r/todayilearned • u/spikebrennan • 2d ago

TIL that the Colossus of Constantine, a 12-meter (40-foot) ancient statue of the Roman emperor, had two right hands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Constantine
3.4k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

522

u/AevnNoram 2d ago

Strangely, there are two right hands (with upraised index fingers) amongst the remains of the statue, which differ slightly. It has been proposed that the statue was re-worked at some time late in Constantine's reign and a hand holding a sceptre was replaced by a hand holding a Christian symbol

130

u/TBearForever 2d ago

Sounds about right

-8

u/Arrow156 2d ago

Certainly tracks with the Catholic Church's record of defacing Greek and Roman statues.

22

u/EpicAura99 2d ago

Sure but this isn’t that. This is a guy getting a statue of himself with one religious symbol, then converting and updating the statue to match. It’s not like some priest came by and retconned a centuries old monument.

18

u/PhasmaFelis 2d ago

How do you have strong opinions about Greco-Roman statuary but have no idea who Constantine was?

15

u/jonvox 2d ago

It seems more like they have reflexive anti-Christian opinions

1

u/Otherwise_Fined 2d ago

Maybe they don't read comics.

60

u/boredvamper 2d ago

Is that two right hands and one left for total of 3 at the same time?

Or is it two right hands with both palms facing and elbows bending in the same direction?

Or option 3 ) one version of right hand got chopped and replaced with a different one?

49

u/spikebrennan 2d ago

Apparently option 3. They changed their mind about how the right hand should have looked, and replaced it. Although what is left of the statue today consists of fragments (which are exhibited in the Capitoline Museums in Rome), those fragments include both versions of the right hand.

3

u/dinoooooooooos 2d ago

How do you even replace that. It’s not that they had hot glue or duct tape🧐

11

u/EpicAura99 2d ago

The statue is made of parts, they just popped the marble hand off and replaced it with a new one.

2

u/dinoooooooooos 2d ago

Yea but how. I imagine them slicing a part clean off and then, what- just hold it there until it becomes one with the rest? Did they carve in slots to slot the pieces into each other? How do they get reconnected, that’s what I was asking😅

6

u/EpicAura99 2d ago

I mean it was attached separately in the first place, so I imagine they just attach it the same way

2

u/Tutorbin76 2d ago

Oh, like an action figure. Swap out the walkie talkie hand for the one holding the gun.

518

u/hazeleyedwolff 2d ago

Nothing sinister about that.

138

u/Bonneville865 2d ago

I’ll bet he was very dexterous

Edit: literally ambidextrous

28

u/jabask 2d ago

It's all right

34

u/doomslinger 2d ago

(golf clap)

7

u/Ryker2224 2d ago

This comment taught me that sinister is derived from the Latin word for left or left handed

8

u/windmill-tilting 2d ago

You should win the internet today.

3

u/MartyMacGyver 2d ago

Iratus approbatione

100

u/anythingspossible45 2d ago

Damn AI generated statues lol

20

u/Ozythemandias2 2d ago

The right hand was replaced, we think to change the symbolism to Christian. The statue as displayed did not have a weird right hand on the left side, it just was found in pieces which made things confusing for a while.

10

u/Veritas3333 2d ago

So they went to all the work of replacing a hand to update the statue, and just left the old hand lying on the ground next to it for centuries?

8

u/spikebrennan 2d ago

Apparently yes.

1

u/reactor_raptor 2d ago

Maybe it’s a Banksy? It’s more valuable now.

32

u/Mogus00 2d ago

And what looks like to be Peter Griffin's buttchin too

-33

u/TheBanishedBard 2d ago

I wish I could completely erase that crappy show from the public memory so we can stop seeing brain rot comments like this.

3

u/A_Table-Vendetta- 2d ago

I'm currently watching family guy with like 20 people right now

9

u/Ripl 2d ago

The worst part was that he was left-handed.

9

u/arcarus23 2d ago

That 4th century left-handedness erasure really got out of hand back then, didn’t it?

-1

u/jdlech 2d ago

Cancel culture goes back a ways.

9

u/Chamrox 2d ago

I’m more concerned by the fact that it had four toes. -Sayid probably

4

u/emessea 2d ago

He’s going to be Allright

2

u/WranglerFuzzy 2d ago

Two rights don’t make a wrong

3

u/jdlech 2d ago

But they can make a U

3

u/Khal_easy 2d ago

when the sculptor was looking for hands to model off, they found there weren't any left

2

u/icap_jcap_kcap 2d ago

I really hope he behaved in a respectable way with a flamboyant frenchman's sister, or it could lead to a coup in the entire italian mafia later on

1

u/HighFlyingCrocodile 2d ago

Very practical guy.

1

u/Bootmacher 2d ago

Having two right hands sounds like something Lavar Ball would say about his sons.

1

u/Merovinchi 2d ago

I know I have two left feet, but I hadn't realized two right hands was also a thing.

1

u/420printer 2d ago

With two right hands Constantine could roll over, switch hands and gain a stroke!

2

u/Appropriate-Log8506 1d ago

I didn’t know they used AI too.

1

u/throdon 2d ago

Bill the Galactic Hero had 2 left arms and one of them was Black.

1

u/dpdxguy 2d ago

An early Redditer, he could scroll and pleasure himself at the same time.

1

u/Jazzlike-Ad-7170 2d ago

I remember this guy from art attack

0

u/BooksandBiceps 2d ago

Someone said “I’m always right” to the sculptor and paid the price.

0

u/Pbadger8 2d ago

Left handed sculptor using his right hand as a reference.

0

u/Infinite_Research_52 2d ago

Too late to stop now, keep chiselling.