The Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus of Rhodes served as the inspiration for the Statue of Liberty. The Colossus, which depicts the god Helios, was constructed in about 300 B.C. to celebrate the victory of the Rhodians over Antigous and his son Demetrius, who had attacked the city. The statue was popularly depicted as straddling the harbor, so that ships could pass under its legs, but historians do not believe that to be true. The Colossus was destroyed in an earthquake only 56 years after it was constructed.

A historically accurate rendering of the Colossus of Rhodes:


The Colossus as depicted by Emma Lazarus: