NO WONDER I’M A WONDER
I was once a statue named Colossus. I was macle of bronze. I stood
beside the harbor of a small island called Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.
I was twenty times taller than a man, and my thumb was so big that you
couldn’t even wrap your arms around it. If you could have stood on my
head, you could have seen far out across land and sea.
Why was I built? Well, long ago, the people of Rhodes tried to save
their island in a battle against thousands of men from another land.
They had little hope of winning, but the men and women fought hard.
Finally, the courage of the islanders was rewarded when their friend,
Ptolemy, came to their aid with a powerful fleet of ships and saved
Rhodes.
The Rhodians were so grateful to be saved that they built me in honor of
their victory. I stood in the harbor for many years. Poets wrote about
my beautv, and they called me one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The
word “colossal” comes from my name.
One day, the earth began to tremble and quake. The trembling was so
ferocious that I tumbled down and fell apart and couldn’t be put back
together.
Today, I am just a statue called the Colossus of Rhodes that you read
about in books. Rut, every once in a while, men find bits and pieces of
the bronze that used to be part of me.
