Latest / Ridiculous History / Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Colossus of Rhodes
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
- 0:27Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
- 0:31Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's hear it for a wonder
- 0:35Speaker 1: of the modern podcasting world. Our super producer, mister Max Williams.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Who do we have joining us here? None other than
- 0:44Speaker 1: the man, the myth, the legend, a wonder old zone.
- 0:48Speaker 1: It's mister Noel Brown.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Desired, thank you very much. Not much of a colossus,
- 0:55Speaker 2: more of a what's the what's the opposite of a colossus?
- 0:58Speaker 2: A pigmy?
- 1:00Speaker 1: Oh no, come now, man, that's charged. You're a Titan.
- 1:03Speaker 2: Thank you, buddy, I remember those guys.
- 1:06Speaker 1: Yeah, you're welcome by grow my name from that movie
- 1:10Speaker 1: Clash of the Titans.
- 1:11Speaker 2: Remember the Titans Titans. Yeah, that's a football movie with
- 1:18Speaker 2: what's that guy's name, Denzel Washington, the ragtag football kind
- 1:23Speaker 2: of crew.
- 1:23Speaker 1: Who says he no longer watches films. By the way,
- 1:26Speaker 1: my name is Ben Bollen. We are going to talk
- 1:31Speaker 1: about a continuing series. Way back in the days of yore,
- 1:36Speaker 1: by which means several years ago, we got together in
- 1:41Speaker 1: one of our pitch meetings and we started asking ourselves
- 1:45Speaker 1: what are the Wonders of the Ancient World? Do you
- 1:49Speaker 1: remember that one?
- 1:50Speaker 2: Oh? How could I forget? What? Do we have? The
- 1:52Speaker 2: Hanging Gardens of Babylon? The of course? Did we do
- 1:57Speaker 2: the Pyramids of Giza? Certainly we did, Maybe we didn't.
- 2:00Speaker 2: We've certainly talked about that one.
- 2:02Speaker 3: I'm saving for last because that's the only one we
- 2:04Speaker 3: actually know.
- 2:04Speaker 2: For n h. Yeah, those are still around, you can
- 2:06Speaker 2: still catch them. We did the Did we do Easter Island? No,
- 2:11Speaker 2: we talked about that actually recently on stuff they don't
- 2:13Speaker 2: want you to do. Yes, I'm so sorry, Max. It
- 2:15Speaker 2: was a great series, but I'm spacing on all of
- 2:16Speaker 2: the ones that we did. Babylon is the one that
- 2:18Speaker 2: I know for sure.
- 2:20Speaker 1: We're also going to have a metacognitive series or a
- 2:24Speaker 1: meta series, at least an episode on what makes a
- 2:28Speaker 1: wonder because, as we found in our exploration, a little
- 2:33Speaker 1: bit of an arbitrary ranking. Who are we to judge? Well,
- 2:38Speaker 1: we're your pals over at Ridiculous History. This is part
- 2:42Speaker 1: four of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and we're
- 2:48Speaker 1: talking about the Colossus of Roads. Unlike some of our
- 3:00Speaker 1: previous stuff. To your point, nol, the Colossus totally existed.
- 3:06Speaker 1: Maybe we start with knocking out a little bit of
- 3:12Speaker 1: background devo, a little bit of context. Maybe we start
- 3:15Speaker 1: with a buddy of ours, Greek god named Helios.
- 3:20Speaker 2: Indeed, Helios according to our pals over Britannica, as the
- 3:25Speaker 2: Greek sun god. Britannica knows that he was actually a Titan,
- 3:29Speaker 2: child of the Titan Hyperion and Theia, the Titans in
- 3:34Speaker 2: fact plural, while he, according to Britannica, drove a chariot
- 3:39Speaker 2: daily from east to west across the sky and sailed
- 3:43Speaker 2: around the northerly stream of ocean each night in a
- 3:46Speaker 2: huge cup. In classical Greece, Helios was especially worshiped in Rhodes,
- 3:51Speaker 2: where from at least the early fifth century BCE he
- 3:54Speaker 2: was regarded as the chief god to whom the island belonged.
- 3:59Speaker 2: His work spread as he became increasingly identified with other deities,
- 4:03Speaker 2: often under Eastern influence.
- 4:06Speaker 1: All right, so let's talk a little bit about that
- 4:09Speaker 1: aforementioned Roads in the earlier quote, especially worshiped in Roads.
- 4:16Speaker 1: As we'll see, folks, with a big shout out to
- 4:18Speaker 1: our research associate Max Williams spoiler also our super producer,
- 4:24Speaker 1: there's a lot of what Corporate America would call synergy
- 4:28Speaker 1: between these two between these two concepts. The thing about
- 4:33Speaker 1: the City of Roads is that the City of Roads
- 4:37Speaker 1: in that time is on an island in the Mediterranean
- 4:40Speaker 1: Sea that is closer to modern day Turkey than it
- 4:44Speaker 1: is to modern day Greece. Just because we always love
- 4:49Speaker 1: our history complicated, that island is also called Roads. So
- 4:55Speaker 1: there's a city called Roads, there's an island called Roads.
- 5:00Speaker 1: And to our friends at Britannica, again, tip of the cap,
- 5:04Speaker 1: the largest urban center on the island, Roads sits at
- 5:09Speaker 1: the northeasternmost tip of Roads.
- 5:15Speaker 2: The island got it. Indeed, they go on to say
- 5:18Speaker 2: that in classical history, Rhodes was a massively crucial and
- 5:23Speaker 2: powerful maritime force. It also had a lot of influence
- 5:28Speaker 2: on Mediterranean history, as well as the preservation of architecture
- 5:35Speaker 2: of the Gothic and Ottoman styles. So we've got a
- 5:39Speaker 2: sun god who hangs out on the water and a
- 5:43Speaker 2: city on the water, and now it's time for us
- 5:46Speaker 2: to talk about how this thing actually got built.
- 5:50Speaker 1: The city of Rhodes, writes mart Cart right, who we
- 5:53Speaker 1: are not doing an impression of with each five haulbas
- 5:58Speaker 1: was ideally placed on the island of the same name.
- 6:01Speaker 1: The prosper from trade during the Hellenistic domination of the
- 6:05Speaker 1: Mediterranean under Alexander the Great Successors, especially when more and
- 6:11Speaker 1: more cities were established in the east. The island's wealth
- 6:15Speaker 1: strategic position on these trade routes, they got noticed by
- 6:20Speaker 1: a lot of foreign grand pubas, a lot of.
- 6:24Speaker 2: Big to dos for sure. Is that is absolutely accurate. Antigonus,
- 6:29Speaker 2: who is one of Alexander's successors who controlled Macedon and
- 6:35Speaker 2: northern Greece, was one of those grand puba types, and
- 6:39Speaker 2: he sent his son Demetrius, the first of Macedon, to
- 6:43Speaker 2: attack roads between three or five and three or four BCE,
- 6:47Speaker 2: which off Mike Ben pointed out to me BCE counts backwards.
- 6:50Speaker 2: So there you go. The island's recent alliances with Antigonus's
- 6:55Speaker 2: rival Ptolemy, the first you might have heard of over
- 6:58Speaker 2: there in Egypt. It was another into attack roads and
- 7:01Speaker 2: to neutralize that naval fleet.
- 7:04Speaker 1: Yeah, they were super beefed up, even if they couldn't
- 7:08Speaker 1: afford a lot of cattle at the time. So there's
- 7:11Speaker 1: this twelve month siege lasting what we would call a
- 7:15Speaker 1: year in the modern day. Our buddies, the Rhodians, the
- 7:19Speaker 1: people who live on the island or in the city
- 7:22Speaker 1: of Rhodes. They have a lot of stockades, blockations, fortifications,
- 7:29Speaker 1: and they're able to withstand this siege such that our
- 7:33Speaker 1: buddy Demetrius says, look, will stop blockading you. We gotta
- 7:40Speaker 1: make stuff worthwhile for everybody. Let's negotiate a truce. And
- 7:46Speaker 1: so Demetrius from this gets his honorific We love it honorific.
- 7:52Speaker 1: This is how Demetrius gets the street name Besieger of Cities.
- 7:58Speaker 1: But he doesn't get much else from this. He just
- 8:03Speaker 1: leaves behind a bunch of his siege toys.
- 8:06Speaker 2: Where does he get these wonderful toys? It's a good question.
- 8:09Speaker 2: That includes thirty six point five meters of high tower
- 8:14Speaker 2: that the Rhodians were then able to sell off to
- 8:17Speaker 2: make a little scratch. And here is the thing. Thanks
- 8:21Speaker 2: to the Port's making them a center for trade, they
- 8:25Speaker 2: already had a ton of money, so they decided to
- 8:30Speaker 2: ball out further. Yeah just a bit, yeah, okay, I
- 8:34Speaker 2: love a smidge bit, max Uh and honor their patron God,
- 8:38Speaker 2: which is where we see Charles of Lindis entering the
- 8:42Speaker 2: chat rights. I knew you would do it. Charis not Charles.
- 8:49Speaker 2: That's a different dynasty entirely. Thank you, Max with the facts.
- 8:54Speaker 3: Phone.
- 9:00Speaker 2: Up in the knowledge it's just for you.
- 9:02Speaker 3: Sofia, Mary.
- 9:06Speaker 1: Cares were Chars. If you guys preferred, don't call me Chuck.
- 9:12Speaker 1: Lindis is at the Helm and this guy is figured
- 9:16Speaker 1: out the wait for herculean task of sculpting this giant
- 9:24Speaker 1: thing they're calling Helios. And if you look back to
- 9:29Speaker 1: our buddy Plenty the Elder, a returning guest on the show,
- 9:33Speaker 1: This statue, the Colossus of Rhodes as we call it now,
- 9:38Speaker 1: it took a lot of effort. It took at least
- 9:41Speaker 1: twelve years to be completed, and they made a bronze
- 9:47Speaker 1: figure which stood about what we in the US would
- 9:52Speaker 1: call one hundred and.
- 9:53Speaker 2: Eight feet high.
- 9:55Speaker 1: Folks, we know that is not as tall as a
- 9:59Speaker 1: lot of others statues and sculptures today, but we have
- 10:03Speaker 1: to remember, just like if we were a very rude
- 10:07Speaker 1: Ben Bolen traveling and seeing the Tower of London, sculpture
- 10:12Speaker 1: and structure and architecture back then was not as sophisticated
- 10:18Speaker 1: as it is now. We've learned a lot about the
- 10:28Speaker 1: nature of this statue. We've learned that he had a
- 10:32Speaker 1: bronze outer shell. They probably hammered that on in sheets,
- 10:37Speaker 1: assembled it on site, but no, they put so much
- 10:40Speaker 1: work into this the structure, the internal structure in particular.
- 10:45Speaker 2: One hundred percent. It required a lot of fortification inside.
- 10:49Speaker 2: Think of maybe like the Statue of Liberty and all
- 10:52Speaker 2: of the metal struts that exist withinside that structure to
- 10:55Speaker 2: keep a hollow shell of a sculpture from caving in
- 11:00Speaker 2: on itself. So it was supported by a series of
- 11:03Speaker 2: internal iron struts, and certain pieces got weighted down further
- 11:07Speaker 2: with stones to increase the stability. And Max pointed out,
- 11:11Speaker 2: and we must also point out that they did feel
- 11:14Speaker 2: it was important to include the penis. You gotta know
- 11:17Speaker 2: a colossal undertaking unto itself.
- 11:20Speaker 1: Which is funny because a lot of statuary at the
- 11:22Speaker 1: time praised small penises.
- 11:25Speaker 2: It's true, that is actly true, true, And we haven't
- 11:28Speaker 2: seen the penis, so we can't speak to whether or
- 11:31Speaker 2: not it was a grower or a shower.
- 11:34Speaker 1: So we know that the statue's appearance in the modern
- 11:37Speaker 1: day is primarily based on guesswork and excellent research. But
- 11:43Speaker 1: it's not like you can call anyone today and ask
- 11:48Speaker 1: about how their experience was building the Colossus of Rhodes.
- 11:53Speaker 1: The best way to say it is that there are
- 11:56Speaker 1: no surviving representations mock up sort scale models of the
- 12:01Speaker 1: colossus in other ancient art forms, So we didn't have
- 12:06Speaker 1: anybody hanging out building a little action figure version of
- 12:12Speaker 1: the colossus.
- 12:14Speaker 2: Yeah, Palmer, that would have been cool. I would have
- 12:16Speaker 2: been how many points of articulation?
- 12:18Speaker 1: I think you, I knew you're yes right? Where's our
- 12:21Speaker 1: g I Joe of this?
- 12:22Speaker 2: What would the penis have been one of them?
- 12:24Speaker 1: And how articulate would it be? Prehensile penis? All right,
- 12:30Speaker 1: story for another day. The depictions of Helios on the
- 12:34Speaker 1: Hellenistic silver coin of Rhodes might be a reference point.
- 12:39Speaker 1: So if we look at that coinage, we can speculate
- 12:43Speaker 1: the statue may have had a lot more to it
- 12:48Speaker 1: than you see in film and fiction today. May have
- 12:51Speaker 1: had a crown of pointed sunbeams.
- 12:53Speaker 2: Oh interesting, I did make a little reference earlier.
- 12:58Speaker 1: It s.
- 13:00Speaker 2: Very visible and famous statue that may have had something
- 13:04Speaker 2: to do with this guy. So we'll get to that
- 13:06Speaker 2: in a little bit.
- 13:08Speaker 1: Also may have descended from earlier depictions of the Anaki.
- 13:13Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna let.
- 13:14Speaker 2: It go Universe Crossover. Do check out the multi part
- 13:19Speaker 2: series on the ancient godlike entities that are the aninachy
- 13:23Speaker 2: over on stuff they don't want you to know.
- 13:25Speaker 1: How well said? Oh my gosh, all right, So here's
- 13:29Speaker 1: the issue. You might be saying, Hey, guys, I'm a billionaire.
- 13:34Speaker 1: I travel around the world just to see stuff that
- 13:37Speaker 1: you talk about on ridiculous history. So where exactly on
- 13:42Speaker 1: the island of Rhoads or in the historic city of
- 13:47Speaker 1: Roads and the ruins thereof do I find this statue? Unfortunately,
- 13:53Speaker 1: the exact location of the statue is no longer known
- 13:57Speaker 1: because we have no record of any contemporary writer saying
- 14:04Speaker 1: exactly where it was, so we have to guess it's
- 14:07Speaker 1: maybe on what would have been the eastern side of
- 14:11Speaker 1: the harbor.
- 14:13Speaker 2: One hundred percent more concrete evidence well, actually the form
- 14:17Speaker 2: of sandstone would be a large circle of cut blocks
- 14:21Speaker 2: which could have served as the foundation for these statues base.
- 14:27Speaker 2: Add to that, there are also fine slightly curved marble
- 14:31Speaker 2: blocks randomly used in the fortresses walls that date back
- 14:35Speaker 2: to the third century BCE, as well as some odds
- 14:37Speaker 2: shaped stones which might have been part of the weights
- 14:40Speaker 2: that were used in the statues interior we talked about
- 14:43Speaker 2: to weigh down those iron struts to help support the structure.
- 14:48Speaker 2: A second possible location could be the High City center
- 14:52Speaker 2: where the sanctuary to Helios was located. And just to
- 14:56Speaker 2: paraphrase Mark Cartwright, who is an authority on subject the witches,
- 15:02Speaker 2: I've been doing up to this point in these descriptions
- 15:04Speaker 2: because he's really got it nailed down. We are talking
- 15:07Speaker 2: about the sanctuary of Helios and potentially hopefully reliable pieces
- 15:12Speaker 2: of masonry inscribed with some details as potential proof for
- 15:17Speaker 2: this version of the story. So, the Greeks did often
- 15:21Speaker 2: situate their statues of various deities near the sanctuary that
- 15:27Speaker 2: was dedicated to them, which makes sense.
- 15:30Speaker 1: So let's think of it this way. We go over
- 15:33Speaker 1: to the sanctuary and we say, as modern researchers, ah,
- 15:37Speaker 1: these rhodients super pro Helios. Surely they would have a
- 15:43Speaker 1: solid record of the statues of their deities, and maybe
- 15:47Speaker 1: their deities are next to the big fancy edifice and
- 15:51Speaker 1: building and structure that they dedicated to their gods. Unfortunately,
- 15:57Speaker 1: here in twenty twenty five, there have been extensive archaeological
- 16:03Speaker 1: investigations to the sanctuary site, and no traces of the
- 16:08Speaker 1: legendary Colossus of Roads have been found there. All we
- 16:12Speaker 1: can say, based on numerous reports, was that the Colossus
- 16:17Speaker 1: of Roads was massive for people at the time, if
- 16:22Speaker 1: not massive for people in modern ages, and it was
- 16:26Speaker 1: so popular that it ended up on coinage. It ended
- 16:31Speaker 1: up on currency. It was also referenced often in Hellenistic
- 16:37Speaker 1: sculpture and in art in general. It came to become iconic, right,
- 16:43Speaker 1: and I do agree with the idea that it later
- 16:47Speaker 1: informed larger sculptures like our Statue of Liberty here in
- 16:54Speaker 1: the United States. Unfortunately, like the Hellenistic Age itself. Shout
- 17:00Speaker 1: out to Mark Cartwright, the life of the statue, the
- 17:06Speaker 1: life of the colossus was pretty brief. It was too big, It.
- 17:12Speaker 2: Got too big to fail. It seems to have failed.
- 17:16Speaker 1: Yeah, in one it got shattered into pieces. It was
- 17:21Speaker 1: picked over by something.
- 17:22Speaker 2: The statue of Statue of Zeus was another one that
- 17:26Speaker 2: we did that had a similar fate, right, you're.
- 17:30Speaker 1: Correct, And this statue, the Colossus of Rhodes, appears to
- 17:35Speaker 1: have fallen too an earthquake around two twenty six to
- 17:40Speaker 1: twenty five BCE, and people just left it where it was.
- 17:45Speaker 1: You know, like a gigantic corpse until about six hundred
- 17:49Speaker 1: and fifty four Common Era, So for centuries this thing
- 17:55Speaker 1: was just too big to move unless you stole little
- 17:59Speaker 1: scraps of it. And it's six point fifty four Common
- 18:02Speaker 1: Era when forces from what we call Arabia raid roads
- 18:09Speaker 1: in the island as well as the city, and they
- 18:13Speaker 1: have the infrastructure to break this statue up. And you
- 18:18Speaker 1: know what they do. They don't put it in a
- 18:20Speaker 1: museum because Indiana Jones is not even a franchise yet.
- 18:25Speaker 1: Instead they sell the bronze from the exterior for scrap.
- 18:30Speaker 2: Ah. You hate to hear that that it also makes
- 18:34Speaker 2: sense because they had no reverence for this and in fact,
- 18:39Speaker 2: doing it that way was almost an act could be
- 18:41Speaker 2: seen as like an active defiance to the culture that
- 18:43Speaker 2: they are like dismantling. Right.
- 18:46Speaker 1: Well, it was very good for the camel and camel
- 18:48Speaker 1: handler industry because it took more than nine hundred camel
- 18:53Speaker 1: loads to get rid of all this bronze. And this
- 19:03Speaker 1: is where we go to the idea of the Statue
- 19:07Speaker 1: of Liberty. That's what we call it here in the
- 19:10Speaker 1: United States, famously at New York Harver. It is a
- 19:15Speaker 1: design of Frederic August BARTOLDI. It is supposed to be
- 19:21Speaker 1: to your earlier point, Noel, it's supposed to be a
- 19:24Speaker 1: mark of symbolism. It is the ancient Colossus of Rhodes.
- 19:29Speaker 1: This is this is a one to one echo of this,
- 19:36Speaker 1: And we have a couple of quotations here. Maybe we
- 19:43Speaker 1: start with the dedication of the colossus itself. We know
- 19:48Speaker 1: this is quoted.
- 19:49Speaker 2: Widely to you, o son, the people of Dorian Rhodes
- 19:54Speaker 2: set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus when they
- 19:57Speaker 2: had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city
- 20:01Speaker 2: with the spoils taken from the enemy, not only over
- 20:04Speaker 2: the seas, but also on land. Did they kindle the
- 20:07Speaker 2: lovely torch of freedom and independence for the descendants of
- 20:11Speaker 2: Heracles belongs dominion over sea and land. Just to clarify this,
- 20:17Speaker 2: is this dedication text associated with the statue of Liberty
- 20:21Speaker 2: or is.
- 20:21Speaker 1: This dedicated to the original colossal?
- 20:24Speaker 2: That's what I thought, got it? Yeah, yeah, so it's
- 20:26Speaker 2: one hundred percent. Get that one to one comparison there.
- 20:30Speaker 1: And the inspiration here may have come somewhat from the colossus,
- 20:36Speaker 1: but the original purpose of the Statue of Liberty the
- 20:40Speaker 1: statue we all know and love, was not to be
- 20:43Speaker 1: put in the United States. In fact, the sculptor visited
- 20:49Speaker 1: BARTOLDI visited Egypt in eighteen fifty five, and he said,
- 20:55Speaker 1: I'm going to work on big statues too. We're just
- 20:59Speaker 1: going to tell you the truth here, folks. He saw
- 21:01Speaker 1: the facade of the temple at Abu Simmel and he said, look,
- 21:07Speaker 1: Egyptian government, you guys should build this giant statue and
- 21:12Speaker 1: maybe like a beacon of light, and it should maybe
- 21:15Speaker 1: be like a woman holding a torture aloft, and you
- 21:18Speaker 1: could put it at the Suez Canal and you could
- 21:21Speaker 1: call it something like carrying the light to Asia. I
- 21:24Speaker 1: don't know if you guys are busy, but I like
- 21:26Speaker 1: building statues, so just sort of let me know. So
- 21:30Speaker 1: long story short, he did use our guy, BERTOLDI used
- 21:34Speaker 1: the colossus as a motivation or what our pal Turbo
- 21:38Speaker 1: Benson will call a reference. And the idea behind it,
- 21:44Speaker 1: to say the statue of Liberty is one to one
- 21:50Speaker 1: based off the Colossus of Rhodes is a little bit
- 21:53Speaker 1: of a stretch. But I really like your note about
- 21:55Speaker 1: the crown of Stars.
- 21:57Speaker 2: Yes, that's definitely what grabbed me. But also just if
- 22:00Speaker 2: you've ever walked inside the Statue of Liberty or seen
- 22:03Speaker 2: any schematics of it, those internal struts are a big
- 22:06Speaker 2: part of the construction of it too, which I guess
- 22:08Speaker 2: is really just a logistical thing in terms of like
- 22:11Speaker 2: design and engineering. But that did call it kind of
- 22:14Speaker 2: also ring a bell or tick a boxer, you know whatever.
- 22:17Speaker 1: Oh, I love it. I'm making the light bulb face.
- 22:20Speaker 1: I think you nailed it. Also, we could say that,
- 22:23Speaker 1: regardless of the motivations of the original sculptors, this has
- 22:30Speaker 1: become the Statue of Rhodes here in the United States.
- 22:35Speaker 2: And what would be an episode on one of the
- 22:38Speaker 2: Wonders of the Ancient World if we didn't discuss how
- 22:40Speaker 2: it figures into the Civilization games.
- 22:43Speaker 1: Right, And who better to explain this idea of the
- 22:48Speaker 1: wonder of the World and the Civilization game series than
- 22:52Speaker 1: our own pal, Max Williams. Max putting you on the
- 22:56Speaker 1: spot here.
- 22:57Speaker 2: Man, Okay, I gotcha.
- 22:59Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the Colossus is actually one that's showed
- 23:02Speaker 3: up in all seven games now, all seven mainline games,
- 23:05Speaker 3: and it's the wonder that you can build. It usually
- 23:09Speaker 3: makes you money. It's never one that I'm rushing to
- 23:13Speaker 3: and when someone else builds it, I'm not that sad,
- 23:18Speaker 3: but it looks really cool. And generally you have to
- 23:21Speaker 3: build in a coastal city, so you can't build in
- 23:22Speaker 3: the middle of the tundra.
- 23:24Speaker 1: I like building for the cinematics. I just love the
- 23:27Speaker 1: cut scene where you see the thing get built and
- 23:30Speaker 1: you get the little the little quotation so good.
- 23:34Speaker 2: It's SIFT seven.
- 23:35Speaker 3: It's good, but it's just not as good as six.
- 23:37Speaker 3: But that's I guess how you can describe SIP seven.
- 23:40Speaker 3: Just in general, it's just not as good as six.
- 23:42Speaker 1: And sometimes that's how people describe the ancient versus modern
- 23:46Speaker 1: wonders of the world. You look at humanity and you say,
- 23:50Speaker 1: three out of five, I like their early work. We
- 23:54Speaker 1: want to end with a symbolic point, right to the excellent,
- 24:01Speaker 1: to the excellent dedication you recited there nol for the
- 24:04Speaker 1: original Colossus of Rhodes. Here's what stands with us for
- 24:10Speaker 1: the modern colossus, the Statue of Liberty there in New
- 24:13Speaker 1: York Harbor. It is a poem that is only more
- 24:17Speaker 1: appropriate and important to realize now in twenty twenty five.
- 24:21Speaker 1: It goes like this, not like the brazen Giant of
- 24:25Speaker 1: Greek fame, with conquering limbs, astride from land to land.
- 24:30Speaker 1: Here out our seawashed sunset gate shall stand a mighty
- 24:34Speaker 1: woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning,
- 24:38Speaker 1: and her name Mother of exiles. From her beacon hand
- 24:43Speaker 1: glows worldwide. Welcome her mild eyes command the air bridged harbor.
- 24:49Speaker 1: That's when cities frame keep ancient lands. Your storied pomp,
- 24:53Speaker 1: cries she with silent Lipsam, give me your tired, your poor,
- 24:58Speaker 1: Your huddled mass is yearning to breathe, free the wretched
- 25:03Speaker 1: refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest
- 25:09Speaker 1: tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
- 25:14Speaker 2: Moving, I swear to God. Dude, I don't think I've
- 25:16Speaker 2: ever heard the whole dedication. I just know the huddled
- 25:19Speaker 2: masses and the little bits that are cherry picked from it,
- 25:21Speaker 2: and like speeches and stuff. But that is powerful stuff.
- 25:25Speaker 2: I really really enjoyed that. And what an epic reading.
- 25:27Speaker 1: Thanks dude, Oh no, thanks to Emma Lazarus, the author
- 25:31Speaker 1: of the New Colossus. And so maybe to your earlier point,
- 25:35Speaker 1: this shows us. Sorry, I'm getting a little emotional. I'm
- 25:39Speaker 1: a sucker.
- 25:41Speaker 2: I was feeling it. Sorry, I didn't mean to step
- 25:43Speaker 2: on you, but when I was exclaiming during your reading,
- 25:46Speaker 2: I was overcome as well, because especially God not to
- 25:50Speaker 2: be political at all, but now more than ever, what
- 25:52Speaker 2: that represents. It's being challenged in many ways, and it
- 25:57Speaker 2: really does hit home.
- 25:59Speaker 1: And so perhaps we have a wonder of the world
- 26:03Speaker 1: our own right. And that's why we will argue that
- 26:12Speaker 1: the old Colossus of Rhodes, which totally did exist, is
- 26:17Speaker 1: echoed in the Statue of Liberty, right at least in
- 26:22Speaker 1: the dedication. The idea in one of the most important
- 26:26Speaker 1: cities of ancient Greece reflected in one of the most
- 26:29Speaker 1: important cities in modern America. And I think Noel and
- 26:35Speaker 1: Max and I all got a little perclept, as they
- 26:38Speaker 1: would say, we're talking about how awesome this idea is.
- 26:43Speaker 1: We have a continuing series on Wonders of the ancient world,
- 26:47Speaker 1: and we hope you enjoyed this one.
- 26:50Speaker 2: Folks.
- 26:50Speaker 1: We want to thank every scholar who has been looking
- 26:54Speaker 1: into this and doing the real world on the ground research.
- 26:57Speaker 1: Of course, we also must thank our our super producer
- 27:01Speaker 1: and research associate, mister Max Williams.
- 27:04Speaker 2: Max Williams, who found one of those incredible researchers, Mark Cartwright,
- 27:10Speaker 2: who is our continuing history research protagonist, as Max put
- 27:13Speaker 2: it in this story writing for World History Encyclopedia. So
- 27:17Speaker 2: thanks Mark, and thanks.
- 27:18Speaker 1: Max, and also thanks to Alexander Williams who composed this
- 27:23Speaker 1: slap and bop you're hearing at the end.
- 27:26Speaker 2: The Colossus of music and other things real, what do
- 27:29Speaker 2: you call it? A multi hyphenate, Paul Polymath. Sure, that's Alex,
- 27:33Speaker 2: That's our Alex.
- 27:34Speaker 1: Yeah, the opposite of a Thanks to Jonathan Strickland, whom
- 27:39Speaker 1: I blame directly for the fact that you cannot see
- 27:43Speaker 1: the Colossus of Rhodes today.
- 27:45Speaker 2: He knows what he did.
- 27:47Speaker 1: He knows, he knows big. Thanks to aj Bahamas, Jacobs Big,
- 27:52Speaker 1: Thanks to doctor Rachel Big, Spinach, Lance.
- 27:55Speaker 4: Big Fence, Oh jeez, Christophers, Yeah, Steeves, Jeff go here
- 27:59Speaker 4: in spirit Thanks, I'm going from a car here in spirits,
- 28:05Speaker 4: and Ben, thanks to you, Buckeroo. I'm stealing it from
- 28:08Speaker 4: you just for this moment, because it's just fun to say.
- 28:11Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 28:11Speaker 1: Also, I guess I should say I'm I'm not a
- 28:14Speaker 1: history cop.
- 28:16Speaker 2: I know whether you turn referring to the mustachs. Yeah yeah, Okay,
- 28:21Speaker 2: well I think you look great. We'll see you next time. Books.
- 28:30Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
- 28:34Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.