Both were children of Hyperion, Titan god of light their grandparents, Ouranos (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth).ĭesigned by the architect Chares of Lindos, the Colossus is said to have used 15 tons of bronze and 9 tons of iron, much of it poured in situ. Helios was brother of Selene, the moon Titan(ess). In Greek poetry, when you read of the sun daily crossing the sky in his chariot, that is Helios or Helius, not Apollo. Odysseus’ men steal the cattle of Helios’ father, Hyperion, there described as the sun god. 1844 – 1861.sun god was one of the Titans, not the Olympian Apollo. “Apollo] With A Cithara And A And Diana.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. Note theĪrt and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. It took the Rhodians twelve years to build a suitable statue to honor their patron god, the sun god, Helios. Demetrius had arrived the year before, with more troops than there were people in the commercially important city of Rhodes, so the Rhodians, hoping and waiting for support from Ptolemy(2**) (in Egypt), flooded the area outside their city walls and kept the invaders at bay until their allies arrived. In 304 BC, the people of Rhodes, who had been under the control of Mausolus of Halicarnassus(1*), the Persians, and then the Macedonian-Greek forces of Alexander the Great, celebrated their victory over the invading forces of Antigonus’ son Demetrius (the Besieger “Polorketes” 337-283). And they weighed from it three thousand loads of Corinthianīrass, and they sold it to a certain Jew from Emesa’ (the Syrian city of Homs).”

“ …Barhebraeus, writing in Syriac in the 13th century in Edessa: …’ And a great number of men hauled on strong ropes which were tied round the brass Colossus which was in the city and pulled it down. Some centuries later, in 654, Arabs, the latest to rule the area, led by the Muslim caliph Muawiyah I, carried the remains away as scrap metal. The Colossus (of Rhodes) fell to a third century earthquake. The Colossus was built from the abandoned military siege equipment of a defeated Syrian army, but that army was really Hellenistic, since it came from the kingdom ruled by a Macedonian nobleman, Antigonus (382-301 BC). Reading about the Colossus of Rhodes puts in mind karmic comparisons with today’s destruction of artifacts in Syria, but there is little clear similarity. Herakles belongs dominion over sea and land.”

Not only over the seasīut also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom and independence. Pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from the enemy. “To you, o Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus, when they had “Der Coloss zu Rhodus der olympische Jupiter der Dianen-Tempel zu Ephes.” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Westermayr, Konrad (1765-1834) (Engraver)įischer von Erlach, Johann Bernhard (1656-1723) (Artist) Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library.

Greek god helios statue