating in the Mediterranean on a warm summers’ day.

[abb]

“There are a LOT of YouTube vids on Aegean islands, also on taking an Aegean cruise which obviously takes care of the accommodation needs and has the advantage of island hopping, including to Santorini.”

We did this back in September. NCL cruise line. Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Kusadasi, Mykonos, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini.

Surprisingly, the most interesting location was Istanbul. Found the folks to be very industrious and friendly. Did not feel unsafe at all - probably walked 5 miles throughout the city - train station, mosques, the underground cistern from “From Russia With Love,” the Golden Horn, etc.

I would recommend this cruise without hesitation.

[Red Badger]

There should be a statue of Randy Rhodes...............

[bert]

Omitted from the piece is the fact that the Colossus of Rhodes is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world