July 31, 2020

Things learned only this morning.

The Colossus of Rhodes did not straddle the harbor.
The harbour-straddling Colossus was a figment of medieval imaginations based on the dedication text's mention of "over land and sea" twice and the writings of an Italian visitor who in 1395 noted that local tradition held that the right foot had stood where the church of St John of the Colossus was then located. Many later illustrations show the statue with one foot on either side of the harbour mouth with ships passing under it.
Why were we talking about the Colossus of Rhodes?!



ADDED: We were talking about this:

63 comments:

Big Mike said...

Why were we talking about the Colossus of Rhodes?!

I have no idea.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I assume it has something to do with Trump killing Herman Cain.

Mr. Forward said...

Back when the boats were small and rowed
The harbor he did straddle
But when the sails got tall enough
That’s when he skedaddled.

rehajm said...

Warning: visuals dangerously close to Game of Thrones reference...

Static Ping said...

You have become a fan of the Civilization games? Nothing like putting up a large gaudy bronze statue for bragging rights and civilization bonuses! the Great Library is just a lot of scrolls, pshaw.

In a more serious vein, trying to build a statue like it was a fancy bridge would have been exceedingly difficult in the classical era. It probably wouldn't have been impossible - the people of the time could be exceptionally clever when they really wanted to do something - but there was no real reason to build it that way. I have heard theories that not only was the statue not built across the harbor mouth, but it was not built near the port at all, instead being placed in the city itself at one of the higher points. It would have still been visible to ships from there; the thing was big. When you consider the sort of seismic activity that part of the world regularly experienced at the time, it makes it all the more implausible that they would even considered placing the Colossus such that it had a foot on two separate stretches of land. The thing lasted less than 60 years as it was; if boats were getting the full upskirt treatment it probably would have toppled over much sooner.

Bill Crawford said...

Because John Lewis was a "colossus"?

clint said...

Something to do with the tearing down of statues, or Mt. Rushmore and how it compares to the ancient wonders of the world?

chickelit said...

I had a chance to go to Rhodes this summer but Covid killed it.

alanc709 said...

God, just shut up, you imbeciles. If Trump killed Herman Cain, then Obama killed how many thousands with the influenza epidemics? Many more than he droned, for sure. Progressives and their ilk are truly vile people.

Gabriel said...

Ten days isn't enough time for Cain to catch the virus at a Trump rally and then be dead from it. The man traveled a lot and met a lot of people. Love it when the leftists here abandon their "love" for science to try score points on Trump using the corpse of a Black man they detest.

madAsHell said...

I always thought a man straddling the harbor was a little tasteless, but then I read ARM's comment.

TML said...

This is awesome because I JUST built the Colossus of Rhodes in my Civilization 6 game.

tcrosse said...

Why were we talking about the Colossus of Rhodes?

Around here we talk about little else.

Unknown said...

If you could see one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in its original condition, which would it be?


I'm thinking Phidias statue of Zeus at Olympia.

traditionalguy said...

The Colossus of Queens has one foot on NYC and one foot on DC.

Rick.T. said...

President Trump potentially toppled by the earthquakes of Covid, rioting, and economic contraction?

Ken B said...

Discussing the war on statues.

Static Ping said...

Unknown, if you want to see something that would resemble that Statue of Zeus, visit Nashville and see their recreation of the Parthenon. Their Athena is about the same height and makes quite the impression.

Howard said...

Trump didn't kill Ben Carson, you people did with all your antima(sk) rhetoric. Peer pressure is death. Why didn't the hydroxychloroquine zinc z-pack fake hoax of a cure save him?? Some Libtard doctor probably denied using it.

Rob said...

Because of the NYT acrostic puzzle.

Ann Althouse said...

"Because of the NYT acrostic puzzle"

I love the acrostic. No spoilers! Thanks for reminding me that the new one is up. So hard to wait 2 weeks.

But no.

There's a specific reason why were were talking about the CoR and no one has gotten close to it yet. Will reveal in a few hours. Please try. It relates to something that was in the news in the last couple weeks.

James L. Salmon said...

Howard said:

Trump didn't kill Ben Carson, you people did with all your antima(sk) rhetoric. Peer pressure is death. Why didn't the hydroxychloroquine zinc z-pack fake hoax of a cure save him?? Some Libtard doctor probably denied using it.

7/31/20, 9:46 AM

As a matter of fact "Trump didn't kill Ben Carson". After all, all black men look alike don't they? Stupid liberal hack.

Temujin said...

There had been talk that the EU wanted to build a new Colossus a few years ago. Is that back on the table?

Readering said...

Talking about statue of liberty leads to thinking of ancient analogues.

Temujin said...

From the end of June: Earthquake hits Rhodes

Temujin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sam L. said...

Just....BECAUSE

Vance said...

The 7 ancient wonders of the world:

Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Great Pyramid at Giza
Colossus of Rhodes
Temple of Artemis
Tomb of Heilocarnuss (?--Tomb of somebody on the coast of Turkey; this name is vaguely close)
Lighthouse of Alexandria
Statue of Zeus

Huh. Not bad--Knew them all from memory.

Which one I would want to see? Either the lighthouse or the Temple of Artemis, I think. I can still go see Giza, though when it was covered in alabastar it was probably magnificent.

Narayanan said...

what I want to know is if Herman Cain was taking the HCQ + zinc + Az cocktail?
If not why not?

Not Sure said...

Blogger Howard said...
Trump didn't kill Ben Carson, you people did with all your antima(sk) rhetoric.

They really do all look alike to you, apparently.

Quaestor said...

The colossal statue of Helios stood near the end of a long spit which partially enclosed the anchorage on the north, projecting approximately southeast. Like other such promontories, the spit was a deposition of sand created by the prevailing winds and currents. The Rhodians extended and reinforced the spit with a jetty made of quarried stone. The statue, about 100 feet high, was erected on that jetty as a monument to the wealth and commercial power of the island.

From about 500 BC Rhodes dominated the bronze trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Though the true explanation of Rhodian prosperity is unknown, contemporary authors, Pausanias, Strabo, etc., believed the Rhodians had a secret source of tin which might have been Britain. Be that as it may, the Alexandrian wars sparked a tremendous surge in the demand for bronze leading in turn to a tremendous surge in the coffers of Rhodes. In celebration of their success, the Rodians planned an executed a monument designed specifically to rival the Zeus of Phidias.

The Colossus was built of bronze plates riveted or nailed to a wooden skeleton, not unlike Gustave Eiffel's design for the Statue of Liberty. Unlike "Lady Liberty" the wooden framework of Helios didn't suffer from galvanic corrosion. Unfortunately, the Colossus was toppled by an earthquake in 226 BC, a life of but 54 years. The statue fell mostly on the jetty it was raised on, the wreckage later sold for scrap. The Colossus might have survived much longer if it had been erected on the mainland rather than the reinforced spit. Such landforms are notoriously unstable and can shake with exceeding violence in even an otherwise moderate seismic disturbance. Port Royal, the buccaneer capital of colonial Jamaica, was built on a similar spit and was destroyed in a similar manner on 7 June 1692.

The site of the Colossos of Rhodes is completely gone now. The Knights Hospitallers removed what remained of the jetty in the 13th century, using its dressed stone to erect their fortifications and a new harbor south of the ancient anchorage.

A bit of trivia: The Roman gladiatorial arena known to tourists as the "Colosseum" is more properly known as the Flavian Amphitheater. The Colosseum was a gilt bronze statue of Nero that stood nearby. The mad emperor commissioned that monument to himself to be a copy of the Rhodian Colossus.

Dr Weevil said...

Vance:
The place is Halicarnassus, hometown of Herodotus, now Bodrum in SW Turkey, and the tomb was the tomb of Mausolus, built by his widow and named the Mausoleum after him. It was only later that that word came to be used for anyone's tomb, not just a man named Mausolus. Similarly, a Museum was originally a temple of the Muses, not just any building full of publicly-viewable art.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Could it have something to do with the fact that the only people left in Trump's 'team' are ratfuckers?

PM said...

Pertinent to nothing, but it was only late in life I discovered the great Greek statuary, monuments and buildings as well as Egypt's pyramids and statuary were colorfully painted. Changed my perception of the ancients in that they were every bit the hacks we are.

Narr said...

Halicarnassus.

I'd go for the Hanging Gardens first. Second is a tie Rhodes/Alexandria.

Narr
Hanging herb gardens . . .

clint said...

Ah. The Hagia Sofia.

Another wonder of the world desecrated by muslim conquerors?

Anthony said...

>>I can still go see Giza, though when it was covered in alabastar it was probably magnificent.

(Actually, limestone)

I'm guessing it (CoR) was probably not as exciting as it's been made out to be. Although I wonder if, had the pyramids been completely dismantled for building materials (as the outer casing stones were), we'd believe they were as big as they are. I've been there a number of times and it always surprises me just how big they really are. It's kind of like wandering around a midwestern town and then turning a corner and seeing the Petronas Towers standing there.

Narayanan said...

Byzantine vs Roman Hagia Sophia vs. Pantheon

and

Is the Parthenon one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by nearly 2,000 years. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders that still survives largely intact. For 4,000 years it was the tallest building in the world.

Owen said...

It symbolizes male dominance and looks suspiciously white. Pull it down!

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Thank God for the loincloth. Still, there would be some highly comical harbor defense opportunities if he wasn't wearing it.

Rick.T. said...

"... visit Nashville and see their recreation of the Parthenon."

Lots of civic pride that they've kept theirs in better shape than the one in Athens.

Quaestor said...

Tomb of Heilocarnuss (?--Tomb of somebody on the coast of Turkey; this name is vaguely close)

Halicarnassus was the location. The tomb was built for Mausolaus, the tyrannos of Asia. Halicarnassus was just one of the cities under his control in 353 BC, the year of his death. The Halicarnassians were particularly well off, and to preserve their wealth and commerce they promised Mausolaus a spectacular monument to rival anything heretofore built. Known as the Mausoleum, the structure combined a foundation like that of an Egyptian pyramid topped with a classical temple in the Corthinian style. The Mausoleum stood until the 12th century when an earthquake swarm toppled it. In about 1470 the Knights of St. John of Rhodes, the rebranded Knights Hospitallers who re-purposed the foundation of the Colossus of Rhodes, conquered and annexed much of what is now the coast of Turkey. In 1494 they began work on Bodrum Castle, once more using the remains of a Wonder of the World as building material.

bagoh20 said...

" It relates to something that was in the news in the last couple weeks."

I don't remember anything about sailing under colossal taint, but I don't catch every post. That must have been a good one.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

Because Cecil Rhodes was a colossus and is now being cancelled? Because Bill Clinton (of recent eulogy fame) was a Rhodes Scholar and is not being cancelled despite colossal allegations of a #believeallwomenexceptifthepervisademocrat nature? Because Dusty Rhodes was a giant of fake wrestling and died a few years ago, before cancel culture could cancel him?

Static Ping said...

Vance, if I could see any of them in their glory, I'd probably go with the Colossus. The problem with the Colossus is that it remained on the list as a ruins, because it was just that impressive.

I believe the Walls of Babylon are one of the Seven Wonders in some lists.

FWBuff said...

Because Oxford University is going to remove its statue of the "imperialist" Cecil Rhodes, and the very name "Rhodes Scholarship" is also under attack by the Woke army.

https://www.artlyst.com/news/oxford-statue-imperialist-cecil-rhodes-removed/

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

discussing the benefits of going 'commando' as the weather warms

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Clinton at the funeral
Clinton was a Rhodes scholar
Statue of Cecil Rhodes to be torn down
Colossus of Rhodes razed
Bill Clinton a colossal rapist

daskol said...

All my life I thought it was the great library of Alexandria. The Halicarnassus mausoleum is basically rebuilt in the British museum, and it’s not even the greatest wonder in that museum if you ask me.

Josephbleau said...

Whatever are the seven great things of the world, antifa will turn them to shit. They must be burned.

Howard said...

You should write a history book Q. You have a very digestible style.

Rob said...

The New New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our floodlight-washed city street shall sit
A mighty woman with a snatch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exhibitionists. From her spread legs
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The riot police that anchor fencing frames.
“It's good to air this out!” cries she
About her outer lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
There's room for all inside my golden door!”

The Godfather said...

The great building that I am most happy to have had the chance to know is the Empire State Building. Sure, it isn't the tallest building in the world any more, but that's what it was when I visited it as a child and then as a young man. And it's plenty tall enough for me even now. I never got higher than the basement of the World Trade Center towers, but I do well remember seeing them, from a distance, on September 9, 2001. The memorial that's there today is very moving.

Big Mike said...

Well, at least this named Athena didn’t turn the men who gazed upon her into stags, to be torn apart by their own hounds.

Frankly, I thought she really wasn’t all that hot.

Lucien said...

Is that thing next to Naked Athena a Man-Hole cover? A Drudgian juxtaposition?

Ken B said...

Okay, I did not see that coming.

Ken B said...

To me it looks like she is exerting privilege.

Quaestor said...

The Knights of St. John (Hospitallers, whatever) were eventually expelled from Rhodes by the Ottoman Turks. Emperor Charles V, the same Hapsburg who convened the Diet of Worms and outlawed Martin Luther, granted them the sovereignty of Malta in 1520, and from that strategically located island, they waged naval warfare against the Turks for nearly three hundred years until they were again expelled by Napoleon in 1798. (BTW, Dashiell Hammett's fabled "Maltese Falcon" was supposed to be a gift from the Knights to Charles.)

Let's see... Founded in Jerusalem in 1113, expelled by Saladin, re-established in Acre where their grandmaster, Teobaldo Visconti, was elected as Pope Gregory X, expelled from Acre to Rhodes where they when into the Wonder recycling business, expelled again to Malta, then sent packing by Bonaparte. Of all the crusading orders only the Hospitallers have survived, today they are known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, a charitable lay organization within the Roman Catholic Church devoted to healthcare.

Another bit of trivia: A certain associate member of the Knights of St John, by rank a sergeant rather than a knight, was wounded in the right hand at the naval Battle of Lepanto, the greatest victory of Christendom of Islam. As he was now a cripple this former soldier sought another means of living. Teaching himself to write left-handed, Miguel Cervantes went on to create one of the most enduring works of literature -- Don Quixote.

Bunkypotatohead said...

She really showed them

Quaestor said...

Well, at least this named Athena didn’t turn the men who gazed upon her into stags, to be torn apart by their own hounds.

I haven't read the Theogony in many years, however, I believe it was Artemis (Roman Diana) who did that trick.

Quaestor said...

Mattew Klug is apparently more severely ignorant than most millennials, which is pretty damned porcine truth be told. He knows the name but hasn't a clue otherwise.

There is not a single Classical, Hellenistic, or Roman representation of Athene (Minerva) that is not fully clothed. In fact, Athene was born fully clothed, which is something no mortal can claim. Alone among the Olympians, Athene remained a virgin.

Big Mike said...

naked Athena, not named

And Quaestor is right. It was my long-ago girlfriend Artemis. After that episode I got rid of my dogs.

hstad said...


Blogger Lucien said...
Is that thing next to Naked Athena a Man-Hole cover? A Drudgian juxtaposition?

7/31/20, 10:11 PM

Thank You I saw it too! But when I lived in NYC "man-hole" covers used to explode daily? You think it was "Athena" that got them off?