DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0192
176
and a Persian. He appears to have been the universal hero of
the South, as Hercules was of the West, and Bacchus the hero
of the East. On this subject even Virgil, who in most mytholo-
gical subjects takes Homer for his guide, differs from him in
saying, that Memnon was killed by Achilles at Troy, a circum-
stance of which the latter makes no mention. Quintus Calaber,
in his Paralipomena, relates this fact with his usual prolixity:
Pindar mentions it cursorily*; and that it was long a popu-
lar opinion, is evident from a large vase lately found at Gir-
genti, on one side of which are Achilles and Hector engaged in
combat over the fallen Memnon; and on the reverse, his mother
Aurora directing her flight to heaven, to lay the dead body of
her son before the throne of Jupiter; or, as iElian relates the
tradition preserved at Troy, carrying the corpse to Susa to re-
ceive the funeral honours in the Memnonion. The former part of
this subject, t. e. the contest between Memnon and Achilles, was
treated by Lycius the son of Myron the sculptor, to adorn the
pedestal of a statue of Jupiter receiving the prayers of Thetis
and Aurora for their children; and again on that wonderful mas-
terpiece of Grecian historical sculpture, the chest of Cypselus,
where the mothers of the two heroes are represented anxiously
awaiting the issue of the combat -j-. After all I have said on the
subject of the statue of Memnon, I am very much inclined to think
that there were two pretended vocal statues at»Thebes ; and that
the one which Philostratus speaks of, as having, besides its youth-
ful appearance and other circumstances above mentioned, a pe-
culiar intelligence in its eyes, and a mouth as if on the point of
speaking, was placed within the temple called the Memnonion.
The head of such a statue is still to be seen within this building,
* Vide Pindar. Olymp. II. 'O 'Exrop' t<r<?a\e.
.........'Aaj re iraJJ' 'Ai8ioVa.
f Vide Pausaniam in Eliacis.
8
and
and a Persian. He appears to have been the universal hero of
the South, as Hercules was of the West, and Bacchus the hero
of the East. On this subject even Virgil, who in most mytholo-
gical subjects takes Homer for his guide, differs from him in
saying, that Memnon was killed by Achilles at Troy, a circum-
stance of which the latter makes no mention. Quintus Calaber,
in his Paralipomena, relates this fact with his usual prolixity:
Pindar mentions it cursorily*; and that it was long a popu-
lar opinion, is evident from a large vase lately found at Gir-
genti, on one side of which are Achilles and Hector engaged in
combat over the fallen Memnon; and on the reverse, his mother
Aurora directing her flight to heaven, to lay the dead body of
her son before the throne of Jupiter; or, as iElian relates the
tradition preserved at Troy, carrying the corpse to Susa to re-
ceive the funeral honours in the Memnonion. The former part of
this subject, t. e. the contest between Memnon and Achilles, was
treated by Lycius the son of Myron the sculptor, to adorn the
pedestal of a statue of Jupiter receiving the prayers of Thetis
and Aurora for their children; and again on that wonderful mas-
terpiece of Grecian historical sculpture, the chest of Cypselus,
where the mothers of the two heroes are represented anxiously
awaiting the issue of the combat -j-. After all I have said on the
subject of the statue of Memnon, I am very much inclined to think
that there were two pretended vocal statues at»Thebes ; and that
the one which Philostratus speaks of, as having, besides its youth-
ful appearance and other circumstances above mentioned, a pe-
culiar intelligence in its eyes, and a mouth as if on the point of
speaking, was placed within the temple called the Memnonion.
The head of such a statue is still to be seen within this building,
* Vide Pindar. Olymp. II. 'O 'Exrop' t<r<?a\e.
.........'Aaj re iraJJ' 'Ai8ioVa.
f Vide Pausaniam in Eliacis.
8
and