The Colossus of Rhodes - The Mystery Behind the Tallest Statue in the Ancient World

the statue of liberty overlooking new york city is without a doubt one of the most recognizable statues in the world though scarcely the tallest out there wikipedia lists her 49th there's still something striking about this giant green lady holding a torch high above her head lady liberty as she is often called was made in the likeness of libertas a roman goddess representing freedom to the people and since her construction she has become a major symbol of the american spirit but what if i were to tell you that she is an imitation of another statue thousands of years older and considered just as grand if not more so lady liberty has often been given the moniker the new colossus as a bronze plaque mounted at her base proclaims there was once an old colossus the brazen giant of greek fame with conquering limbs astride from land to land what is the story behind this old colossus where did it stand who built it and why and what happened to it hello there guys and welcome to another installment of trade the explainer i have always been captivated with the idea of the tourist trap or roadside attraction sites and landmarks that seem to draw people from far and wide to visit them in our age of fast cars interconnected highways and airports it might be easy to think that tourism is a product of the modern age when in fact it has existed for thousands of years people and antiquity had their own frequent vacation hot spots i wanted to make a video or two highlighting a few of these ancient tourist traps as i like to call them today i will discuss my personal favorite and uncover the complicated and sometimes mysterious history behind the last wonder of the ancient world the colossus of rhodes the word colossus in modern english has become synonymous with structures or creatures on a massive towering scale the word originates from the greek colossus which appears to derive itself from a proto-greek word that was used to refer to statues oddly enough statues both big and small a figure or puppet representing something absent but at some point the word was almost completely redefined so that it only referred to statues of a mint size ancient accounts tell us that this was the result of one truly monumental construction project that occurred around 300 years before jesus the siege the year was 304 bce the colored sails of a thousand warships were disappearing over the horizon the bright and sunny merchant city of rhodes on its spearhead-shaped island in the south aegean sea had been freed after an entire year of constant fighting in the succession wars that followed the death of alexander iii better known to us as alexander the great the reunions had favored neutrality they had refused to aid one general turned king over another in their squabbles over alexander's quickly fragmenting empire wars were bad for trade after all and the wealthy elite of the port city that linked greece to the middle east and egypt thought it best to stay out of the conflict altogether as their separate but impartial entity this act had earned them the scorn of 77 year old macedonian antigonus one eye the newly proclaimed rightful king of alexander's crumbling empire he had dispatched his son and heir the 32 year old demetrius known as the taker of cities to persuade the insubordinatorians to his cause he needed them for his upcoming invasion of egypt ruled by the shrewd rival king ptolemy in alexandria the reudians had refused his offer and demetrius would repay them in blood in 305 bce he gathered a massive fleet to take the island by force enlisting the help of the thousands of pirates who prowled the seas promising them gold and plunder once the cities had been taken with 200 warships and supposedly five times as many private pirate vessels following behind an estimated 40 000 soldiers set out to conquer roads for demetrius and his father expecting an easy victory demetrius constructed great weapons to break rhodes's high walls he set his engineers to build battering rams 180 feet long and taking a thousand men to push massive wheeled siege towers called city takers six stories high and requiring over three thousand men to operate the defenders of the city numbered seven thousand compared to the invaders tens of thousands but the royalians had the advantage of heavily fortified walls and they fought for their homes and families they would not yield so easily using a mix of cunning and sheer willpower the reutions had resisted for an entire year against their invader humiliating him in the process many brave men had died fighting to save their home but for every man killed defending the city many more had been killed trying to take it to no avail many of demetrius's pirate mercenaries had begun to melt away back to the waters from which they came from seeing his war a fruitless venture growing ever more unpopular by the day and with instability back at home demetrius signed a peace agreement with rhodes in 304 bce lifting the siege and departing along with his defeated grand army back to the greek mainland and with that the taker of cities left at least one city untaken as part of the agreement demetrius had abandoned all his valuable siege equipment and weapons in the dirt surrounding the city this act was no small thing as the city melted all that metal down and sold it for a total of 300 talents or by modern estimates approximately 360 million us dollars leaving the reudians not only free of foreign rule but also significantly richer instead of using this money to i don't know feed the poor and needy the reudian elite decided the best way to use it was to build a giant statue of a naked dude well not a dude but a god the patron deity of rhodes was helios riding his flaming horse-drawn chariot across the sky he was the personification of the sun itself bright radiant and handsome guardian of oats and bringer of sight and the city of rhodes was one of the few locations in ancient greece where he was considered a major god native reudians held particular reverence for him perhaps stemming from their island's reputation for clear skies and a bright sun many of the city's inhabitants believed it was his hand that had miraculously delivered them through the grueling siege they would construct the largest statue ever made one to surpass the great statue of zeus at olympia or the ivory and gold statue of athena at the parthenon standing taller and shining brighter their helios would prove to the rest of greece that their god was a force to be reckoned with the reudians had looked to one of their own to build something on such a monumental scale they chose the sculptor chars of lindos a native of the island who might have even fought on the city's fortified walls during the siege jars had been a pupil of lycippus self-taught lycippus was considered one of the most skilled artists of the age according to pliny the elder over his 90 years of life lycipus produced over 1 500 sculptures working almost exclusively in bronze unfortunately little of his work survives today the victorious youth statue was snagged in the nets of an italian fishing crawler in 1964 after being submerged underwater in a shipwreck for over 2 000 years due to its age and style the statue has been attributed to lycipus perhaps the only one of his original bronzes that have endured through the centuries many roman copies of his work recreated in marvel are housed in museums all over the world such as the scrapper the oil pourer the farnese hercules and arrows stringing the bow among others lycippus was praised for his elegance and grace constructing lean figures with proportionally smaller heads which gave the illusion that they were much taller than they really were it was this skill that convinced alexander the great to deem lysippus the only artist worthy of capturing his likeness serving as his personal sculptor and supposedly always depicting him with a particularly famous pose now called the lycipian gaze tossled hair lips slightly parted head and eyes tilted upward as if gazing up at the gods chars of lindos learned much from his master and had proven himself worthy of the task the helios of rhodes would be considered his magnum opus the crowning achievement of his entire life exact details concerning the construction itself are scarce as we will discuss later most of our sources on the matter were authors writing decades if not centuries after the fact we know that the colossus of rhodes as it would one day be called was to be made of the same material chars had primarily worked with bronze with maybe a little bit of copper mixed in some of these materials were likely repurposed directly from the macedonian siege weapons left behind by demetrius over a decade prior the great siege towers themselves might have been used as scaffolding for workers to clamber up during the project it was decided that helios would stand 70 cubits unfortunately this unit of measurement varied throughout the ancient world but a rough estimate puts it around 33 meters or 108 feet just shy of the height of the statue of liberty herself not counting her podium this would create a challenge as most bronzes of the period were cast in a mold but for a statue as big as the colossus this was not a feasible option it was devised by chars that the exterior skin of the statue would be composed of dozens of large sheets or plates of hammered bronze riveted together underneath would be a framework of iron bars providing the statue its shape pliny the elder many centuries later tells us that this inner framework was filled with heavy stones and boulders to keep the entire structure from falling over underneath it all would be a large circular pedestal which the statue would stand on top of the exact size of this pedestal is unclear some sources say it was 15 feet tall while others say it was 15 meters moving this large quarry piece of marble or sandstone was likely the first step in the long construction process that finally started in the year 292 bce one theory suggests that an earthen mound was built up around the statue's location and was used as a ramp little by little dirt was removed from helios body weirdly being built from the top down it would take a long 12 years worth of hard sweaty labor and likely by modern estimates many millions of dollars to complete sadly it is believed that chars did not live to see as colossus's completion several legends say that he committed suicide as one story tells it as the statue neared its finalization someone had honestly pointed out a small architectural flaw that had been overlooked after it was brought to the attention of chars he killed himself in shame another story claims that the sculptor was driven into bankruptcy due to the vast amount of building materials required and ended his life to escape his debts whatever the truth is no one can doubt that it must have been a stressful job for one man to have held on his shoulders nonetheless one morning in 280 bce as the sun rose to illuminate the dark landscape a figure stood tall and alone over roads gleaming back at the great ball of light in the sky all the dirt and scaffolding that had hidden it for so long was finally removed a huge crowd of many thousands gathered to celebrate the completion of the colossus of rhodes the largest statue in the known world a poet shouted beneath its towering body a dedication 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 the city with the spoils taken from the enemy not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle this lovely torch of freedom and independence for to the descendants of heracles belongs dominion over sea and land one can only picture the uproar of applause and celebration that ensued what did this great colossus look like exactly well believe it or not rather mysteriously we don't really have a good idea as not a single part of it survives to this day additionally there appears to be no contemporary descriptions of the statue or at least not ones that are incredibly detailed our surviving ancient sources are few and far between and have much to be desired perhaps our most reliable account of the statue comes from the early geographer strabo strabo was from the region of pontus modern-day turkey and lived from about 64 bce to 24 ce he spent the majority of his life exploring and chronicling the lands he visited growing as far south as egypt and ethiopia and as far west as tuscany in italy and perhaps most impressively he survived the journey back home to tel of it a feat very few men could boast at the time a trip to rhodes by comparison would have been a walk in the park strabo visited the city sometime in the latter part of the 1st century bce which places them there almost 200 years after the colossus had collapsed he describes in his geography seeing the statue greatly damaged broken at the knees and lying on the ground but gives no further details our other main source comes from pliny the elder a famous roman historian who might have been born in the same year strabo had died and met his unlucky end in the eruption of mount vesuvius in the year 79 ce pliny briefly describes the colossus in his work the natural history as a warning however he wrote it even more removed from the time it stood over 300 years to make things worse pliny never visited rhodes himself instead basing his descriptions of the city and the colossus on second hand eyewitness reports pliny narrates the scene very much in agreement with strabo a gigantic heap of rubble that even in its sorry state was a sight to behold the wreck had become a popular tourist attraction for travelers to visit few men can clasp the thumb in their arms and its fingers are larger than most statues the last ancient source available to us is the dubious philo of byzantium whose very existence is somewhat contested philo was a greek mechanist or engineer who had lived sometime in the latter half of the 3rd century bce he is not to be confused with another writer also named philo of byzantium who lived at a much later date and is credited with creating the list of the seven wonders of the ancient world the colossus named among them of importance to us this 3rd century bce philo might have actually seen the statue in its heyday but yet again his descriptions are vague ugh needless to say all our sources are largely unhelpful and getting a good idea of what the statue might have looked like while it still stood intact the dedication poem supposedly read at the colossus's unveiling has survived the ages and some have used a few lines in this poem to infer details about the statue itself for instance if you google the colossus of rhodes the majority of the image results will depict the infamous straddling the harbor pose helios's legs spread far apart over the entrance of the roydian harbor allowing ships to pass beneath it you might find it surprising to discover that this image solely originates from the line over land and sea in the dedication poem which some have extrapolated to suggest the statue stood with one foot on either side of the harbor as spectacular sight as this sounds it is flat out incorrect in addition to it not being scientifically or structurally feasible or practical by any of the standards of the time this straddling pose is not supported by any of our other ancient accounts and the evidence for it is incredibly tenuous at best the poetic line likely refers not to the statue itself but to the victory of the royans in the war proclaiming they had dominion over sea and land presumably through their naval fleet the sea and their army the land the only reason the straddling pose has gained such prominence is because of an italian visitor to rhodes in 1395 hearing a local legend almost 2 000 years after the fact this legend stated the church of saint john stood where the right foot of the colossus once did this myth was repeated over and over again throughout medieval and renaissance europe through a weird game of telephone it captured the imaginations of countless artists who then depicted the statue in this manner william shakespeare alludes to the pose several times in his place and spanish and dutch missionaries carried this inaccurate image of the colossus with them when they traveled to china and japan versions of it with their own cultural flair bizarrely ended up in asian books on europe's ancient history many images also depict the statue holding a flaming torch high into the air like the modern statue of liberty but this idea again has little to no historical basis the torch claim originates with two vague descriptions of the colossus one once again coming from the dedication poem they kindle the lovely torch of freedom and independence the other stemming from philo of byzantium's claim that chars of lindos gave a second son to the world both these lines are likely no more than metaphors that have been misinterpreted the poetic line likely refers to the reudians freeing themselves from foreign rule and rekindling the symbolic torch of freedom not necessarily saying the statue itself held a torch philo's claim is probably just an analogy equating the grand statue of helios to the real helios the sun itself after all the statue's bronze skin would have gleaned bright in the sunlight much like the straddling pose our ancient accounts give no indication of this proposed torch other mythical claims include a winding staircase running to the statue's top visitors could climb it to a viewing stand with intricate glasses hung on the statue's neck that would allow a person to see the coast of egypt and syria hundreds of miles away an interesting but entirely impossible feat but if the colossus didn't look like this or this what then was the most plausible appearance of the statue archaeological excavations of the ancient city have offered up some answers but it should be clarified that much of this is largely based on speculation and disconnected pieces of evidence first off we have a pretty strong idea of what helios's head would have looked like at least countless silver coins in the city of rhodes dated to be contemporary with the colossus might hint at the statue's appearance these coins typically have one side bearing a rose and one sign bearing a face the face of the god helios both considered symbols of the reudian people these coins were likely minted after the statue's completion and perhaps the face of helios on the coinage is the same one that was on the colossus such a practice was not uncommon in the ancient world many cities created their own unique coins and used popular elements of the region to distinguish themselves taking great pride in their local legends and attractions they frequently sought to incorporate these images into their coinage for example alexandrian coins sometimes depict their famous lighthouse of alexandria cretan coins bear the fabled labyrinth of canosis or the minotaur flexing in reference to their legendary heritage these images were part of their very identity as a people also it's almost like they were trying to promote tourism to their respective cities by hyping them up a bit coins like these could travel far and wide and be easily exchanged between dozens if not hundreds of people a sailor from rome might hold in his pocket coins from jerusalem carthage and alexandria and they could have worked almost like the ancient equivalent of postcards the coins carrying tales and stories of the cities they originated from if this theory holds true then the head of the colossus would have looked much like this a beardless youth with long curly hair bright eyes and several evenly spaced spikes protruding from the back of his head and confirmation of this description has been found through several busts of helios that were excavated in the remains of the ancient city such as this one on display in the archaeological museum of rhodes hey wait a second this bust has several empty holes in the back of its head which probably served as insertion points for decorative metal spines just like the ones seen on the coins these spikes represented a very important characteristic of helios and hellenistic artwork his solar crown of radiant light and flame it should be noted that this face and hair of helios had a greater significance to an ancient audience than it does to us because well the statue in reality wasn't just a depiction of helios but a figure that was perhaps just as important if not more so to the ancient greek world with his tussled long ringlets to the pout and his lips to the slight tilt of his head the popular face the roidy and helios bears an uncanny resemblance to the young conqueror alexander the great this was very likely no mere coincidence if you remember charz's old master was alexander's own personal sculptor and lycipus had spent a great deal of time around the king on life perfecting his image and no doubt a bit of these skills and techniques rubbed off on chars during his training but even larger than that the importance of alexander to the entire mediterranean world during this period of history cannot be overstated even just 50 years removed from his death the memory of alexander was still fresh in the minds of older men who had known or heard of the general's great triumphs when they were only young boys some very well might have fought alongside him in short the 32 year old had quickly become a hellenistic idol an icon a legendary hero of the distant golden age of greece like heracles or achilles come again he had become a demigod of sorts in his own right fanboy cults of worship had sprouted up around him and alexander had embraced this movement when he was alive frequently dressing up like deities even female ones like artemis as a sign of his divinity the dude had 70 cities named after himself his name had become so ubiquitous admired and legendary that by the time of julius caesar about as distant to him as we are to george washington that the best way to describe him is as one historian has put it the jesus before jesus a cultural hero rhodes is filled with images of helios that have a very alexandrian quality about them so the colossus of rhodes might not have just been a depiction of helios per se but alexander cosplain as helios in a way a curious fusion of both the god and the man somewhat jarring to us in the modern day the tallest statue in the entire ancient world was most likely completely naked save for maybe a cape or some drapery over one arm this kept in line with the divine image of most godly statues of the time which were commonly depicted in the nude seeing a nude body especially a man's was not exactly a rare or taboo occurrence public artwork in graffiti regularly depicted what we would consider vulgar images athletic activities in greek society were often conducted with participants in near if not complete nudity as this was considered most comfortable for the athletes as such the statue would have displayed a very strong muscular physique the very ideal of ancient mediterranean body standards one can only picture what it must been like to have your lunch break sitting underneath the colossus's mighty dong the exact pose or position the statue held while it still stood is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries as briefly touched on before no contemporary account mentions the pose probably because they were written long after the statue had already fallen the all too popular straddling and torch holding poses are nothing more than improbable conjecture modern engineers and historians now understand that the colossus would have held a pretty rigid pose with pillar-like legs relatively close together and underneath the body as to best support its enormous weight beyond this however we can say little archaeology once again can possibly assist us in answering this question a damaged wall relief has been uncovered in what was once an ancient temple located in the old city of rhodes and it is very possible that this temple was even nearby the statue itself the relief depicts a figure with one hand raised above its head in a sort of sailor salute some archaeologists have interpreted this figure as the only contemporary depiction of the colossus beyond its face and there might be some logic to this if this theory holds true the bronze helios alexander would have shaded his eyes with his right hand against the glare of the sun in the ocean this would be very fitting with the statue's alexandrian qualities as it would symbolically represent the lycibian gays the great conqueror straining his eyes against the sun looking over the horizon to the bright and glorious future ahead searching for new lands mysteries and adventures to be had it is an alluring theory to be sure and entirely possible but other archaeologists looking at the same relief think it might just be a depiction of a mere human athlete rather than the sun god statue whatever pose the statue possessed its coloration is pretty well understood the bronze plating would have shined bright orange or gold in the sun for a time at least although most modern illustrations depict the statue clean and gleaming in truth for the majority of the statue's lifetime it would have been a bluish green color and this is almost exactly like the statue of liberty in 1886 shortly after completion we know that lady liberty herself was once orange just like the colossus was but after about one year she started to turn a crimson red then a dark brown after three years and then a dark than light green after about 10 to 30 years and it can be inferred that helios probably underwent a similar skin coloration progression why is this all copper and bronze metals will over time react or oxidize with the surrounding air and naturally build up a greenish film or covering called patina salt and sea spray accelerates this natural process causing exposed bronze and copper near the ocean to tarnish rather quickly this green film can be removed through buffering in fact in 1906 there is once debate over if the layer patina on the statue of liberty should be cleaned but this was ultimately rejected removing it would be actually more trouble than it's worth as it provides a layer protection from corrosion for the metal underneath and the ancient greeks were likely aware of this protective property it is certainly interesting to wonder if conversations like the ones in 1906 occurred in the ancient city of rhodes over 2 000 years before there would have been many inhabitants who had grown up and witnessed the statue change colors like a chameleon over the course of their lifetimes from orange to red to brown to finally green 54 years after its completion the great colossus of rhodes symbol of the ancient city's victory would likely have not only been green but covered in bird droppings with gull nests nestled between the spikes of his crown a little older and a little changed but still standing just as tall but then the earth shook it was a warm and peaceful night in the city of rhodes in the year 226 bce sailors gambled and drank and the pubs down by the harbour children and dogs raced up and down the lamplit streets pickpockets and thieves prowled the dark alleys for easy prey a young couple kissed on a high balcony rhodes was at its most prosperous and beautiful it was one of the richest ports in the mediterranean possibly only rivaled by alexandria it was a city of singers and poets and artists it must have been an ordinary and uneventful night for the most part suddenly the ground shook with a violent tremble and it would be as if the earth beneath the city was about to split apart and swallow its inhabitants whole shingles fell columns crumbled and buildings were reduced to piles of rubble and brick over a thousand screams a great monstrous groan of metal came in the direction of the harbor and then a crash a huge earthquake had rocked the city the exact level destruction isn't clear all we know is that it was the worst earthquake rhodes had experienced in living memory entire temples collapsed and many homes and businesses were leveled leaving hundreds dead and many more homeless above all else helios himself was not spared as this pathetic scientific figure proclaims strabo says during the earthquake helios broke apart at the knees landing flat on his face with a large thud he might have even rung like a massive bell the colossus of rhodes who stood for 54 years was rendered into a pile of smashed and twisted metal in a matter of seconds one could have lived to see both its construction and its destruction within their lifetimes it is believed that the island of rhodes once had a population of two hundred thousand three times the amount of people who live on it today no doubt the earthquake of 226 bce affected thousands some historians have suggested the tsunami struck the island but this hasn't been proven the damage was extensive to say the least an aftermath of this event shook the greek world much of the harbor and commercial buildings had been ruined having a huge effect on trade after the tremors stopped and survivors pulled from the ruins many foreign cities once enemies of the reudians offered to assist roads in its reconstruction for example ships from roads were exempt from harbor taxes in neighboring ports out of respect for their loss most significantly ptolemy iii grandson to the very ptolemy the rodians had once refused to portray offered to re-erect their iconic colossus but the rodians declined his offer and oracle had received a revelation from the sun god himself who said the statue had displeased him and yeah it seems like the city just left the statue there in a heap for a long time 800 years the rubble would become a source of awe and intrigue to the romans an archaeology indicates that the colossus's familiar face persisted on roidy and coinage long after its collapse from there we hear nothing of it for many centuries the last mention of the statue appears in the year 653 ce when a muslim caliph captured and sacked the city of rhodes the remains of the once marvelous sun god were unceremoniously melted down and auctioned off to the highest bidder a nameless jewish merchant from odessa loaded onto the backs of 900 camels the colossus wanders away from us into the eastern desert and disappears from history all attempts to locate any piece of it have failed they have probably circulated around and changed so many hands it would be impossible to trace their origins over the unsuing centuries much about the colossus was forgotten and as we have discussed legends sprung up to fill their place in fact over time even the location where the statue once stood in the city was forgotten to this day its placement in roads is unknown although little direct evidence remains archaeology has proposed three candidates the fabled statue might have loomed over the massive main temple of helios near the center of the city or maybe it stood atop the high hill near the second smaller temple of helios in the acropolis of rhodes but my personal favorite and what i think is the most attractive candidate is that the statue was located on what is today the fort of saint nicholas there might be a grain of truth in that age-old myth of the man spreading helios and the sense that it overlooked the harbor and the sea level was much lower back then than it is today the fort of saint nicholas formerly the church of saint nicholas is a military fortification built by christians in the 1400s at the end of a natural mall the foundations of this fortification are rather curious they are far too fine and intricately cut to be hidden underneath the floor of a simple military base or church it very well might be that these mystery blocks are once the podium that the colossus proudly stood atop repurposed after he fell additionally strewn and the surf around the mall are oddly sized boulders that might have originated from within the colossus's metal shell the stone guts once used to prevent him from falling over now spilled out into the ocean this was not uncommon many pagan places of worship were repurposed by later christians often building churches directly on top of what were previously temples to old gods the main temple of helios and roads for example was actually converted into a citadel for christian knights during the crusades and then re-reconverted into the palace of the grand master of the knights of rhodes in the 1400s where it stays today if we favor the fort st nicholas interpretation a lighthouse ironically just about as tall has filled old helios's almost exact spot over two thousand years later the story of the colossus of rhodes last wonder of the ancient world is a long and twisted one filled with gaps and mysteries although its reign of 54 years was short the statue left a pretty large and long-lived impact on history even if this impact is often overlooked by many for example the statue's solar crown of spikes would later become a staple of several sun deities in the mediterranean from apollo to the roman soul invictus one day it would even be adopted by christians serving as both the prototype of the crowns of medieval european kings and the halos floating above the heads of angels and saints and christian artwork lady liberty even has this exact same crown atop her head all of it can at least in part be traced back to good old helios under saint peter's basilica in the vatican city there is a secret tomb that was only discovered accidentally its walls are surrounded by mosaics of christian images and stories and among them is a man riding a chariot across the sky with a beardless face curly flowing hair and a tilted head with a crown of radiant beams of light just slightly reminiscent of a familiar face this might be among one of the earliest images of jesus christ and artwork and it appears to have been influenced however slightly by the colossus's ghostly bronze fingers as people forgot more and more about rhodes great icon and replaced it with exaggeration and myth to many westerners the colossus represented this fabulous golden age of history and in some ways it does the hellenistic period brought about by alexander the great i think is best characterized as a period where people dreamed big and fell short burned bright but faded quickly perhaps best personified through dinocrates of rhodes alexander's chief architect and the mastermind behind ptolemy's city of alexandria he famously had wanted to carve an entire mountain into an unimaginably gigantic statue of a man cradling a whole city in his palm men in his city would wake up and see this a proposal that would have put mount rushmore to shame and make the colossus of rhodes look like a mere toy something out of middle earth no one could doubt dinocreti's ambition and his suggestion was unsurprisingly rejected because he had not even bothered to think about how to feed such a city in the harsh terrain of mount ethos it was an age that seemed without limits through the sheer willpower of the human spirit if you could dream it you could make it happen but much as the reudians and alexander learned the brightest flames live the shortest and everything eventually comes tumbling down thank you so much for watching this episode of trade the explainer i hope you enjoyed and learned something new i'm so sorry for taking so so long to get another video out i've been just really really swamped and busy at work and with life lately and um yeah i'm sorry it's just been a little rough hopefully i can get another video out soon enough special thanks to rafael mina who created the absolutely amazing awesome reconstruction of the colossus for this video you're awesome man and thank you so much for putting so much work into this alright thank you so much for watching and i hope you have a great rest of your day i'll see you next time i'd rather be shiny like a treasure from a sunken pirate rack scrub the deck and make it look shiny i will sparkle like a wealthy woman's neck just a sec

Channel: TREY the Explainer

Views: 1,101,465

Rating: 4.9221549 out of 5

Keywords: colossus, colossus of rhodes, archaeology, greek, ancient, history, seven wonders of the ancient world, Rhodes, Colossus, Alexander, Alexander the Great

Id: bpcx-u4u1SE

Length: 36min 57sec (2217 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/StaniX]

The amount of stuff from that period that's just completely lost to time is so frustrating. Its even more frustrating when you have ancient sources going "That's so fucking radical, dude" without knowing about the actual thing they're praising.

Same thing happened with Aristotle's writing. We have a bunch of what appear to be lecture notes but all of his actual prose works meant for the common folk are lost and we have ancient sources talking about how fantastic and well written they are, while what we have is super dry and hard to read.

Its really something that annoys me because there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.