408 BCE 305 BCE 304 BCE

Transcription

1 THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES 408 BCE Throughout most of ancient history, Greece was comprised of city-states which had limited power beyond their own boundaries. On the small island of Rhodes were three of these: Ialysos, Kamiros, and Lindos. In this year these cities united to form one territory with a unified capital, denominated Rhodes. The city would thrive commercially and would build strong economic ties with its main ally, Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. COLOSSUS OF RHODES 305 BCE The Antigonids of Macedonia, rivals of the Ptolemies, besieged Rhodes in an attempt to break the Rhodo/ Egyptian alliance. They would not be able to subdue this city. A peace agreement would be sought. COLOSSUS OF RHODES 304 BCE A peace agreement was reached between the Antigonids of Macedonia and the city they had unsuccessfully been besieging, Rhodes. The Antigonids lifted their siege and departed, leaving behind them a wealth of military equipment. The Rhodians would sell this equipment and, to celebrate these events, would use the windfall to commission an enormous statue of their sun god, Helios:

2 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 liberty. COLOSSUS OF RHODES 282 BCE 282 BCE: Construction of the Colossus of Rhodes, an act of worship aimed at obtaining the favor of mighty Helios the sun god, had required 12 years. ASTRONOMY The commission for the project had been awarded to the Rhodian sculptor Chares of Lindos. To build the statue, his workers had fabricated the outer skin parts as bronze castings. The base was of white marble, to which the feet and ankles of the statue had initially been fixed. The structure had then been erected section by section, with the bronze exterior being stabilized by an iron and stone framework within. It was necessary to put up a temporary earth ramp, to haul the higher parts of the Colossus into position. In this year, the statue was completed: 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 liberty. 2 Copyright Austin Meredith

3 It towered to about 110 feet (this would be an inspiration to Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, whom we know for his Statue of Liberty in the harbor of New York City, towering 151 feet from the toes to the tip of the torch). For 56 years this colossal Colossus would stand at or near their Mandraki harbor entrance, 1 until the island would be hit by a strong earthquake in about 226 BCE. Rhodes would be badly damaged, and its famous giant statue would snap off at the weakest point the knee. But, Pliny the Elder would comment, even lying on the ground, it is a marvel. 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-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! 1. To clear up a misconception, the Colossus did not bestride the entrance to the Mandraki harbor: We know how tall the figure was and we know how wide the entrance was: no structure could have stood with such a straddle, nor would sailing vessels have been able to get their masts through without repeatedly striking such a figure in its crotch. Also, when the statue fell, its ruins did not block the harbor mouth. Probably it stood on the eastern promontory of the Mandraki harbor, if not farther inland. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 3

4 Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus (1883) Inscription on the Statue of Liberty, officially inaugurated in BCE The island of Rhodes was hit by a strong earthquake, and the Colossus of Rhodes, erected a couple of generations earlier, snapped at its weakest point, the knee. Although the Rhodians would immediately be contacted by their friend Ptolemy III Eurgetes of Egypt with an offer to pay everything it would require to restore this bronze image of Helios the sun god, when the Rhodians consulted an oracle, the oracle forbade any such re-erection. They therefore declined their friend s kind offer and, for almost the next millennium, the statue would be lying in ruins. Tourists would still be able to visit the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, despite the fact that this particular wonder lay in ruins. According to Pliny the Elder, few of these tourists could make their arms meet round the thumb. 4 Copyright Austin Meredith

5 654 CE Arabs invaded the island of Rhodes. They disassembled the remains of the broken Colossus of Rhodes and sold them to a Jew from Syria. It is said that the fragments had to be transported to Syria on the backs of 900 camels. The only configurations we now have for this 110-foot statue from centuries past are, quite frankly, ridiculously impossible: 66 CE Nero took a pleasure trip in Greece and attempted a canal through Greece s Isthmus of Corinth, but didn t do any of the digging personally and would soon abandon the project. At about this point Nero was having an enormous statue of himself erected in the center of Rome. This statue would be known as the Colossus of Nero (after his suicide the face of this monstrosity would be altered and it would be redesignated the Colossus of Helios; the erection would then apparently lend its name to the nearby Flavian Ampitheatre, popularly known as the Colosseum ; the statue itself would soon disappear but its ugly Roman concrete base would not be removed until 1929). Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 5

6 TODAY Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger). In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, funding has been arranged to erect the world s biggest statue of the Buddha in the town of Kushinagar where, 25 centuries ago, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha died. The statue will be bronze, and three times as tall as the 151-foot Statue of Liberty. Meanwhile, in Texas, financing is being sought to build an even taller statue to the Spirit of Houston. COLOSSUS OF RHODES STATUE OF LIBERTY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this read-only computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace resulting in navigation problems allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC Please contact the project at <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. It s all now you see. Yesterday won t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. Remark by character Garin Stevens in William Faulkner s INTRUDER IN THE DUST Prepared: June 2, Copyright Austin Meredith

7 ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT GENERATION HOTLINE This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, upon someone s request we have pulled it out of the hat of a pirate that has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot Laura (depicted above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of data modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture. This is data mining. To respond to such a request for information, we merely push a button. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 7

8 Commonly, the first output of the program has obvious deficiencies and so we need to go back into the data modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and do a recompile of the chronology but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary writerly process which you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world. First come first serve. There is no charge. Place your requests with <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh. 8 Copyright Austin Meredith