CHAPTER V.
THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES.
“Men receive with indifference from one another, and without examination, the traditions of past events, even of events connected with the history of their own country. Thus, for the most part, in their indolence to search out the truth, they accept at once all the fables and exaggerations forced upon their notice.”
It is thus that Thucydides expresses himself; and though his observation is two thousand years old, it has lost nothing of its point or truth.
A striking example of its applicability is afforded by the striking illustration now before us;—a representation of the Colossus of Rhodes, according to the generally received idea that this celebrated statue of Apollo was planted at the entrance to the harbour of Rhodes, where it served as a pharos; and that it was of such surpassing magnitude that ships under full sail could pass between its gigantic limbs.
But there is no evidence that the Colossus ever served as a pharos; at least, no ancient author asserts that such was its employment. The first writer who converted it into a beacon-light was Urbain Chevreau, an industrious but not particularly able compiler of the seventeenth century; but he neglects to say from what source he obtained his information.