September 4, 2025 • 28 mins
Imagine you're an ancient traveler, visiting Rhodes for the first time in 280 BCE. As you approach the famed city, a singular object dominates the horizon: a huge statue of the Greek sun god Helios, popularly known as the "Colossus of Rhodes." In the fourth part of this series on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Ben, Noel and Max explore how this titanic sculpture came to be -- and how its phenomenal legacy still remains with us in the modern day.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for a wonder
of the modern podcasting world. Our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Who do we have joining us here? None other than
the man, the myth, the legend, a wonder old zone.
(00:48):
It's mister Noel Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Desired, thank you very much. Not much of a colossus,
more of a what's the what's the opposite of a colossus?
A pigmy?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh no, come now, man, that's charged. You're a Titan.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you, buddy, I remember those guys.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, you're welcome by grow my name from that movie
Clash of the Titans.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Remember the Titans Titans. Yeah, that's a football movie with
what's that guy's name, Denzel Washington, the ragtag football kind
of crew.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Who says he no longer watches films. By the way,
my name is Ben Bollen. We are going to talk
about a continuing series. Way back in the days of yore,
by which means several years ago, we got together in
one of our pitch meetings and we started asking ourselves
(01:45):
what are the Wonders of the Ancient World? Do you
remember that one?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Oh? How could I forget? What? Do we have? The
Hanging Gardens of Babylon? The of course? Did we do
the Pyramids of Giza? Certainly we did, Maybe we didn't.
We've certainly talked about that one.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I'm saving for last because that's the only one we
actually know.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
For n h. Yeah, those are still around, you can
still catch them. We did the Did we do Easter Island? No,
we talked about that actually recently on stuff they don't
want you to do. Yes, I'm so sorry, Max. It
was a great series, but I'm spacing on all of
the ones that we did. Babylon is the one that
I know for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
We're also going to have a metacognitive series or a
meta series, at least an episode on what makes a
wonder because, as we found in our exploration, a little
bit of an arbitrary ranking. Who are we to judge? Well,
we're your pals over at Ridiculous History. This is part
(02:42):
four of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and we're
talking about the Colossus of Roads. Unlike some of our
previous stuff. To your point, nol, the Colossus totally existed.
(03:06):
Maybe we start with knocking out a little bit of
background devo, a little bit of context. Maybe we start
with a buddy of ours, Greek god named Helios.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Indeed, Helios according to our pals over Britannica, as the
Greek sun god. Britannica knows that he was actually a Titan,
child of the Titan Hyperion and Theia, the Titans in
fact plural, while he, according to Britannica, drove a chariot
daily from east to west across the sky and sailed
(03:43):
around the northerly stream of ocean each night in a
huge cup. In classical Greece, Helios was especially worshiped in Rhodes,
where from at least the early fifth century BCE he
was regarded as the chief god to whom the island belonged.
His work spread as he became increasingly identified with other deities,
(04:03):
often under Eastern influence.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
All right, so let's talk a little bit about that
aforementioned Roads in the earlier quote, especially worshiped in Roads.
As we'll see, folks, with a big shout out to
our research associate Max Williams spoiler also our super producer,
there's a lot of what Corporate America would call synergy
(04:28):
between these two between these two concepts. The thing about
the City of Roads is that the City of Roads
in that time is on an island in the Mediterranean
Sea that is closer to modern day Turkey than it
is to modern day Greece. Just because we always love
(04:49):
our history complicated, that island is also called Roads. So
there's a city called Roads, there's an island called Roads.
And to our friends at Britannica, again, tip of the cap,
the largest urban center on the island, Roads sits at
the northeasternmost tip of Roads.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
The island got it. Indeed, they go on to say
that in classical history, Rhodes was a massively crucial and
powerful maritime force. It also had a lot of influence
on Mediterranean history, as well as the preservation of architecture
(05:35):
of the Gothic and Ottoman styles. So we've got a
sun god who hangs out on the water and a
city on the water, and now it's time for us
to talk about how this thing actually got built.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
The city of Rhodes, writes mart Cart right, who we
are not doing an impression of with each five haulbas
was ideally placed on the island of the same name.
The prosper from trade during the Hellenistic domination of the
Mediterranean under Alexander the Great Successors, especially when more and
(06:11):
more cities were established in the east. The island's wealth
strategic position on these trade routes, they got noticed by
a lot of foreign grand pubas, a lot of.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Big to dos for sure. Is that is absolutely accurate. Antigonus,
who is one of Alexander's successors who controlled Macedon and
northern Greece, was one of those grand puba types, and
he sent his son Demetrius, the first of Macedon, to
attack roads between three or five and three or four BCE,
(06:47):
which off Mike Ben pointed out to me BCE counts backwards.
So there you go. The island's recent alliances with Antigonus's
rival Ptolemy, the first you might have heard of over
there in Egypt. It was another into attack roads and
to neutralize that naval fleet.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, they were super beefed up, even if they couldn't
afford a lot of cattle at the time. So there's
this twelve month siege lasting what we would call a
year in the modern day. Our buddies, the Rhodians, the
people who live on the island or in the city
of Rhodes. They have a lot of stockades, blockations, fortifications,
(07:29):
and they're able to withstand this siege such that our
buddy Demetrius says, look, will stop blockading you. We gotta
make stuff worthwhile for everybody. Let's negotiate a truce. And
so Demetrius from this gets his honorific We love it honorific.
(07:52):
This is how Demetrius gets the street name Besieger of Cities.
But he doesn't get much else from this. He just
leaves behind a bunch of his siege toys.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Where does he get these wonderful toys? It's a good question.
That includes thirty six point five meters of high tower
that the Rhodians were then able to sell off to
make a little scratch. And here is the thing. Thanks
to the Port's making them a center for trade, they
already had a ton of money, so they decided to
(08:30):
ball out further. Yeah just a bit, yeah, okay, I
love a smidge bit, max Uh and honor their patron God,
which is where we see Charles of Lindis entering the
chat rights. I knew you would do it. Charis not Charles.
That's a different dynasty entirely. Thank you, Max with the facts.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Phone.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Up in the knowledge it's just for you.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Sofia, Mary.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Cares were Chars. If you guys preferred, don't call me Chuck.
Lindis is at the Helm and this guy is figured
out the wait for herculean task of sculpting this giant
thing they're calling Helios. And if you look back to
(09:29):
our buddy Plenty the Elder, a returning guest on the show,
This statue, the Colossus of Rhodes as we call it now,
it took a lot of effort. It took at least
twelve years to be completed, and they made a bronze
figure which stood about what we in the US would
(09:52):
call one hundred and.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Eight feet high.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Folks, we know that is not as tall as a
lot of others statues and sculptures today, but we have
to remember, just like if we were a very rude
Ben Bolen traveling and seeing the Tower of London, sculpture
and structure and architecture back then was not as sophisticated
(10:18):
as it is now. We've learned a lot about the
nature of this statue. We've learned that he had a
bronze outer shell. They probably hammered that on in sheets,
assembled it on site, but no, they put so much
(10:40):
work into this the structure, the internal structure in particular.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
One hundred percent. It required a lot of fortification inside.
Think of maybe like the Statue of Liberty and all
of the metal struts that exist withinside that structure to
keep a hollow shell of a sculpture from caving in
on itself. So it was supported by a series of
internal iron struts, and certain pieces got weighted down further
(11:07):
with stones to increase the stability. And Max pointed out,
and we must also point out that they did feel
it was important to include the penis. You gotta know
a colossal undertaking unto itself.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Which is funny because a lot of statuary at the
time praised small penises.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
It's true, that is actly true, true, And we haven't
seen the penis, so we can't speak to whether or
not it was a grower or a shower.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So we know that the statue's appearance in the modern
day is primarily based on guesswork and excellent research. But
it's not like you can call anyone today and ask
about how their experience was building the Colossus of Rhodes.
The best way to say it is that there are
(11:56):
no surviving representations mock up sort scale models of the
colossus in other ancient art forms, So we didn't have
anybody hanging out building a little action figure version of
the colossus.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, Palmer, that would have been cool. I would have
been how many points of articulation?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I think you, I knew you're yes right? Where's our
g I Joe of this?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
What would the penis have been one of them?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And how articulate would it be? Prehensile penis? All right,
story for another day. The depictions of Helios on the
Hellenistic silver coin of Rhodes might be a reference point.
So if we look at that coinage, we can speculate
the statue may have had a lot more to it
(12:48):
than you see in film and fiction today. May have
had a crown of pointed sunbeams.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Oh interesting, I did make a little reference earlier.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It s.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Very visible and famous statue that may have had something
to do with this guy. So we'll get to that
in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Also may have descended from earlier depictions of the Anaki.
All right, I'm gonna let.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
It go Universe Crossover. Do check out the multi part
series on the ancient godlike entities that are the aninachy
over on stuff they don't want you to know.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
How well said? Oh my gosh, all right, So here's
the issue. You might be saying, Hey, guys, I'm a billionaire.
I travel around the world just to see stuff that
you talk about on ridiculous history. So where exactly on
the island of Rhoads or in the historic city of
(13:47):
Roads and the ruins thereof do I find this statue? Unfortunately,
the exact location of the statue is no longer known
because we have no record of any contemporary writer saying
exactly where it was, so we have to guess it's
(14:07):
maybe on what would have been the eastern side of
the harbor.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
One hundred percent more concrete evidence well, actually the form
of sandstone would be a large circle of cut blocks
which could have served as the foundation for these statues base.
Add to that, there are also fine slightly curved marble
blocks randomly used in the fortresses walls that date back
(14:35):
to the third century BCE, as well as some odds
shaped stones which might have been part of the weights
that were used in the statues interior we talked about
to weigh down those iron struts to help support the structure.
A second possible location could be the High City center
where the sanctuary to Helios was located. And just to
(14:56):
paraphrase Mark Cartwright, who is an authority on subject the witches,
I've been doing up to this point in these descriptions
because he's really got it nailed down. We are talking
about the sanctuary of Helios and potentially hopefully reliable pieces
of masonry inscribed with some details as potential proof for
(15:17):
this version of the story. So, the Greeks did often
situate their statues of various deities near the sanctuary that
was dedicated to them, which makes sense.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
So let's think of it this way. We go over
to the sanctuary and we say, as modern researchers, ah,
these rhodients super pro Helios. Surely they would have a
solid record of the statues of their deities, and maybe
their deities are next to the big fancy edifice and
(15:51):
building and structure that they dedicated to their gods. Unfortunately,
here in twenty twenty five, there have been extensive archaeological
investigations to the sanctuary site, and no traces of the
legendary Colossus of Roads have been found there. All we
(16:12):
can say, based on numerous reports, was that the Colossus
of Roads was massive for people at the time, if
not massive for people in modern ages, and it was
so popular that it ended up on coinage. It ended
up on currency. It was also referenced often in Hellenistic
(16:37):
sculpture and in art in general. It came to become iconic, right,
and I do agree with the idea that it later
informed larger sculptures like our Statue of Liberty here in
the United States. Unfortunately, like the Hellenistic Age itself. Shout
(17:00):
out to Mark Cartwright, the life of the statue, the
life of the colossus was pretty brief. It was too big, It.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Got too big to fail. It seems to have failed.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, in one it got shattered into pieces. It was
picked over by something.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
The statue of Statue of Zeus was another one that
we did that had a similar fate, right, you're.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Correct, And this statue, the Colossus of Rhodes, appears to
have fallen too an earthquake around two twenty six to
twenty five BCE, and people just left it where it was.
You know, like a gigantic corpse until about six hundred
and fifty four Common Era, So for centuries this thing
(17:55):
was just too big to move unless you stole little
scraps of it. And it's six point fifty four Common
Era when forces from what we call Arabia raid roads
in the island as well as the city, and they
have the infrastructure to break this statue up. And you
(18:18):
know what they do. They don't put it in a
museum because Indiana Jones is not even a franchise yet.
Instead they sell the bronze from the exterior for scrap.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Ah. You hate to hear that that it also makes
sense because they had no reverence for this and in fact,
doing it that way was almost an act could be
seen as like an active defiance to the culture that
they are like dismantling. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Well, it was very good for the camel and camel
handler industry because it took more than nine hundred camel
loads to get rid of all this bronze. And this
is where we go to the idea of the Statue
(19:07):
of Liberty. That's what we call it here in the
United States, famously at New York Harver. It is a
design of Frederic August BARTOLDI. It is supposed to be
to your earlier point, Noel, it's supposed to be a
mark of symbolism. It is the ancient Colossus of Rhodes.
(19:29):
This is this is a one to one echo of this,
And we have a couple of quotations here. Maybe we
start with the dedication of the colossus itself. We know
this is quoted.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Widely to you, o son, the people of Dorian Rhodes
set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus when they
had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city
with the spoils taken from the enemy, not only over
the seas, but also on land. Did they kindle the
lovely torch of freedom and independence for the descendants of
(20:11):
Heracles belongs dominion over sea and land. Just to clarify this,
is this dedication text associated with the statue of Liberty
or is.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
This dedicated to the original colossal?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's what I thought, got it? Yeah, yeah, so it's
one hundred percent. Get that one to one comparison there.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And the inspiration here may have come somewhat from the colossus,
but the original purpose of the Statue of Liberty the
statue we all know and love, was not to be
put in the United States. In fact, the sculptor visited
BARTOLDI visited Egypt in eighteen fifty five, and he said,
(20:55):
I'm going to work on big statues too. We're just
going to tell you the truth here, folks. He saw
the facade of the temple at Abu Simmel and he said, look,
Egyptian government, you guys should build this giant statue and
maybe like a beacon of light, and it should maybe
(21:15):
be like a woman holding a torture aloft, and you
could put it at the Suez Canal and you could
call it something like carrying the light to Asia. I
don't know if you guys are busy, but I like
building statues, so just sort of let me know. So
long story short, he did use our guy, BERTOLDI used
the colossus as a motivation or what our pal Turbo
(21:38):
Benson will call a reference. And the idea behind it,
to say the statue of Liberty is one to one
based off the Colossus of Rhodes is a little bit
of a stretch. But I really like your note about
the crown of Stars.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yes, that's definitely what grabbed me. But also just if
you've ever walked inside the Statue of Liberty or seen
any schematics of it, those internal struts are a big
part of the construction of it too, which I guess
is really just a logistical thing in terms of like
design and engineering. But that did call it kind of
also ring a bell or tick a boxer, you know whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Oh, I love it. I'm making the light bulb face.
I think you nailed it. Also, we could say that,
regardless of the motivations of the original sculptors, this has
become the Statue of Rhodes here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
And what would be an episode on one of the
Wonders of the Ancient World if we didn't discuss how
it figures into the Civilization games.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Right, And who better to explain this idea of the
wonder of the World and the Civilization game series than
our own pal, Max Williams. Max putting you on the
spot here.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Man, Okay, I gotcha.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, I mean, the Colossus is actually one that's showed
up in all seven games now, all seven mainline games,
and it's the wonder that you can build. It usually
makes you money. It's never one that I'm rushing to
and when someone else builds it, I'm not that sad,
but it looks really cool. And generally you have to
(23:21):
build in a coastal city, so you can't build in
the middle of the tundra.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I like building for the cinematics. I just love the
cut scene where you see the thing get built and
you get the little the little quotation so good.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
It's SIFT seven.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
It's good, but it's just not as good as six.
But that's I guess how you can describe SIP seven.
Just in general, it's just not as good as six.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
And sometimes that's how people describe the ancient versus modern
wonders of the world. You look at humanity and you say,
three out of five, I like their early work. We
want to end with a symbolic point, right to the excellent,
to the excellent dedication you recited there nol for the
(24:04):
original Colossus of Rhodes. Here's what stands with us for
the modern colossus, the Statue of Liberty there in New
York Harbor. It is a poem that is only more
appropriate and important to realize now in twenty twenty five.
It goes like this, not like the brazen Giant of
(24:25):
Greek fame, with conquering limbs, astride from land to land.
Here out our seawashed sunset gate shall stand a mighty
woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning,
and her name Mother of exiles. From her beacon hand
glows worldwide. Welcome her mild eyes command the air bridged harbor.
(24:49):
That's when cities frame keep ancient lands. Your storied pomp,
cries she with silent Lipsam, give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled mass is yearning to breathe, free the wretched
refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest
(25:09):
tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Moving, I swear to God. Dude, I don't think I've
ever heard the whole dedication. I just know the huddled
masses and the little bits that are cherry picked from it,
and like speeches and stuff. But that is powerful stuff.
I really really enjoyed that. And what an epic reading.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Thanks dude, Oh no, thanks to Emma Lazarus, the author
of the New Colossus. And so maybe to your earlier point,
this shows us. Sorry, I'm getting a little emotional. I'm
a sucker.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I was feeling it. Sorry, I didn't mean to step
on you, but when I was exclaiming during your reading,
I was overcome as well, because especially God not to
be political at all, but now more than ever, what
that represents. It's being challenged in many ways, and it
really does hit home.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And so perhaps we have a wonder of the world
our own right. And that's why we will argue that
the old Colossus of Rhodes, which totally did exist, is
echoed in the Statue of Liberty, right at least in
(26:22):
the dedication. The idea in one of the most important
cities of ancient Greece reflected in one of the most
important cities in modern America. And I think Noel and
Max and I all got a little perclept, as they
would say, we're talking about how awesome this idea is.
(26:43):
We have a continuing series on Wonders of the ancient world,
and we hope you enjoyed this one.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Folks.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
We want to thank every scholar who has been looking
into this and doing the real world on the ground research.
Of course, we also must thank our our super producer
and research associate, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Max Williams, who found one of those incredible researchers, Mark Cartwright,
who is our continuing history research protagonist, as Max put
it in this story writing for World History Encyclopedia. So
thanks Mark, and thanks.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Max, and also thanks to Alexander Williams who composed this
slap and bop you're hearing at the end.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
The Colossus of music and other things real, what do
you call it? A multi hyphenate, Paul Polymath. Sure, that's Alex,
That's our Alex.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, the opposite of a Thanks to Jonathan Strickland, whom
I blame directly for the fact that you cannot see
the Colossus of Rhodes today.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
He knows what he did.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
He knows, he knows big. Thanks to aj Bahamas, Jacobs Big,
Thanks to doctor Rachel Big, Spinach, Lance.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Big Fence, Oh jeez, Christophers, Yeah, Steeves, Jeff go here
in spirit Thanks, I'm going from a car here in spirits,
and Ben, thanks to you, Buckeroo. I'm stealing it from
you just for this moment, because it's just fun to say.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Also, I guess I should say I'm I'm not a
history cop.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I know whether you turn referring to the mustachs. Yeah yeah, Okay,
well I think you look great. We'll see you next time. Books.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for a wonder
of the modern podcasting world. Our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Who do we have joining us here? None other than
the man, the myth, the legend, a wonder old zone.
(00:48):
It's mister Noel Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Desired, thank you very much. Not much of a colossus,
more of a what's the what's the opposite of a colossus?
A pigmy?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh no, come now, man, that's charged. You're a Titan.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you, buddy, I remember those guys.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, you're welcome by grow my name from that movie
Clash of the Titans.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Remember the Titans Titans. Yeah, that's a football movie with
what's that guy's name, Denzel Washington, the ragtag football kind
of crew.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Who says he no longer watches films. By the way,
my name is Ben Bollen. We are going to talk
about a continuing series. Way back in the days of yore,
by which means several years ago, we got together in
one of our pitch meetings and we started asking ourselves
(01:45):
what are the Wonders of the Ancient World? Do you
remember that one?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Oh? How could I forget? What? Do we have? The
Hanging Gardens of Babylon? The of course? Did we do
the Pyramids of Giza? Certainly we did, Maybe we didn't.
We've certainly talked about that one.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I'm saving for last because that's the only one we
actually know.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
For n h. Yeah, those are still around, you can
still catch them. We did the Did we do Easter Island? No,
we talked about that actually recently on stuff they don't
want you to do. Yes, I'm so sorry, Max. It
was a great series, but I'm spacing on all of
the ones that we did. Babylon is the one that
I know for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
We're also going to have a metacognitive series or a
meta series, at least an episode on what makes a
wonder because, as we found in our exploration, a little
bit of an arbitrary ranking. Who are we to judge? Well,
we're your pals over at Ridiculous History. This is part
(02:42):
four of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and we're
talking about the Colossus of Roads. Unlike some of our
previous stuff. To your point, nol, the Colossus totally existed.
(03:06):
Maybe we start with knocking out a little bit of
background devo, a little bit of context. Maybe we start
with a buddy of ours, Greek god named Helios.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Indeed, Helios according to our pals over Britannica, as the
Greek sun god. Britannica knows that he was actually a Titan,
child of the Titan Hyperion and Theia, the Titans in
fact plural, while he, according to Britannica, drove a chariot
daily from east to west across the sky and sailed
(03:43):
around the northerly stream of ocean each night in a
huge cup. In classical Greece, Helios was especially worshiped in Rhodes,
where from at least the early fifth century BCE he
was regarded as the chief god to whom the island belonged.
His work spread as he became increasingly identified with other deities,
(04:03):
often under Eastern influence.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
All right, so let's talk a little bit about that
aforementioned Roads in the earlier quote, especially worshiped in Roads.
As we'll see, folks, with a big shout out to
our research associate Max Williams spoiler also our super producer,
there's a lot of what Corporate America would call synergy
(04:28):
between these two between these two concepts. The thing about
the City of Roads is that the City of Roads
in that time is on an island in the Mediterranean
Sea that is closer to modern day Turkey than it
is to modern day Greece. Just because we always love
(04:49):
our history complicated, that island is also called Roads. So
there's a city called Roads, there's an island called Roads.
And to our friends at Britannica, again, tip of the cap,
the largest urban center on the island, Roads sits at
the northeasternmost tip of Roads.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
The island got it. Indeed, they go on to say
that in classical history, Rhodes was a massively crucial and
powerful maritime force. It also had a lot of influence
on Mediterranean history, as well as the preservation of architecture
(05:35):
of the Gothic and Ottoman styles. So we've got a
sun god who hangs out on the water and a
city on the water, and now it's time for us
to talk about how this thing actually got built.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
The city of Rhodes, writes mart Cart right, who we
are not doing an impression of with each five haulbas
was ideally placed on the island of the same name.
The prosper from trade during the Hellenistic domination of the
Mediterranean under Alexander the Great Successors, especially when more and
(06:11):
more cities were established in the east. The island's wealth
strategic position on these trade routes, they got noticed by
a lot of foreign grand pubas, a lot of.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Big to dos for sure. Is that is absolutely accurate. Antigonus,
who is one of Alexander's successors who controlled Macedon and
northern Greece, was one of those grand puba types, and
he sent his son Demetrius, the first of Macedon, to
attack roads between three or five and three or four BCE,
(06:47):
which off Mike Ben pointed out to me BCE counts backwards.
So there you go. The island's recent alliances with Antigonus's
rival Ptolemy, the first you might have heard of over
there in Egypt. It was another into attack roads and
to neutralize that naval fleet.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, they were super beefed up, even if they couldn't
afford a lot of cattle at the time. So there's
this twelve month siege lasting what we would call a
year in the modern day. Our buddies, the Rhodians, the
people who live on the island or in the city
of Rhodes. They have a lot of stockades, blockations, fortifications,
(07:29):
and they're able to withstand this siege such that our
buddy Demetrius says, look, will stop blockading you. We gotta
make stuff worthwhile for everybody. Let's negotiate a truce. And
so Demetrius from this gets his honorific We love it honorific.
(07:52):
This is how Demetrius gets the street name Besieger of Cities.
But he doesn't get much else from this. He just
leaves behind a bunch of his siege toys.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Where does he get these wonderful toys? It's a good question.
That includes thirty six point five meters of high tower
that the Rhodians were then able to sell off to
make a little scratch. And here is the thing. Thanks
to the Port's making them a center for trade, they
already had a ton of money, so they decided to
(08:30):
ball out further. Yeah just a bit, yeah, okay, I
love a smidge bit, max Uh and honor their patron God,
which is where we see Charles of Lindis entering the
chat rights. I knew you would do it. Charis not Charles.
That's a different dynasty entirely. Thank you, Max with the facts.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Phone.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Up in the knowledge it's just for you.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Sofia, Mary.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Cares were Chars. If you guys preferred, don't call me Chuck.
Lindis is at the Helm and this guy is figured
out the wait for herculean task of sculpting this giant
thing they're calling Helios. And if you look back to
(09:29):
our buddy Plenty the Elder, a returning guest on the show,
This statue, the Colossus of Rhodes as we call it now,
it took a lot of effort. It took at least
twelve years to be completed, and they made a bronze
figure which stood about what we in the US would
(09:52):
call one hundred and.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Eight feet high.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Folks, we know that is not as tall as a
lot of others statues and sculptures today, but we have
to remember, just like if we were a very rude
Ben Bolen traveling and seeing the Tower of London, sculpture
and structure and architecture back then was not as sophisticated
(10:18):
as it is now. We've learned a lot about the
nature of this statue. We've learned that he had a
bronze outer shell. They probably hammered that on in sheets,
assembled it on site, but no, they put so much
(10:40):
work into this the structure, the internal structure in particular.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
One hundred percent. It required a lot of fortification inside.
Think of maybe like the Statue of Liberty and all
of the metal struts that exist withinside that structure to
keep a hollow shell of a sculpture from caving in
on itself. So it was supported by a series of
internal iron struts, and certain pieces got weighted down further
(11:07):
with stones to increase the stability. And Max pointed out,
and we must also point out that they did feel
it was important to include the penis. You gotta know
a colossal undertaking unto itself.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Which is funny because a lot of statuary at the
time praised small penises.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
It's true, that is actly true, true, And we haven't
seen the penis, so we can't speak to whether or
not it was a grower or a shower.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So we know that the statue's appearance in the modern
day is primarily based on guesswork and excellent research. But
it's not like you can call anyone today and ask
about how their experience was building the Colossus of Rhodes.
The best way to say it is that there are
(11:56):
no surviving representations mock up sort scale models of the
colossus in other ancient art forms, So we didn't have
anybody hanging out building a little action figure version of
the colossus.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, Palmer, that would have been cool. I would have
been how many points of articulation?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I think you, I knew you're yes right? Where's our
g I Joe of this?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
What would the penis have been one of them?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And how articulate would it be? Prehensile penis? All right,
story for another day. The depictions of Helios on the
Hellenistic silver coin of Rhodes might be a reference point.
So if we look at that coinage, we can speculate
the statue may have had a lot more to it
(12:48):
than you see in film and fiction today. May have
had a crown of pointed sunbeams.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Oh interesting, I did make a little reference earlier.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It s.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Very visible and famous statue that may have had something
to do with this guy. So we'll get to that
in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Also may have descended from earlier depictions of the Anaki.
All right, I'm gonna let.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
It go Universe Crossover. Do check out the multi part
series on the ancient godlike entities that are the aninachy
over on stuff they don't want you to know.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
How well said? Oh my gosh, all right, So here's
the issue. You might be saying, Hey, guys, I'm a billionaire.
I travel around the world just to see stuff that
you talk about on ridiculous history. So where exactly on
the island of Rhoads or in the historic city of
(13:47):
Roads and the ruins thereof do I find this statue? Unfortunately,
the exact location of the statue is no longer known
because we have no record of any contemporary writer saying
exactly where it was, so we have to guess it's
(14:07):
maybe on what would have been the eastern side of
the harbor.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
One hundred percent more concrete evidence well, actually the form
of sandstone would be a large circle of cut blocks
which could have served as the foundation for these statues base.
Add to that, there are also fine slightly curved marble
blocks randomly used in the fortresses walls that date back
(14:35):
to the third century BCE, as well as some odds
shaped stones which might have been part of the weights
that were used in the statues interior we talked about
to weigh down those iron struts to help support the structure.
A second possible location could be the High City center
where the sanctuary to Helios was located. And just to
(14:56):
paraphrase Mark Cartwright, who is an authority on subject the witches,
I've been doing up to this point in these descriptions
because he's really got it nailed down. We are talking
about the sanctuary of Helios and potentially hopefully reliable pieces
of masonry inscribed with some details as potential proof for
(15:17):
this version of the story. So, the Greeks did often
situate their statues of various deities near the sanctuary that
was dedicated to them, which makes sense.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
So let's think of it this way. We go over
to the sanctuary and we say, as modern researchers, ah,
these rhodients super pro Helios. Surely they would have a
solid record of the statues of their deities, and maybe
their deities are next to the big fancy edifice and
(15:51):
building and structure that they dedicated to their gods. Unfortunately,
here in twenty twenty five, there have been extensive archaeological
investigations to the sanctuary site, and no traces of the
legendary Colossus of Roads have been found there. All we
(16:12):
can say, based on numerous reports, was that the Colossus
of Roads was massive for people at the time, if
not massive for people in modern ages, and it was
so popular that it ended up on coinage. It ended
up on currency. It was also referenced often in Hellenistic
(16:37):
sculpture and in art in general. It came to become iconic, right,
and I do agree with the idea that it later
informed larger sculptures like our Statue of Liberty here in
the United States. Unfortunately, like the Hellenistic Age itself. Shout
(17:00):
out to Mark Cartwright, the life of the statue, the
life of the colossus was pretty brief. It was too big, It.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Got too big to fail. It seems to have failed.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, in one it got shattered into pieces. It was
picked over by something.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
The statue of Statue of Zeus was another one that
we did that had a similar fate, right, you're.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Correct, And this statue, the Colossus of Rhodes, appears to
have fallen too an earthquake around two twenty six to
twenty five BCE, and people just left it where it was.
You know, like a gigantic corpse until about six hundred
and fifty four Common Era, So for centuries this thing
(17:55):
was just too big to move unless you stole little
scraps of it. And it's six point fifty four Common
Era when forces from what we call Arabia raid roads
in the island as well as the city, and they
have the infrastructure to break this statue up. And you
(18:18):
know what they do. They don't put it in a
museum because Indiana Jones is not even a franchise yet.
Instead they sell the bronze from the exterior for scrap.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Ah. You hate to hear that that it also makes
sense because they had no reverence for this and in fact,
doing it that way was almost an act could be
seen as like an active defiance to the culture that
they are like dismantling. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Well, it was very good for the camel and camel
handler industry because it took more than nine hundred camel
loads to get rid of all this bronze. And this
is where we go to the idea of the Statue
(19:07):
of Liberty. That's what we call it here in the
United States, famously at New York Harver. It is a
design of Frederic August BARTOLDI. It is supposed to be
to your earlier point, Noel, it's supposed to be a
mark of symbolism. It is the ancient Colossus of Rhodes.
(19:29):
This is this is a one to one echo of this,
And we have a couple of quotations here. Maybe we
start with the dedication of the colossus itself. We know
this is quoted.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Widely to you, o son, the people of Dorian Rhodes
set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus when they
had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city
with the spoils taken from the enemy, not only over
the seas, but also on land. Did they kindle the
lovely torch of freedom and independence for the descendants of
(20:11):
Heracles belongs dominion over sea and land. Just to clarify this,
is this dedication text associated with the statue of Liberty
or is.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
This dedicated to the original colossal?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's what I thought, got it? Yeah, yeah, so it's
one hundred percent. Get that one to one comparison there.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And the inspiration here may have come somewhat from the colossus,
but the original purpose of the Statue of Liberty the
statue we all know and love, was not to be
put in the United States. In fact, the sculptor visited
BARTOLDI visited Egypt in eighteen fifty five, and he said,
(20:55):
I'm going to work on big statues too. We're just
going to tell you the truth here, folks. He saw
the facade of the temple at Abu Simmel and he said, look,
Egyptian government, you guys should build this giant statue and
maybe like a beacon of light, and it should maybe
(21:15):
be like a woman holding a torture aloft, and you
could put it at the Suez Canal and you could
call it something like carrying the light to Asia. I
don't know if you guys are busy, but I like
building statues, so just sort of let me know. So
long story short, he did use our guy, BERTOLDI used
the colossus as a motivation or what our pal Turbo
(21:38):
Benson will call a reference. And the idea behind it,
to say the statue of Liberty is one to one
based off the Colossus of Rhodes is a little bit
of a stretch. But I really like your note about
the crown of Stars.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yes, that's definitely what grabbed me. But also just if
you've ever walked inside the Statue of Liberty or seen
any schematics of it, those internal struts are a big
part of the construction of it too, which I guess
is really just a logistical thing in terms of like
design and engineering. But that did call it kind of
also ring a bell or tick a boxer, you know whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Oh, I love it. I'm making the light bulb face.
I think you nailed it. Also, we could say that,
regardless of the motivations of the original sculptors, this has
become the Statue of Rhodes here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
And what would be an episode on one of the
Wonders of the Ancient World if we didn't discuss how
it figures into the Civilization games.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Right, And who better to explain this idea of the
wonder of the World and the Civilization game series than
our own pal, Max Williams. Max putting you on the
spot here.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Man, Okay, I gotcha.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, I mean, the Colossus is actually one that's showed
up in all seven games now, all seven mainline games,
and it's the wonder that you can build. It usually
makes you money. It's never one that I'm rushing to
and when someone else builds it, I'm not that sad,
but it looks really cool. And generally you have to
(23:21):
build in a coastal city, so you can't build in
the middle of the tundra.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I like building for the cinematics. I just love the
cut scene where you see the thing get built and
you get the little the little quotation so good.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
It's SIFT seven.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
It's good, but it's just not as good as six.
But that's I guess how you can describe SIP seven.
Just in general, it's just not as good as six.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
And sometimes that's how people describe the ancient versus modern
wonders of the world. You look at humanity and you say,
three out of five, I like their early work. We
want to end with a symbolic point, right to the excellent,
to the excellent dedication you recited there nol for the
(24:04):
original Colossus of Rhodes. Here's what stands with us for
the modern colossus, the Statue of Liberty there in New
York Harbor. It is a poem that is only more
appropriate and important to realize now in twenty twenty five.
It goes like this, not like the brazen Giant of
(24:25):
Greek fame, with conquering limbs, astride from land to land.
Here out our seawashed sunset gate shall stand a mighty
woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning,
and her name Mother of exiles. From her beacon hand
glows worldwide. Welcome her mild eyes command the air bridged harbor.
(24:49):
That's when cities frame keep ancient lands. Your storied pomp,
cries she with silent Lipsam, give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled mass is yearning to breathe, free the wretched
refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest
(25:09):
tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Moving, I swear to God. Dude, I don't think I've
ever heard the whole dedication. I just know the huddled
masses and the little bits that are cherry picked from it,
and like speeches and stuff. But that is powerful stuff.
I really really enjoyed that. And what an epic reading.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Thanks dude, Oh no, thanks to Emma Lazarus, the author
of the New Colossus. And so maybe to your earlier point,
this shows us. Sorry, I'm getting a little emotional. I'm
a sucker.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I was feeling it. Sorry, I didn't mean to step
on you, but when I was exclaiming during your reading,
I was overcome as well, because especially God not to
be political at all, but now more than ever, what
that represents. It's being challenged in many ways, and it
really does hit home.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And so perhaps we have a wonder of the world
our own right. And that's why we will argue that
the old Colossus of Rhodes, which totally did exist, is
echoed in the Statue of Liberty, right at least in
(26:22):
the dedication. The idea in one of the most important
cities of ancient Greece reflected in one of the most
important cities in modern America. And I think Noel and
Max and I all got a little perclept, as they
would say, we're talking about how awesome this idea is.
(26:43):
We have a continuing series on Wonders of the ancient world,
and we hope you enjoyed this one.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Folks.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
We want to thank every scholar who has been looking
into this and doing the real world on the ground research.
Of course, we also must thank our our super producer
and research associate, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Max Williams, who found one of those incredible researchers, Mark Cartwright,
who is our continuing history research protagonist, as Max put
it in this story writing for World History Encyclopedia. So
thanks Mark, and thanks.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Max, and also thanks to Alexander Williams who composed this
slap and bop you're hearing at the end.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
The Colossus of music and other things real, what do
you call it? A multi hyphenate, Paul Polymath. Sure, that's Alex,
That's our Alex.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, the opposite of a Thanks to Jonathan Strickland, whom
I blame directly for the fact that you cannot see
the Colossus of Rhodes today.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
He knows what he did.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
He knows, he knows big. Thanks to aj Bahamas, Jacobs Big,
Thanks to doctor Rachel Big, Spinach, Lance.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Big Fence, Oh jeez, Christophers, Yeah, Steeves, Jeff go here
in spirit Thanks, I'm going from a car here in spirits,
and Ben, thanks to you, Buckeroo. I'm stealing it from
you just for this moment, because it's just fun to say.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Also, I guess I should say I'm I'm not a
history cop.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I know whether you turn referring to the mustachs. Yeah yeah, Okay,
well I think you look great. We'll see you next time. Books.
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