Rhodes Statue? : Aegean Yields Fist, Colossal Speculation

It has no fingers, but a one-ton chunk of limestone hauled from the sea Sunday off the Greek island of Rhodes looked enough like a clenched fist to prompt excited government officials to speculate that divers had found a part of the Colossus of Rhodes--a fabled giant statue that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Guided by a Dutch clairvoyant who claimed she was brought to the watery site by the screams of the sculpture’s long-dead creator, divers located the encrusted fist over the weekend. As islanders and tourists applauded Sunday, the fist was raised by crane from a depth of 170 feet in the Aegean Sea, about 770 yards outside the Rhodes harbor, where the statue once stood.

“If experts confirm this find to be the Colossus of Rhodes, Greece will be in a position to offer humanity one of the seven wonders of the ancient world,” said Greek Merchant Marine Minister Stathis Alexandris, who ordered the search for the Colossus a week ago.

Examination Today

One Greek coast guard official said that the fist, measured at nearly three feet thick, six feet wide and three feet long, will be examined today by archeologists.

“It was definitely chiseled by hand,” one expert said. But other Greek specialists in classical antiquities have raised doubts about the find, pointing out that the original statue, which was 90 feet high, was supposedly built of bronze, not limestone, and was reinforced with iron and stone.

Last week, Alexandris tantalized journalists with underwater photographs and video film of the limestone fist. “I am not insisting, and I am not in a position to do so, that the finding is of immense archeological value,” he said then. “Now it’s up to the experts to determine it’s value.”

Represented Sun God

The Colossus, which represented the sun god Helios and commemorated the end of a yearlong siege of the island, was believed erected in 280 B.C. to stand by the harbor entrance. Historical accounts hold that the Colossus was toppled five years later by an earthquake. The fallen statue was left in place until 653 A.D., when Muslim pirates reputedly removed the bronze and sold the remains for scrap. The metal was said to have been carried off by more than 900 camels.

For Greece, whose government has grumbled officially in recent years that precious antiquities such as the Parthenon are succumbing to air pollution, and are being hoarded by museums in England and France, the possible unearthing of an ancient world wonder was cause for worry as well as exhilaration.

The fist was towed to the Rhodes harbor under heavy guard by Greek port police armed with automatic weapons. Navy patrol boats kept vigil near the area where the fist was found to ward off intruders. A navy captain involved in the recovery operation said there were other finds on the sea bed, including an ancient wall and a frieze.

Four navy vessels began diving operations outside the Rhodes harbor on June 19. The boats were guided to their spot by Ann Dankbaar, 56, a clairvoyant who told Greek friends during a visit two years ago that the Colossus lay submerged near Rhodes’ bustling modern harbor.

The psychic predicted to Greek authorities that the fist would be lifted easily, but worried that the body of the giant statue would pose greater problems.

Dankbaar said she was brought to the precise spot outside the harbor by the screams of Chares of Lindus, the sculptor who created the model for the Colossus. Under Chares’ supervision, the statue took 12 years to build. The sculptor later committed suicide, anguished because his master work was not appreciated.