The Dickinson press., 1889-11-30
COLOSSAL STATUES.
SPECIMENS OF THE WORK OF
SCULPTORS IN REMOTE AGES.

Rhodes-A Music Making Granite Image.
Ramescs tho Great.
Among the statues, images of heroes
and the gods, and of symbolic figures
that sculptors have fashioned of stone or
metal from remote ages, some are dis
tinguished and attract special attention
on account of their great size. Some are
found in distant and almost inaccessible
places, others are in cities and museums,
while a few exist only in the pages of
history.
Under the successors of Alexander the
taste for colossal statues enjoyed a
"boom." Colossus came into being in
numerous places. The most famous was
Apollo at Rhodes. This was by a pupil
of Sysippus, and is ranked among the
seven wonders of the world. rliny
writes that it was seventy cubits, or
about II hundred and thirty-two feet
tall. 1t is said to have been placed on
piers at the entrance of the port, as
shown in the illustration, so hat vessels
sailed between the legs when entering
or leaving Rhodes. Fifty-onc years after
being erected it was overturned by an
earthquake, and lay PROSTATE for 900
years, when, in G12, it was destroyed by
Arabs and the metal exchanged with
Jews for goats.
The first colossal figure met in travel
ing through north Egypt is the sphinx,
beside the pyramids of Gizch. The body
is of Il lion, with q human head crouch
ing in a plain of sand. 1t has the appear
ance of being the guardian of the pyra-
mids. The sphinx is ninety feet above
the sand. The face, including the hair,
istwenty-six feet high. In the Sixteenth
century Prospcl1ls Alpinus, who bchcld
it intact, wrote highly of the beauty of
the features, and Abdallatitf, a learned
Arab physician, who saw it 400 years be-
fore, praised warmly the sweetness of
the mouth and expression carried in the
smile. This is all lost now, as the nose
is gone and the rest of the face badly de-
faced. The Sphinx is supposed to have
been chiselcl 1860 years b. c., by order
of Thoutmosis IN, to honor the memory
of his father. Some historians, however,
take the ground that the Sphinx existed
in the time Of Chcops, prior to the great
pyramids bearing the nance of the prince.
The sound giving statue of Mcmnon,
which was carly overturned by an earth
quake, but restored by Scptimius Severus,
easily follows the Sphinx. This colossus
is now without a face, the forehead, nose
and mouth having disappeared. The
chest, arms and legs are also broken and
crumbling. Not far away is the statue
or t,,.,n,l;. nix, @,.o .,,,1
near Ramesscum, OF the left bank of the
Nile, and are each sixty feet i'm height.
They are ell that remain of the palace of
Amenophis III. Each statue is on q base
of red granite as high as a four story
house. 1t was in Nero's reign that the
musical propensitics of the Mcmnon came
to light. Refer to almost amy one of the
ancient histories, and the m~clodious
sounds that the Memlon gives forth at
sunrise will be found spoken of. Tacitus
compares them to the ring made by
breaking the string of Il Tyre. On the
Memnon legs and base are seventv-two
inscriptions, the earliest in Ncro's time,
dated a. ID. Al, and tho last 1870 years
after, in the reign of Septimius Sevcrus.
The most famous inscription is that of
the Emperor Adrian, who in 1870 went
with the Empress Sabina to upper
Egypt. Their names, half in Latin and
half i'll Greek, are still distinctly visible.
The rcnown of the speaking Memnon
was much increased under the Antho-
nys, and pilgrims came to make offer
ings at its feet, never doubling that the
sounds We're other than the voice of
Mclnnon, the hero of Homer, the king of
the east, saluting his mother, Aurora,
each morning at the suns rising. Science
i'll recent years has ''laid OUT the TO-
nance of mythology in the most prosaic
way, by finding that the stones in the
statue gave out different noises when the
sun began to shine on them after the cool
and dew of the night.
Luxor is an Arab village, which gives
its name to the ruins in the midst of
which it is established. These ruins are
the remains of the grand palaces con-
structed, II by Ramcses the Great, the
other by ACCOMPLISHMENTS of the
eighteenth dynasty. The latter is the
more ancient; the palace Of Ramcscs-
Sesostris is of later date.
The entrance to the palace of Ralncscs
is of incompatible grandeur. Against the
entrance stand four colossal statues rep
resenting RMneses the Great. They are
each sculpturcd of a single block of Sv-
enc granite of mingled red and black.
They are seated upon cubical stones, one
of them leaning against n little obelisk.
They are forty-threc feet high. Although
they are much dis1lgured and dilapidat-
ed, II recognizes the high head dress in
the form of q inter, the collars that en-
circle their neclis, the legends engraved
upon their arms, as we'll as the patterns
of the robes, fastened by a belt around
the waist. These four Colosses, sitting
i'll majestic silence at the gates of the
palace, must have produced a most i'm.
posing effect.
Within one of the ruined courts lie the
remains of q gigantic statue of Ramese:
the Great. In one block we have the
head. chest and arms as far as the elbow
in another the stomach and thighs. The
left hand has been found, and also one
Of the feet. The head has preserved it;
form; the different shapes of the heal
dress are easily distinguishable, but tn,
face is hopelessly mutilatcd. tits almos
impossible to give the exact height o
this Colossus. The car is nearly foul
feet long. The distance from one ear t,
the other, across the face, is seven feet
The circumference Of the arm below til,
elbow is sixteen feet. Although it wa
seated, this statue ought t o have been
without its pedestal, which is still in it
place, nearly sixty feet in height. Itwa
s%culptured Of rose granite of a singh
stone weighing more than 1,000,6 90
kilogrammes.-St. Louis Globe-Dcmo
crat.