The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. An example of a modern colossus is the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.
Of two colossal figures of Jesus in South America, one is at Rio de Janeiro, and the other, the Christ of the Andes, on the boundary between Argentina and Chile. The most notable are those at Nara, Kamakura, and Kyoto. In Japan, the word daibutsu describes colossal statues of Buddha, usually over 16 ft (5 m) in height. The Athena Parthenos on the Acropolis at Athens and the Zeus in the temple at Olympia in Greece were other examples. In Egypt, for example, there were many colossuses, 50 to 60 ft (15.2 to 18.3 m) high. In reality, it stood on a promontory overlooking the harbor, and the representational type is well known from images on coins of the same period.Ĭolossi also existed elsewhere in the ancient world.
According to legend, the 100 ft (30.5 m) statue stood astride the harbor and ships passed between its legs. Consider one of the Seven Wonders of the World by the ancients, it was built in part by Chares of Lindus (Rhodes) between 292 and 280 BC Its bronze was taken from the machines and tools left behind by Demetrius I after his unsuccessful siege of Rhodes. Before its destruction, the Colossus of Rhodes stood over 30 meters (107 ft) high, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world. It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Colossus of Rhodes kəlŏs´əs, large statue of Helios, the sun god, destroyed by an earthquake in antiquity. The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek god Helios, erected on the Greek island of Rhodes by Chares of Lindos between 292 and 280 BC.