Tales of the Statue Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rhodes

The island of Rhodes, located in the southern Aegean Sea, is part of a group of islands called the Dodecanese; the main city on the island is also called Rhodes. It has a long history; inhabited since the Neolithic Age, both the island and the city became important during the Bronze Age due to a close association with the Minoans on nearby Crete. After the explosion of the volcano on Thera, the island was settled by the Mycenaeans and the Dorians, and eventually joined the Delian League after being taken by the Persians in 490 BC. During the Peloponnesian War the island sided with Sparta and the city-states on the island joined together in a federation led by the city of Rhodes. In quick succession the island became a member of the Second Athenian Confederacy, was garrisoned by Mausolus of Carnia, was taken once again by the Persians, and eventually became part of Alexander the Great's vast empire. During the period of Macedonian rule, Rhodes was recognized for its excellent harbors and enjoyed prosperity due to its location near other important cities.

Many people traveled in the ancient world and made lists of sites that they found extraordinary and thought people would like to visit. The great historian Herodotus made such lists, however, Diodorus Siculus (c 90-30 BC) is the first credited with making a list of seven. There is, however, no surviving manuscript that lists all seven that were the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Answer: Celebrate military victory

To pick up the story on the history of Rhodes, after the island became part of Alexander's empire, it enjoyed a period of prosperity. Rhodes was an important trade center and, as such, maintained treaties with many of its neighbors. It was after Alexander's deathbed statement that his empire should go "To the strongest", that the people on the island became involved in the power struggle between Alexander's generals. An alliance was made with Ptolemy I, Alexander's general who ruled Egypt after his death, which was rejected by Antigonus I, the general who ruled the area of Greece and Macedonia. Threatened by the alliance with Ptolemy and hoping for material gain, Antigonus sent his son Demetrius to Rhodes with a fleet of ships and mercenary soldiers to lay siege to the city from 305-304 BC. The siege, however, was unsuccessful and a treaty was signed in which Rhodes promised to remain neutral in its dealings with Ptolemy; in the aftermath the people of Rhodes decided to built the Colossus to celebrate the victory.

Two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus and the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the last two that were constructed, were built during the Hellenistic Age that was the result of Alexander's mixing of Greek culture and knowledge with the culture and knowledge of other places he conquered.

Answer: Chares of Lindos

Chares was a native of Lindos, another city on the island of Rhodes. Very little is known of his life; he was a student of Lysippos, who was considered to be one of the greatest artists of the Classical Period in ancient Greece and was well known as the personal artist of Alexander the Great. It is believed that Chares died before the Colossus was completed. One story is that he committed suicide when a flaw in the statue was revealed. Another is that he committed suicide when he realized that he grossly underbid the cost of constructing the Colossus.

According to the story, Chares was asked to bid on a statue that was 50 feet tall. After he gave his price, he was asked how much he would charge to build a statue twice that size. He doubled his price without taking the time to consider that it would take more than twice the amount of materials to make such a large statue.

Answer: Helios

In Greek mythology Helios was really a minor god who was associated with Apollo, whose domain included the sun and light. On the island of Rhodes, however, Helios was the patron deity, the god of the sun. He was usually pictured as a young man surrounded by an aureole, a crown that was decorated with the rays of the sun, and driving a chariot.

According to legend, the island of Rhodes was named for the nymph Rhodos, who was the mother of seven of Helios' sons. The island held Pan-Hellenic games called the Halieia to honor Helios every five years and also threw a chariot and four horses into the sea once a year as a tribute to the god.

Answer: Spoils of war were used and sold

Resuming the story of the feuding between Alexander's generals, Ptolemy and Antigonus, and its affect on Rhodes - when the son of Antigonus, Demetrius, ended the siege, he left behind most of the equipment and weapons that he had used. Some stories tell that the people of Rhodes sold some of what was left behind for 300 talents (one talent is estimated to have been worth 57 pounds of pure silver); other stories say that the bronze and iron weapons that were left behind were reforged to form the statue. In fact, some believe that one of the abandoned siege towers were used during the building of the lower part of the great statue.

Have you ever wondered why only seven sites were chosen as wonders when there were so many magnificent creations? Scholars do agree that the list of wonders did not go beyond the scope of Alexander's empire, the "known world" to the ancients. Many ancients believed that seven was a lucky number. It was said to represent perfection in the Bible and in many other religions. God created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh. In Judaism the term "seventh heaven" represents the highest level of heaven. Muslims who visit Mecca walk around the Kaaba seven times. The concept of Yin and Yang combine with the five elements in Confucianism to represent harmony. Seven is a prime number, there are seven days in a week, and seven colors in a rainbow.

Answer: True

While some pictures show the Colossus with his legs spread, straddling the harbor and welcoming ships that could sail between them, most scholars agree that that would not have been possible. Such a position and place would have made the statue even more vulnerable to destruction than it proved to be. Some believe that the statue could have been placed near the entrance to the harbor, as there are some marble stones there that could have served as its base, and still others think that the city's acropolis would have been the best location. On the acropolis today there are ruins of a temple at the highest point with a stone foundation that could have supported the statue. If the Colossus had been built there, the statue would have overlooked the entire city.

There were other ancient statues that were called by the name "colossus", but as stated in the introduction, none of the others were Greek. In ancient Egypt there were the Colossi of Memnon, two statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III that were built to stand guard at the entrance to his mortuary temple. There were two in ancient Rome - the Colossus of Nero that stood outside the Colosseum and the Colossus of Constantine that was placed in the Roman Forum.

Answer: True

Several ancient writers, including Pliny the Elder, Philo of Byzantium, and Strabo, wrote that the Colossus was 70 cubits tall; this number translates to about 108 feet or 33 meters. It stood on a 50 foot pedestal. In comparison, the Colossi of Memnon were 60 feet tall, the Colossus of Nero was 75 feet tall, and the Colossus of Constantine was 40 feet tall. It is believed that the Greek Colossus was made over an iron and stone framework, and that its feet were actually carved out of the marble pedestal upon which it stood. Eventually they were covered with the bronze that was used cover the framework and form the body. The hollow interior was filled with more stone as the statue was built.

The word "colossus" is from the Greek "kolossos" for "giant". In order for a statue to be considered a colossus it must be at least twice as large as a life size statue.

Answer: Earthquake

The Colossus was the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World constructed, taking a reported twelve years to build, and the shortest lived. It stood for fifty-six years until an earthquake rocked the island in 226 BC. Some accounts stated that the statue fell over and broke into pieces when it hit the ground; today it is believed that parts of the statue began to break off during the earthquake. It is known that the entire city and surrounding area suffered major damage from the earthquake.

It was written that the pieces of the great statue stayed where they had fallen for 800 years. Even in ruins, many travelers came to see them. Pliny wrote, "Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues".

Answer: The Oracle of Delphi told them not to rebuild

Although there is little evidence concerning what exactly the Pythia said when consulted at the Oracle of Delphi, sources agree that she advised the people not to rebuild the great Colossus. The people believed that they had somehow upset their patron deity, and that trying to rebuild the statue would just make matters worse.

Actually, money was not the issue. The leader of Egypt, Ptolemy III, volunteered to finance the new project. While some say the earthquake that destroyed the statue in the first place could have been accompanied by a tsunami, there is no evidence of it. The Romans did eventually did conquer the island, but that was not until 164 BC.

Answer: Statue of Liberty

The Greek Colossus and Statue of Liberty both represent the idea of freedom, however, the similarity between the two statues goes much further. Both of them were essentially the same height, although the Statue of Liberty looks taller because it was placed on a higher pedestal. The faces are different - the Colossus is said to have had the image of Alexander the Great while Lady Liberty is said to be the image of designer Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi's mother - but they both had crowns or beams of light emanating from their heads. Did the Colossus hold anything in its hands? Many images show some type of light; the New Colossus, as named by Emma Lazarus, of course, holds a torch. It is well known that Bartholdi was not only influenced by artist representations of the Colossus, but he also made a trip to Egypt where he viewed many of the ancient monumental statues.

In 653 after the island was taken by an Arab army the pieces of the great statue were sold to a merchant. Sources said that it took 900 camels to haul away the rubble.