Colossus
in ancient art, a statue of great magnitude, whence our adjective colossal. The most celebrated colossus of antiquity, the existence of which has been doubted, however, was a bronze statue of the sun-god at the entrance of the harbor at Rhodes. The work occupied the sculptor twelve years. It was designed to serve as a lighthouse. It stood 70 cubits, or about 105 feet high. According to an unfounded tradition this statue straddled the harbor, so that ships passed in and out between its legs. It was overthrown by an earthquake 234 A.D. In 653 it was sold by the Arabs for $260,000 to a Jew for old metal. A colossal statue of Zeus in the Parthenon was 60 feet high. One of Athena was 39 feet. The largest statue in the United States is that of Liberty Enlightening the World, 151 feet high, on Bedloe Island, in the harbor of New York.