Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Rhodos.
The gallery
Head of Helios (Archaeological Museum of Rhodes)
Unknown (Hellenistic, Lysippan tradition), Middle Hellenistic
This radiate Helios head from Rhodes names the island's sun-god consort — the husband Pindar gives to the nymph Rhodos when the new island rises from the sea. Cult sculpture of Helios is the visible half of the pair after whom Rhodes is named.
The Colossus of Rhodes
Maarten van Heemskerck (after), 16th century tradition
Heemskerck's wonder engraving imagines Helios as harbour giant on Rhodos' island — the sun god's bronze standing where the nymph personifies the land. Reception of Rhodes as Helios' bride keeps her name in every retelling of the Colossus.
In play
Olympian 7
Pindar
Pindar's ode for Diagoras of Rhodes tells how Helios claimed the rising island and lay with Rhodos — the nymph as eponym and mother of the Heliadae.
Rhodos
Goddess and personification of Rhodes, wife of Helios, mother of the Heliadae — the island still bears her name.
Colossus of Rhodes
The lost wonder was Helios standing on Rhodos' shore — the sun god's marriage to the island-nymph cast as one of antiquity's seven wonders.
Rhodes
The island's modern name still remembers the nymph Rhodos — eponym as living place-name.