Editing Colossus of Rhodes (section)

==Posture==
[[File:Colossus of Rhodes.jpg|thumb|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.<ref name=Jordan>{{cite book |last=Jordan |first=Paul |year=2014 |title=Seven Wonders of the Ancient World |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781317868859 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sevenwondersofan0000jord/page/21 21–149] |url=https://archive.org/details/sevenwondersofan0000jord/page/21}}</ref> 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 (play)|Julius Caesar]]'' (I, ii, 136–38) says of Caesar:

{{poemquote|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#Inscriptions, plaques, and dedications|Statue of Liberty]] in 1903, contrasts the latter with:

{{poemquote|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 [[John Lemprière|Lemprière]]'s ''[[Bibliotheca Classica|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&nbsp;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.<ref name="Jordan" />

Many researchers have considered alternative positions for the statue which would have made it more feasible for actual construction by the ancients.<ref name=Jordan/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.greatest-unsolved-mysteries.com/colossus-of-rhodes.html |title=The Colossus of Rhodes |website=greatest-unsolved-mysteries.com |access-date=2010-07-17 |archive-date=2010-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715074135/http://www.greatest-unsolved-mysteries.com/colossus-of-rhodes.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 (as if saluting) and it is quite possible that the colossus was constructed in the same pose.<ref name="Jordan" />

[[File:Rhodes Didrachm Helios 305-275 BCE.jpg|thumb|Rhodes Didrachm (305–275 BCE) showing the Sun God Helios on obverse and rose with rose bud and grape cluster on the reverse.]]
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, similar to the images found on contemporary Rhodian coins.<ref name=Jordan/>