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attachment of metal. This variety of colour must have greatly contributed to the distinctness and animation of the composition, and doubtless was distributed in such proportions as to unite the several groups in one great harmony.

THE

THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES

LUCY M. MITCHELL

HE island republic of Rhodes, by reason of its position in the line of the great commercial routes of antiquity, and its wise neutral policy during the stormy time after Alexander, had attained to great prosperity by the close of the Fourth Century, B. C. But, provoked by the seizure of their traders with Egypt, the Rhodians finally allied themselves with the latter country against Demetrios Poliorketes, and resisted his siege of their city so bravely that, after the lapse of a year, he withdrew his forces, 303 or 304 B. C., leaving behind his ponderous engines of war. The deliverance from a threatening foreign yoke the Rhodians commemorated by the erection of statues to all who had aided them; but, most of all, by a bronze colossus to their god Helios, one hundred and fifty feet high, and, on account of its great size, considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. This colossus, the work of a native sculptor, Chares of Lindos, a scholar of the great Lysippos, is said to have required twelve years for its completion; the expenses amounting to four hundred and seventy thousand dollars, or, according to another story, to two million five hundred thousand dollars, being defrayed by the sale of Demetrios's engines of war. It probably stood

complete before 280 B. C., and for sixty-six years towered, a prominent feature, above the harbour, until prostrated by an earthquake. The fingers alone, we are told by Pliny,' were larger than most statues, and few could with their arms encompass the thumb. As the colossus lay prostrate, great caverns yawned from among the broken members, within which gigantic rocks were to be seen, put there as ballast. In the Seventh Century of our era, the bronze was bought by a speculator, who is said to have required nine hundred and eighty camel-loads to remove it. Enormous blocks, one lying above the other, at the end of the mole of Rhodes, where now stands the solitary Tower of St. Nicholas, are thought by Professor Newton to be a part of its pedestal. Incredible stories, which arose as late as 1480 A. D., make this colossus bestride the harbour, and ships pass in and out between its gigantic legs. Two very

The greatest marvel of all, however, was the colossal figure of the sun at Rhodes made by Chares of Lindos, a pupil of Lysippus. This figure was seventy cubits in height, and after standing fifty-six years was overthrown by an earthquake. But even as it lies prostrate, it is a marvel. Few men can embrace its thumb. Its fingers are larger than most statues. There are huge yawning caverns where the limbs have been broken.-Pliny.

The mole, at the extremity of which stands the Tower of St. Nicholas, has been an Hellenic work. The lowest courses of the original masonry remain in several places undisturbed on the native rock, which has been cut in horizontal beds to receive them. At the end of the mole enormous blocks from the ancient breakwater lie scattered about.

Two of these are still in position, one above the other. As the celebrated bronze Colossus was, doubtless, a conspicuous sea mark, if not actually used as a Pharos, my first impression on seeing these immense blocks was that they were the remains of its pedestal, and that it stood

rare books, however, are thought at last to give a truer picture of its appearance.' In one, a plate represents Rhodes and its harbour, on one side of which, with both feet together, stands the bearded and draped colossus. The open hand is lowered; but the right one is raised on high, holding a basin full of flames.

The artistic merit of this colossus by Chares is unknown; but it witnesses to the fondness of the Rhodians for immensity, and, perchance, boisterousness, in the sculpture, especially as Pliny informs us that it was but one of a hundred colossi at Rhodes, each of which, as he tells us, with his trite formula of artistic criticism, would have sufficed to make the city celebrated.

where the fort of St. Nicholas now stands. This opinion, suggested originally to my mind by the aspect of the site itself, is corroborated by the testimony of Caoursin, the Vice-Chancellor of the Order, whose contemporary history of the first siege was printed at Ulm as early as 1496. When describing the building of Fort St. Nicholas he states that it was placed in "molis vertice Septentrionem spectante-ubi priscis temporibus collosus ille ingens Rhodi (unum de septem miraculis mundi) positus erat. On the other hand, it may be objected that from Pliny's account of the overthrow of the Colossus we may infer that it fell on the earth, whereas, if thrown down from the extremity of the mole, it could hardly fail to have fallen into the sea. It may, however, have been split open by the earthquake, and afterwards been hauled down, so as to fall along the mole. The notion that its legs bestrid the entrance to either harbour, as is commonly believed, is not based on any ancient authority.-C. T. Newton.

1 One of these is a Belgian work, Guillaume Caoursin, De Obsidione Rhodiorum (Ulm fol. 1496, also published by Fluch, Strassburg, 1513). The other is Septem orbis miraculæ, etc., in æneas tabulas ab Antonio Tempesta Florentino relata, a gusto Rychio Gaudense versibus celebrata : Romæ anno CICƆIX.

THE PHAROS AT ALEXANDRIA, CATACOMBS

AND POMPEY'S PILLAR

C. F. GORDON-CUMMING

E were nearing the ancient land of Misraim and the far-famed

War famed city of Alexander the Great. On the

horizon flashed one fiery spark

"A ruddy gem of changeful light

Bound on the dusky brow of night."

The morning star had not yet paled before the dawn, and no prosaic reality was visible to dull our early illusions. A vision rose before me of an old picture-book, over which we pored in our childhood, showing a mighty tower 1,000 cubits high, built in divers stories like some huge telescope, with an outer winding stair by which beasts of burden could ascend to the very top, bearing fuel for the beacon fires which blazed in a vast lantern, with reflecting mirrors so arranged that the light was visible for a hundred miles. These mirrors acted a double part, as they reflected the ships approaching Egypt while at so great a distance as to be still imperceptible to the eye.

It was all built of the finest stone, with pillars and galleries and ornaments beautifully wrought in marble, on which (you remember the old story) the architect Sostratus engraved his own name in durable characters, and then,

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