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It was 1865 when Frenchman Édouard de Laboulaye proposed the idea of presenting a monumental gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. As uppor t er of America , Laboulaye wished to commemorate the centennial of the Declaration of Independence as well as celebrate the close relationship between France and America. He was equally moved by the recent abolition of slavery in the U.S., which furthered America's ideals of liberty and freedom.

Sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi was in attendance for Laboulaye's proclamation. Of like mind with Laboulaye's cause, Bartholdi began conceptualizing the colossal structure that would soon be known as Liberty Enlightening the World.

Bartholdi's design encompassed much symbolism: her crown representing light with its spikes evoking sun rays extending out to the world; the tablet, inscribed with July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals, noting American independence; to symbolize the end of slavery, Bartholdi placed a broken shackle and chains at the Statue's foot.

Fundraising and bringing people together have always been integral to Lady Liberty's history. It began with efforts to finance this unprecedented undertaking. France would be responsible for creating the Statue and assembling it in the United States while the American people would fund and build the pedestal.

To raise funds in France, public fees, various forms of entertainment, and a lottery were used. In the U.S., to finance the pedestal, benefit theatrical events, art exhibitions, auctions, and prizefights were held. Poet Emma Lazarus wrote her famous sonnet The New Colossus in 1883 for an art and literary auction.

Despite these efforts, fundraising for the pedestal went slowly. To spark public action, in 1885, Joseph Pulitzer placed an ad in his paper the New York World inviting readers to donate to the cause. In exchange, Pulitzer printed each donor's name in the newspaper. The public rose to the challenge with 120,000 people donating over $100,000 and securing the remaining funds needed for the Statue's pedestal.

Meanwhile in France, Bartholdi required the assistance of an engineer to address structural issues associated with designing such a colossal copper sculpture. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, just prior to creating his famed Tower, was engaged to design the massive iron pylon and secondary skeletal framework that allows the Statue's copper skin to move independently yet stand upright.

Construction of the Statue was completed in France in July 1884. The massive sculpture stood tall above the rooftops of Paris awaiting her voyage across the sea.

Back in America that same year architect Richard Morris Hunt was selected to design the Statue's granite pedestal, and construction got underway.

For its trans-Atlantic voyage aboard the frigate Isère, the Statue was reduced to 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates. The ship arrived in New York Harbor on June 17, 1885. While awaiting construction of its pedestal, the Statue remained in pieces on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The pedestal was completed in April 1886 and finally, on October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland oversaw the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in front of thousands of spectators.

The story of the Statue of Liberty and her island has been one of change. For centuries the island was a major source of food for the Lenape native people and later Dutch settlers. In 1807, the U.S. Army deemed the island a military post, constructing an 11-point fort to protect New York Harbor. Later renamed Fort Wood, the structure now serves as the base for the Statue's pedestal. The Statue's own meaning and relevance have evolved with time, as well. Perhaps most notable is the association with welcoming "huddled masses." In 1903, a plaque baring "The New Colossus" was placed in the pedestal. With that Lady Liberty's significance grew as an inspiration to immigrants who sailed passed her on their way to America.

The Statue of Liberty's Original Torch

As Bartholdi envisioned it in 1874, the flame of the Statue's torch was not to be lighted but rather made of solid copper sheet and gilded to shine brightly in daylight. But in during its first half-century, the torch underwent numerous modifications. When the Statue was dedicated in 1886, two rows of portholes had been cut from the copper at the bottom of the torch to illuminate it from inside. Six years later, an 18-inch belt of glass replaced the upper row of portholes and an octagonal pyramidal skylight with red, white and yellow glass was installed on top of the flame. Changes continued in 1916 when copper was removed in about 250 places and replaced with amber-colored cathedral glass. In 1931 a new lighting system was installed that called for two holes 16 inches in diameter to be cut into the floor of the balcony around the flame through which two projectors were installed. By this time, Bartholdi's design was barely recognizable.

In the 1980s when the Foundation was restoring the Statue for its centennial celebration, a team of experts determined that the original torch could not be restored. A century of modifications had radically altered Bartholdi's solid copper flame to one mainly of glass. Leaks from rain and corrosion from the elements had damaged the original torch above the handle beyond repair. It was removed on July 4, 1984 and replaced with a replica that followed Bartholdi's design.

Today, the original torch is on display in the Inspiration Gallery of the Statue of Liberty Museum.

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It was 1865 when Frenchman Édouard de Laboulaye proposed the idea of presenting a monumental gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. As uppor t er of America , Laboulaye wished to commemorate the centennial of the Declaration of Independence as well as celebrate the close relationship between France and America.

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Essential John Locke: The Purpose of Government

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What is the Statue of Liberty made of? The Statue of Liberty is made of copper 3/32 in. (2.4 millimeters) thick, the same as two U.S. pennies put together.

Why is the Statue green? The Statue's copper has naturally oxidized to form its familiar "patina" green coating. This patina is as thick, in many places, as the copper behind it and is protecting the copper from naturally wearing away.

How tall is the Statue of Liberty? The Statue is 305ft. 1in. from the ground to the tip of the flame. It is the equivalent height of a 22-story building. In 1886, it was the tallest structure in New York. See more Statue Statistics.

Is the Statue of Liberty an image of a man or woman? Classical images of Liberty have usually been represented by a woman. The Statue of Liberty's face is said to be modeled after the sculptor's mother.

Is the torch open? The torch has been closed since the "Black Tom" explosion of July 30, 1916, which was one of the largest acts of sabotage to our nation prior to the event of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Many people think they've been there and confuse it with climbing a spiral staircase which goes to the crown. National Park Service staff must climb a narrow 40ft. ladder in order to maintain the floodlights which light the torch.

Do you have questions about pedestal, monument and crown access? The ferry company should be contacted regarding advance tickets, confirmations, monument access pass availability. You can reach them at: 877-LADY TIX for advance tickets and monument access passes or on line at: www.statuecitycruises.com

Can I purchase food or bring my own to the park? You can do either. A food & beverage concessions are located on Liberty Island and Ellis Island or you can bring your own. (Large coolers will not be allowed through security screening) Food & Beverage Concessionaire (Evelyn Hill, Inc. - 212 363-3180).

Which direction does she face? The Statue of Liberty faces Southeast and was strategically placed inside of Fort Wood which was a perfect base for the Statue. The Statue's position was also perfect for ships, entering the harbor, to see her as a welcoming symbol.

Does the Statue of Liberty get struck by lightning? Yes! Although the Statue is grounded through the massive concrete and granite base she stands on; the Statue gets struck many times each year. Just how many is not known. The Statue's height and the conductive material she's made of, copper, makes it a structure of choice for lightning strikes.

What does the torch represent? The torch is a symbol of enlightenment. The Statue of Liberty's torch lights the way to freedom showing us the path to Liberty. Even the Statue's official name represents her most important symbol "Liberty Enlightening the World". The Statue's current replacement torch, added in 1986, is a copper flame covered in 24K gold. It is reflective of the sun's rays in daytime and lighted by 16 floodlights at night. The original torch was removed in 1984 and is currently inside the Statue of Liberty Museum.

What is written on the Statue's tablet? The tablet of law, held in the Statue's left hand, has the date of American Independence July 4, 1776, written on it in Roman numerals (July IV, MDCCLXXVI)

What do the seven spikes on the Statue's crown represent? The rays represent a radiant halo, also called an "aureole."

Is the Statue in New York or New Jersey? The Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island, federal property administered by the National Park Service, located within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of New York. A pact between New York and New Jersey, ratified by Congress in 1834, declared this issue.

Can I dock my personal boat or vessel on the island? No. Docking of private vessels is not permitted! Visitors can only arrive at the island via the contracted ferry concession service presently in place.

Are Pets Allowed In the Park? No, pets are not permitted on the ferry system or in the park itself. Documented service/assist animals are exempt from this regulation.

If I take the ferry from one side, must I return to that side? Yes. Ferries depart from both the State of New York and New Jersey. The side you start from is where you should return to. If not, you may be forced to find alternate ways back due to crowding or ticket office closures.

Is the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island? No. The park is comprised of two separate islands, Liberty Island and Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island. Ellis Island, the former federal immigration station, is currently a national museum of immigration.

Can I use my National Park Pass when visiting this park? No. National Park passes are valid at parks that charge an entrance fee. There is no entrance fee for Liberty and Ellis Islands because they are are fee exempt by law. Transportation fee (ferry) does not apply to the pass. More information or to order National Park Passes at: www.nationalparks.org

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Frequently Asked Questions About the Statue of Liberty - Statue Of Liberty National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)

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What is the Statue of Liberty made of? The Statue of Liberty is made of copper 3/32 in. (2.4 millimeters) thick, the same as two U.S. pennies put together. Why is the Statue green? The Statue's copper has naturally oxidized to form its familiar "patina" green coating.

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ive me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses, yearning to be free..." Most people who can quote those lines would also know they had been engraved on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty. But they might not necessarily know the rest of the poem, nor the name of its author. Celebrating the spirit of republicanism, The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus is this week's post-jubilee-jamboree choice.

Lazarus's output includes a novel, essays, original poems and translations. She was born in New York City in 1849 to a prosperous Sephardic family. Privilege seems to create an impermeable protective shell around some people; for others it sharpens their alertness to inequality. Lazarus's growing interest in the plight of Russian-Jewish exiles fleeing the pogroms informed the direction she took in this commissioned poem.

It was one of many contributions to an endeavour to raise funds for the building of the 89-ft pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty was to stand. The statue itself, by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, has an interestingly mixed intellectual history. Bartholdi initially drew designs for the statue of a robed woman to grace the entrance to the Suez canal. It was to double as a lighthouse, and represent Egypt bringing light to the people of Asia. But Egypt couldn't afford to pursue the project and it was decided, instead, to make the statue "a gift of friendship from the people of France" to commemorate American independence. America still had to foot the bill for the pedestal (pardon the pun).

The monument that was eventually created represents the Roman goddess Libertas, "enlightening the world". While freedom of migration is a significant aspect of modern enlightenment, it was not initially the dominant concept the statue enshrined. Those few simple lines of Lazarus have profoundly affected the way later generations have "read" its symbolism.

The original Colossus was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, a vast bronze image of the sun god Helios, which was erroneously believed to have stood astride Rhodes harbour. Lazarus begins The New Colossus with bold denial: "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame..." This trope allows her a dramatic build-up to proclaiming Liberty's gender. The subject of her sentence is "a mighty woman" and the grand climax reached in line six designates her "Mother of Exiles", sweeping up mere size into the morally greater concept of all-generous maternity.

The sonnet effectively deploys light and fire symbolism. That Liberty's torch holds "imprisoned lightning" suggests Promethean powers. A less elevated perspective is enfolded in "sea-washed, sunset gates", a rather mournful image combining the sense of expansive, gently-gilded western horizons with the exile's homesick melancholy. The new life is reached only through the sunset of the old one.

"The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame" is differently interpreted to this day by the poem's commentators. Some say the twin of New York City is Jersey City; others disagree. The Brooklyn Bridge was erected in May, 1883 - the year the poem was composed. I think it likely that Lazarus wanted to convey the thrilling new sight of this great suspension bridge, and that "air-bridged" is a compressed allusion to the wonderful "airiness" of the construction: therefore, the city is Brooklyn.

Apart from the attributive tag, the sonnet's sestet, all in the imperative case, is spoken by Liberty herself. Again we see those broad, visual, almost journalistic strokes Lazarus excels in, and her skill at packing ideas tight as a suitcase. "Storied pomp" conflates myths of nationhood with self-glorifying display. The "huddled masses" image is unforgettably visual and narrative. It reminds us the refugees lived in slums or ghettos, in overcrowded conditions that would have been repeated at sea for the majority who travelled steerage. Their "yearning to breathe free" was not, therefore, only metaphorical. In the next line, "refuse" is a shocking and unexpected noun. English equates refuse with rubbish. We're forced to see the exiles as they were seen by the regimes that despised and dehumanised them. For contemporary readers, additional images of homelessness and genocide will inhabit these lines.

The New Colossus is a supremely confident poem. The technique is impeccable, with complete command of the Petrarchan sonnet form and its dramatic timing. Lazarus knows how to use rhetoric and archetype without overegging the already rich fare. The iambic pentameter flows with the steady dignity of a great ship.

Many images are drawn from the storied Old World. "Tempest-tost" is a Shakespearean epithet. There are hints of Wordsworth's sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, and of Keats, and his Homeric " realms of gold". The poem is confident of its literary place, and politically confident, too.

Despite the greyer moments, Lazarus bathes her scene in warm light, evoked by the "beacon-hand", the "sunset gates", the glow of "world-wide welcome" and, in the last line, the lamp lifted "beside the golden door". Although Liberty speaks with the grandeur of an empress, in the poem's idealised vision she remains a universal mother, offering home and hearth to the destitute, and the hope of a more prosperous future.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates 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 world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

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Poem of the Week: The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

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Carol Rumens: The sonnet found beneath the Statue of Liberty has images drawn from the Old World, with hints of Wordsworth and Keats

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While "The New Colossus" once welcomed immigrants into New York Harbor from its perch on the Statue of Liberty, this video excerpted from Poetry in America brings the discussion of poetry and immigration into our current moment.

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Emma Lazarus was born in New York City to a wealthy family and educated by private tutors. She began writing and translating poetry as a teenager and was publishing translations of German poems by the 1860s. Her father privately printed her first work in 1866 and the next year, her first collection, Poems and Translations (1867), appeared from a commercial press. The book gained the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, among others. Over the next decade, Lazarus published a second volume of poetry, Admetus and Other Poems (1871); the novel Alide: An Episode in Goethe's Life (1874); and a play in verse, The Spagnoletto (1876). Reading George Eliot's novel Daniel Deronda, with its exploration of Jewish identity, stirred Lazarus to consider her own heritage. In the 1880s, she took up the cause-through both poetry and prose-against the persecution of Jews in Russia, publishing a polemical pamphlet The Century (1882) and Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death and Other Poems (1882), one of the first literary works to explore the struggles of Jewish Americans.

Lazarus was one of the first successful and highly visible Jewish American authors. She advocated for Jewish refugees and argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland before the concept of Zionism was in wide circulation. After the publication of Songs of a Semite, she traveled to England and France and met and befriended poets and writers such as Robert Browning and William Morris. After her return to the United States, she was commissioned to write a poem to help raise funds for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. She initially declined and then wrote a sonnet commemorating the plight of immigrants. Lines from that 1883 sonnet, "The New Colossus," were engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1903.

After her death, the scope of Lazarus's life and career was obscured by the fame of "The New Colossus." There have been recent attempts to revitalize scholarship and interest in her work, including a volume of selected poems from the Library of America and a biography, Emma Lazarus (2006), by Esther Schor.

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Emma Lazarus was born in New York City to a wealthy family and educated by private tutors. She began writing and translating poetry as a teenager and was publishing translations of German poems by the 1860s. Her father privately printed her first work in 1866 and the next year, her first...

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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There was, in fact, a founding father of the American Dream. He was James Truslow Adams and he coined the phrase in his 1931 bestseller The Epic of America. Adams, who was no relation to the Presidential Adamses, had actually wanted to name the book after his central thesis, but his publisher thought that a book called The American Dream wouldn’t sell well during the Great Depression.

Adams’s definition: “a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”

He put it more succinctly elsewhere in the book: a “dream of a better, richer and happier life for all our citizens of every rank.”

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With the 2016 Presidential election approaching, we can all be sure we'll be hearing about the American Dream a lot in the coming months. Where did the concept come from?

There was, in fact, a founding father of the American Dream. He was James Truslow Adams and he coined the phrase in his 1931 bestseller The Epic of America. Adams, who was no relation to the Presidential Adamses, had actually wanted to name the book after his central thesis, but his publisher thought that a book called The American Dream wouldn't sell well during the Great Depression.

Adams's definition: "a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

He put it more succinctly elsewhere in the book: a "dream of a better, richer and happier life for all our citizens of every rank." This contemporary review of Epic notes that Adams alluded to the idea in fifty or more passages in the book. The unnamed reviewer thought Adams believed the dream to be "our greatest contribution to the thought of the world."

Adams himself was born fortuitously into a wealthy Brooklyn family and became a successful investment banker before transforming himself into a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. This short essay on Chief Justice John Marshall published in The American Scholar shows he didn't talk down to a popular audience. The piece is dense and closely-argued, and goes to the heart of the question about just what kind of democracy we have, and might have in the future-his notion that the nation-state was on the way out may have been premature.

Calling something a dream is a tricky proposition, since matching "a better, richer and happier life for all" to today's economic disparities, limited social mobility, and the overweening power of money in politics makes it sound like a far-fetched fantasy indeed.

Adams himself was clear-eyed: he wrote the American Dream "has been realized more fully in actual life here than anywhere else, though very imperfectly even among ourselves."

Resources

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

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James Truslow Adams: Dreaming up the American Dream | JSTOR Daily

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With the 2016 Presidential election approaching, we can all be sure we'll be hearing about the American Dream a lot in the coming months. Where did the concept come from? There was, in fact, a founding father of the American Dream. He was James Truslow Adams and he coined the phrase in his 1931 bestseller The Epic of America.

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Immigrant Poets Celebrate Emma Lazarus’ Birthday with Tributes to ‘The New Colossus’

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When Emma Lazarus wrote “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” she had no idea it would eventually emblazon the Statue of Liberty, and she never found out: Her poem was erected on the figure 16 years after her death. She only intended for “The New Colossus”…

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Colossus of Rhodes, artist's impression, 1880

The Colossus of Rhodes ( Ancient Greek: ὁ Κολοσσὸς Ῥόδιος , ho Kolossòs Rhódios; Greek: Κολοσσός της Ρόδου , statue of the Greek sun god Kolossós tes Rhódou) was a Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was constructed to celebrate the successful defence of Rhodes city against an attack by Demetrius I of Macedon, who had besieged it for a year with a large army and navy.

According to most contemporary descriptions, the Colossus stood approximately 70 cubits, or 33 metres (108 feet) high - approximately the height of the modern Statue of Liberty from feet to crown - making it the tallest statue in the ancient world. It collapsed during the earthquake of 226 BC, although parts of it were preserved. In accordance with a certain oracle, the Rhodians did not rebuild it. John Malalas wrote that Hadrian in his reign re-erected the Colossus, but he was mistaken. According to the Suda, the Rhodians were called Colossaeans (Κολοσσαεῖς), because they erected the statue on the island.

In 653, an Arab force under Muslim general Mu'awiya I conquered Rhodes, and according to the Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, the statue was completely destroyed and the remains sold; this account may be unreliable.(pp 179-186)

Since 2008, a series of as-yet-unrealized proposals to build a new Colossus at Rhodes Harbour have been announced, although the actual location of the original monument remains in dispute.

In the late fourth century BC, Rhodes, allied with Ptolemy I of Egypt, prevented a mass invasion staged by their common enemy, Antigonus I Monophthalmus.

In 304 BC a relief force of ships sent by Ptolemy arrived, and Demetrius (son of Antigonus) and his army abandoned the siege, leaving behind most of their siege equipment. To celebrate their victory, the Rhodians sold the equipment left behind for 300 talents and decided to use the money to build a colossal statue of their patron god, Helios. Construction was left to the direction of Chares, a native of Lindos in Rhodes, who had been involved with large-scale statues before. His teacher, the sculptor Lysippos, had constructed a 22-metre-high (72-foot) bronze statue of Zeus at Tarentum.

Timeline and map of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, including the Colossus of Rhodes

Construction began in 292 BC. Ancient accounts, which differ to some degree, describe the structure as being built with iron tie bars to which brass plates were fixed to form the skin. The interior of the structure, which stood on a 15-metre-high (49-foot) white marble pedestal near the Rhodes harbour entrance, was then filled with stone blocks as construction progressed. Other sources place the Colossus on a breakwater in the harbour. According to most contemporary descriptions, the statue itself was about 70 cubits, or 32 metres (105 feet) tall. Much of the iron and bronze was reforged from the various weapons Demetrius's army left behind, and the abandoned second siege tower may have been used for scaffolding around the lower levels during construction.

Philo of Byzantium wrote in De septem mundi miraculis that Chares created the sculpture in situ by casting it in horizontal courses and then placing "...a huge mound of earth around each section as soon as it was completed, thus burying the finished work under the accumulated earth, and carrying out the casting of the next part on the level."

Modern engineers have put forward a plausible hypothesis for the statue's construction, based on the technology of the time (which was not based on the modern principles of earthquake engineering), and the accounts of Philo and Pliny, who saw and described the ruins.

The base pedestal was said to be at least 18 metres (59 feet) in diameter, and either circular or octagonal. The feet were carved in stone and covered with thin bronze plates riveted together. Eight forged iron bars set in a radiating horizontal position formed the ankles and turned up to follow the lines of the legs while becoming progressively smaller. Individually cast curved bronze plates 1.5 metres (60 in) square with turned-in edges were joined together by rivets through holes formed during casting to form a series of rings. The lower plates were 25 millimetres (1 in) in thickness to the knee and 20 millimetres ( in) thick from knee to abdomen, while the upper plates were 6.5 to 12.5 millimetres ( to in) thick except where additional strength was required at joints such as the shoulder, neck, etc.[citation needed ]

Archaeologist Ursula Vedder has proposed that the sculpture was cast in large sections following traditional Greek methods and that Philo's account is "not compatible with the situation proved by archaeology in ancient Greece."

The standing Colossus (280-226 BC)

After twelve years, in 280 BC, the statue was completed. Preserved in Greek anthologies of poetry is what is believed to be the genuine dedication text for the Colossus.

Αὐτῷ σοὶ πρὸς Ὄλυμπον ἐμακύναντο κολοσσὸν
τόνδε Ῥόδου ναέται Δωρίδος, Ἀέλιε,
χάλκεον ἁνίκα κῦμα κατευνάσαντες Ἐνυοῦς
ἔστεψαν πάτραν δυσμενέων ἐνάροις.
οὐ γὰρ ὑπὲρ πελάγους μόνον κάτθεσαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν γᾷ,
ἁβρὸν ἀδουλώτου φέγγος ἐλευθερίας·
τοῖς γὰρ ἀφ' Ἡρακλῆος ἀεξηθεῖσι γενέθλας
πάτριος ἐν πόντῳ κἠν χθονὶ κοιρανία.

To you, O Sun, 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 to the descendants of Herakles belongs dominion over sea and land.

Collapse (226 BC)

Artist's conception from the Grolier Society's 1911 Book of Knowledge

The statue stood for 54 years until a 226 BC earthquake caused significant damage to large portions of Rhodes, including the harbour and commercial buildings, which were destroyed. The statue snapped at the knees and fell over onto land. Ptolemy III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but the Oracle of Delphi made the Rhodians fear that they had offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it.[citation needed ]

Fallen state (226 BC to 653 AD)

The remains lay on the ground for over 800 years and, even broken, they were so impressive that many travelled to see them.

The remains were described briefly by Strabo (64 or 63 BC - c. 24 AD), in his work Geography (Book XIV, Chapter 2.5). Strabo was a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Strabo is best known for his work Geographica ("Geography"), which presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Strabo states that:

The city of the Rhodians lies on the eastern promontory of Rhodes; and it is so far superior to all others in harbours and roads and walls and improvements in general that I am unable to speak of any other city as equal to it, or even as almost equal to it, much less superior to it. It is remarkable also for its good order, and for its careful attention to the administration of affairs of state in general; and in particular to that of naval affairs, whereby it held the mastery of the sea for a long time and overthrew the business of piracy, and became a friend to the Romans and to all kings who favoured both the Romans and the Greeks. Consequently, it not only has remained autonomous but also has been adorned with many votive offerings, which for the most part are to be found in the Dionysium and the gymnasium, but partly in other places. The best of these are, first, the Colossus of Helius, of which the author of the iambic verse says, "seven times ten cubits in height, the work of Chares the Lindian"; but it now lies on the ground, having been thrown down by an earthquake and broken at the knees. In accordance with a certain oracle, the people did not raise it again. This, then, is the most excellent of the votive offerings (at any rate, it is by common agreement one of the Seven Wonders).

Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24 - 79) was a Roman author, a naturalist and natural philosopher, a naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of emperor Vespasian. Pliny wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. The Naturalis Historia is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge. Pliny remarked:

But that which is by far the most worthy of our admiration, is the colossal statue of the Sun, which stood formerly at Rhodes, and was the work of Chares the Lindian, a pupil of the above-named Lysippus; no less than seventy cubits in height. This statue fifty-six years after it was erected, was thrown down by an earthquake; but even as it lies, it excites our wonder and admiration. Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues. Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen yawning in the interior. Within it, too, are to be seen large masses of rock, by the weight of which the artist steadied it while erecting it.

The ultimate fate of the remains of the statue is uncertain. Rhodes has two serious earthquakes per century, owing to its location on the seismically unstable Hellenic arc. Pausanias mentions in the Descriptio Graeciae, writing ca. 174, how the city was so devastated by an earthquake that the sibyl oracle foretelling its destruction was considered fulfilled. This means the statue could not have survived for long if it had ever been repaired. By the 4th century Rhodes was Christianized, meaning any further maintenance or rebuilding, if there ever was any before, on an ancient pagan statue is unlikely. The metal would have likely been used for coins and maybe also tools by the time of the Arab wars, especially during earlier conflicts such as the Sasanian wars.(pp 179-186)

The onset of Islamic naval incursions against the Byzantine Empire gave rise to a dramatic account of what became of the Colossus. In 653, an Arab force under Muslim general Mu'awiya I raided Rhodes, and according to the Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, the remains of the statue constituted part of the booty, being melted down and sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa who loaded the bronze onto 900 camels. The same story is recorded by Bar Hebraeus, writing in Syriac in the 13th century in Edessa (after the Arab pillage of Rhodes): "And a great number of men hauled on strong ropes which were tied around the brass Colossus which was in the city and pulled it down. And they weighed from it three thousand loads of Corinthian brass, and they sold it to a certain Jew from Emesa" (the Syrian city of Homs).

Ultimately, Theophanes is the sole source of this account, and all other sources can be traced to him.(pp 169-174) As Theophanes' source was Syriac, it may have had vague information about a raid and attributed the statue's demise to it, not knowing much more. Or the Arab destruction and the purported sale to a Jew may have originated as a powerful metaphor for Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the destruction of a great statue.(pp 165-187)

Given the likely previous neglect of the remains and various opportunities for authorities to have repurposed the metal, as well as the fact that, Islamic incursions notwithstanding, the island remained an important Byzantine strategic point well into the ninth century, an Arabic raid is unlikely to have found much, if any, remaining metal to carry away. For these reasons, as well as the negative perception of the Arab conquests, L.I. Conrad considers Theophanes' story of the dismantling of the statue as likely propaganda, like the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.(pp 179-186)

The Colossus as imagined in a 16th-century engraving by Martin Heemskerck, part of his series of the Seven Wonders of the World

The harbour-straddling Colossus was a figment of medieval imaginations based on the dedication text's mention of "over land and sea" twice and the writings of an Italian visitor who in 1395 noted that local tradition held that the right foot had stood where the church of St John of the Colossus was then located. Many later illustrations show the statue with one foot on either side of the harbour mouth with ships passing under it. References to this conception are also found in literary works. William Shakespeare's Cassius in Julius Caesar (I, ii, 136-38) says of Caesar:

Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves

Shakespeare alludes to the Colossus also in Troilus and Cressida (V.5) and in Henry IV, Part 1 (V.1).

" The New Colossus" (1883), a sonnet by Emma Lazarus written on a cast bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1903, contrasts the latter with:

The brazen giant of Greek fame
with conquering limbs astride from land to land

While these fanciful images feed the misconception, the mechanics of the situation reveal that the Colossus could not have straddled the harbour as described in Lemprière's Classical Dictionary. If the completed statue had straddled the harbour, then the entire mouth of the harbour would have been effectively closed during the entirety of the construction, and the ancient Rhodians would not have had the means to dredge and re-open the harbour after construction was finished. Additionally, the fallen statue would have blocked the harbour, and since the ancient Rhodians did not have the ability to remove the fallen statue from the harbour, it would not have remained visible on land for the next 800 years, as discussed above. Even neglecting these objections, the statue was made of bronze, and engineering analyses indicate that it could not have been built with its legs apart without collapsing under its own weight.

Many researchers have considered alternative positions for the statue which would have made it more feasible for actual construction by the ancients. There is also no evidence that the statue held a torch aloft; the records simply say that after completion, the Rhodians kindled the "torch of freedom". A relief in a nearby temple shows Helios standing with one hand shielding his eyes, similar to the way a person shields their eyes when looking toward the sun, and it is quite possible that the colossus was constructed in the same pose.

Silver tetradrachm of Rhodes showing Helios and a rose (205-190 BC, 13.48 g)

While scholars do not know what the statue looked like, they do have a good idea of what the head and face looked like, as it was of a standard rendering at the time. The head would have had curly hair with evenly spaced spikes of bronze or silver flame radiating, similar to the images found on contemporary Rhodian coins.

The old harbour entrance from inner embankment. The Fortress of St Nicholas is on right

While scholars generally agree that anecdotal depictions of the Colossus straddling the harbour's entry point have no historic or scientific basis, the monument's actual location remains a matter of debate. As mentioned above the statue is thought locally to have stood where two pillars now stand at the Mandraki port entrance.

The floor of the Fortress of St Nicholas, near the harbour entrance, contains a circle of sandstone blocks of unknown origin or purpose. Curved blocks of marble that were incorporated into the Fortress structure, but are considered too intricately cut to have been quarried for that purpose, have been posited as the remnants of a marble base for the Colossus, which would have stood on the sandstone block foundation.

Stone foundation and partially-reconstructed temple ruins at the apex of the Acropolis of Rhodes

Archaeologist Ursula Vedder postulates that the Colossus was not located in the harbour area at all, but rather was part of the Acropolis of Rhodes, which stood on a hill that overlooks the port area. The ruins of a large temple, traditionally thought to have been dedicated to Apollo, are situated at the highest point of the hill. Vedder believes that the structure would actually have been a Helios sanctuary, and a portion of its enormous stone foundation could have served as the supporting platform for the Colossus.

In 2008, The Guardian reported that a modern Colossus was to be built at the harbour entrance by the German artist Gert Hof leading a Cologne-based team. It was to be a giant light sculpture made partially out of melted-down weapons from around the world. It would cost up to €200 million.

In December 2015, a group of European architects announced plans to build a modern Colossus bestriding two piers at the harbour entrance, despite a preponderance of evidence and scholarly opinion that the original monument could not have stood there. The new statue, 150 metres (490 ft) tall (five times the height of the original), would cost an estimated US$283 million, funded by private donations and crowdsourcing. The statue would include a cultural centre, a library, an exhibition hall, and a lighthouse, all powered by solar panels. Since then, no such plans carried out and the website for the project went offline.

References

1. ^ Higgins, Reynold (1988). "The Colossus of Rhodes". In Clayton, Peter A.; Price, Martin Jessop (eds.). The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Psychology Press. p. 130. ISBN 9780415050364.

2. ^ Boatwright, Mary T. (2002). Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire. Princeton University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-6910-9493-9.

3. "AM 6145, AD 652/-3". The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. 1997. p. 481.

4. ^ Conrad, L.I. (July 1996). "The Arabs and the Colossus". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 6 (2): 165-187. doi:10.1017/S1356186300007173. JSTOR 25183179. S2CID 163298319.

5. Williams, Kate (26 December 2015). "Rhodes reconstruction project will be a colossal gamble for Greece - but it might well pay off". The Guardian.

6. ^ Bennett, Jay (7 January 2016). "There's a plan to rebuild the Colossus of Rhodes". Popular Mechanics.

7. ^ Accounts of Philo of Byzantium ca. 150 BC and Pliny (Plineus Caius Secundus) ca. 50 AD based on viewing the broken remains

8. Vedder, Ursula (2017). "Was the Colossus of Rhodes cast in courses or large sections?". In Daehner, Jens (ed.). Artistry in Bronze: The Greeks and their legacy. XIXth International Congress on Ancient Bronzes. Los Angeles, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Conservation Institute. p. 25.

9. ^ Engineering aspects of the collapse of the Colossus of Rhodes statue. International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms. Springer. 2004. pp. 69-85. ISBN 978-1-4020-2203-6.

10. ^ Bruemmer Bozeman, Adda (1994). Politics and Culture in International History: From the Ancient Near East to the Opening of the Modern Age. Transaction Publishers. p. 108. ISBN 1-56000-735-4.

11. Budge, E.A. Wallis (1932). The Chronography of Gregory Abu'l-Faraj. Vol. I. Amsterdam, NL: APA - Philo Pres. p. 98.

12. ^ "Koloss von Rhodos: Standort entdeckt!". presseportal.de. Pressemitteilung Gruner+Jahr, P.M. History. April 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Exklusiv in P.M. History: Sensationelle Theorie der Münchner

Gabriel, Albert (1932). "[no title cited]". Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique. 56: 331-359.

Maryon, H. (1956). "The Colossus of Rhodes". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 76: 68-86. - sculptor's speculations on the Colossus of Rhodes.

Haynes, D.E.L. (1957). "Philo of Byzantium and the Colossus of Rhodes". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 77 (2): 311-312. - a response to Maryon (1956).

Higgins, Michael Denis (2023). The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: Science, engineering, and technology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1976-4815-5.

Jones, Kenneth R. (2014). "Alcaeus of Messene, Philip V and the Colossus of Rhodes: A re-examination of Anth. Pal. 6.171". The Classical Quarterly. 64 (1): 136-151. doi:10.1017/S0009838813000591.

Romer, John; Romer, Elizabeth (1995). The Seven Wonders of the World: A history of the modern imagination (1st American ed.). New York, NY: Henry Holt.

Woods, David (2016). "On the alleged Arab destruction of the Colossus of Rhodes c. 653". Byzantion: Revue Internationale des Etudes Byzantines. 86: 441-451.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Colossus of Rhodes ( Ancient Greek: ὁ Κολοσσὸς Ῥόδιος , ho Kolossòs Rhódios; Greek: Κολοσσός της Ρόδου , statue of the Greek sun god Kolossós tes Rhódou) was a Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC.

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Rewriting Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus" | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC

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NPR religion correspondent, Tom Gjelten, poet Gala Mukomolova, and poet and professor, Kaveh Akbar, talk about rewriting Emma Lazarus' poem "The New Colossus" for the 21st century.