Who was the Colossus of Rhodes a likeness of?
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The Colossus of Rhodes may have been viewed differently by different audiences. The statue had an inscription identifying it as an image of Helios, the god of the sun and local deity to Rhodes. In the wider Ancient Greek world Helios would likely be identified more readily as Apollo. The statue may have been made in the likeness of Alexander the Great's official image. This would have served to represent a bond between Rhodes and Alexandria with Alexander's image serving as the founder of the Egyptian city. Support for this idea comes from the fact that the Colossus was made to celebrate Rhodes' victory over a siege. This victory was largely facilitated by Ptolemy from Alexandria, and Alexandria is also a likely source for the funds of the ambitious project. The artist Chares of Lindos would also have been well selected to achieve this double representation. He was local to the island of Rhodes (Lindos is another city on the same island) and would have been familiar with images of Helios. He was also the student of Lysippos who was the exclusive personal sculptor to Alexander the Great during his lifetime, and so Chares would have also been uniquely knowledgeable about the image of Alexander. Some but not all scholars argue for the Colossus to be understood as an image of Alexander posing as Helios that would be seen by the people of Rhodes as their local deity but seen by the people of Alexandria as their founder. The Statue of Liberty built by France and gifted to the USA was partially modeled after the Colossus and is similarly possible to read as a celebration of American independence and also a reference to one the three values Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité central to French identity.
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