Colossus
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Colossus. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Greek word of unknown origin, used to denote a statue very greatly beyond the size of life. The "Bavaria," the "Germania," and our own "Liberty" are noted modern examples. The colossal was the peculiar characteristic of Egyptian art, and innumerable colossi were raised in Egypt, mostly of the hardest stone, many of them from 50 to 60 feet in height. The most celebrated is the vocal statue of Memnon, in the plain of Thebes. It was in Greece, however, that the most famous colossi appeared; e. g., the bronze statue of Pallas Athene, on the Acropolis of Athens, the plume of whose helmet and the point of whose spear were landmarks to sailors between Sunium and Athens; another statue of the same goddess, of gold and ivory-the so-called Palladium in the Parthenon at Athens; and the Olympian Jupiter, of the same materials, the masterpiece of Phidias. Among the Seven Wonders of the Old World was reckoned the gigantic Colossus of Rhodes, representing Phœbus, the national deity of the Rhodians. It was erected in honor of the sun by Chares of Lindus, disciple of Lysippus, 290 or 288 B. C. The figure stood upon two moles, a leg being extended on each side of the harbor, so that a vessel in full sail could pass between.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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 . See Liberty ; Bingen ; Mennon
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A celebrated brazen image at Rhodes, which was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world . It was 105 Greek feet in height, and cost 300 talents. It bestrode the entrance to the smaller harbor of Rhodes. Commodus, L. Aurelius Antoninus . Son of M. Antoninus, succeeded his father in the Roman empire. He was naturally cruel and fond of indulging his licentious propensities. Desirous of being likened to Hercules , he adorned his shoulders with a lion's skin, and carried a knotted club in his hand. He fought with the gladiators, and boasted of his skill in killing wild beasts in the amphitheater. He was strangled by a wrestler in the thirty-first year of his age, A. D. 192.