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COLOSSUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 728 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COLOSSUS , in antiquity a See also:

term applied generally to statues of See also:great See also:size (hence the See also:adjective " See also:colossal "), and in particular to the See also:bronze statue of the See also:sun-See also:god Helios in See also:Rhodes, one of the wonders of the See also:world, made from the spoils See also:left by See also:Demetrius Poliorcetes when he raised the See also:siege of the See also:city. The sculptor was See also:Chares, a native of Lindus, and of the school of See also:Lysippus, under whose See also:influence the See also:art of See also:sculpture was led to the See also:production of colossal figures by preference. The See also:work occupied him twelve years, it is said, and the finished statue stood 70 cubits high. It stood near the See also:harbour (See also:earl X vt), but at what point is not certain. When, and from what grounds, the belief arose that it had stood across the entrance to the harbour, with a See also:beacon See also:light in its See also:hand and See also:ships passing between its legs, is not known, but the belief was current as See also:early as the 16th See also:century. The statue was thrown down by an See also:earthquake about the See also:year 224 B.C.; then, after lying broken for nearly r000 years, the pieces were bought by a See also:Jew from the See also:Saracens, and probably reconverted into See also:instruments of See also:war. Other See also:Greek colossi were the See also:Apollo of See also:Calamis; the See also:Zeus and Heracles of Lysippus; the Zeus at See also:Olympia, the See also:Athena in the See also:Parthenon, and the Athena Promachos on the Acropolis—all the work of See also:Pheidias. The best-known See also:Roman colossi are: a statue of See also:Jupiter on the Capitol; a bronze statue of Apollo in the See also:Palatine library; and the colossus of See also:Nero in the See also:vestibule of his See also:Golden See also:House, afterwards removed by See also:Hadrian to the See also:north of the Colosseum, where the See also:basement upon which it stood is still visible (See also:Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 18).

End of Article: COLOSSUS

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