Colossus

(ko-los'sūs,) (L. pl. COLOSSI.) [Gr. kolo os.] (Antiq) A brazen statue of gigantic proportions, being an Apollo in bra , upwards of100 ft. in height, erected at Rhodes, and the workmanship of Chares who devoted to it 12 years of labor. It was placed at the entrance of the harbor, with the right foot on the land at one side, and the left on that at the other; and is said to have stood nearly 14 centuries before 224 B. c., when it fell by the shock of an earthquake. When the Saracens took po e ion of Rhodes, they found the statue in a prostrate state, and sold it to a Jew, by whom 900 camels were laden with its materials. Among the moderns, the term is applied to any figure of more than ordinary dimensions. The largest C. of the present day is the statue of San Carlo Borromeo, on the Lake of Maggiore. It is of bronze, is hollow, and nearly 60ft. in height. [s. 207]