DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14563#0190
MEMNON STILL SOUNDS.
155
not aopyists, but the originators of great thoughts and of
speaking symbols. Beauty they had, too, as well as
Strength ; for in all the mythology of the old world, there
is no conception so beautiful as that of the vocal Memnon.
The easternmost of these statues, upon which the sunbeams,
shooting athwart the Arabian mountains and the grand
colonnade of Karnac, would first fall, when its lips felt the
kindling ray, would utter one melodious sound like the vibra-
tion of a harp-string; — the enthroned majesty of Egypt
welcoming with praise the returning day, and the stone
crying out, where man is often dumb; " Salamat," * the
tradition of the place still calls it; — "salutations" to the
morning that ever opens bright and beautiful upon the plain
of Thebes. No doubt Homer heard it, and felt its poem.
Herodotus heard it, but he was too matter of fact, and too
much in the secrets of the priests to own its inspiration.
Plato heard it, and meditated divine philosophy. Strabo
* Lepsius insists that the term used by the Arabs is not Salamul, salu-
tations, but Sanamat, "the idols;" and ho gives a very singular, if not
incredible, explanation of the phenomenon of the sounding stone. " The
stone of which the statues are composed is a particularly hard quartz or
friable sandstone conglomerate, which looks as if it was glazed, and had
innumerable cracks. The frequent crackling of small particles of stone
at sunrise, when the change of temperature is greatest, in my opinion pro-
duced the tones of Memnon, far-famed in song, which were compared to
the breaking of a musical string."
In proof of this opinion, Dr. Lepsius refers to the phenomenon of crack-
ing and sounding stones in the desert, when rapidly warmed by the sun,
after being cooled during the night. "It is also remarkable," he adds,
"how, even now, several of the pieces that have split off, and are only
hanging loose, sound as clear as metal if they are struck, while others
beside them remain perfectly dumb and without sound, according as they
are more or less moistened by their reciprocal positions." (Letters, pp.
257, 258.) But how will this explain the uniformity and the continuity
of the phenomenon?
Another writer, who ridicules the idea of artifice in the matter, must
surely have forgotten the oracle at Delphi, and even the successful impos-
ture of the automaton chess-player in this country.
155
not aopyists, but the originators of great thoughts and of
speaking symbols. Beauty they had, too, as well as
Strength ; for in all the mythology of the old world, there
is no conception so beautiful as that of the vocal Memnon.
The easternmost of these statues, upon which the sunbeams,
shooting athwart the Arabian mountains and the grand
colonnade of Karnac, would first fall, when its lips felt the
kindling ray, would utter one melodious sound like the vibra-
tion of a harp-string; — the enthroned majesty of Egypt
welcoming with praise the returning day, and the stone
crying out, where man is often dumb; " Salamat," * the
tradition of the place still calls it; — "salutations" to the
morning that ever opens bright and beautiful upon the plain
of Thebes. No doubt Homer heard it, and felt its poem.
Herodotus heard it, but he was too matter of fact, and too
much in the secrets of the priests to own its inspiration.
Plato heard it, and meditated divine philosophy. Strabo
* Lepsius insists that the term used by the Arabs is not Salamul, salu-
tations, but Sanamat, "the idols;" and ho gives a very singular, if not
incredible, explanation of the phenomenon of the sounding stone. " The
stone of which the statues are composed is a particularly hard quartz or
friable sandstone conglomerate, which looks as if it was glazed, and had
innumerable cracks. The frequent crackling of small particles of stone
at sunrise, when the change of temperature is greatest, in my opinion pro-
duced the tones of Memnon, far-famed in song, which were compared to
the breaking of a musical string."
In proof of this opinion, Dr. Lepsius refers to the phenomenon of crack-
ing and sounding stones in the desert, when rapidly warmed by the sun,
after being cooled during the night. "It is also remarkable," he adds,
"how, even now, several of the pieces that have split off, and are only
hanging loose, sound as clear as metal if they are struck, while others
beside them remain perfectly dumb and without sound, according as they
are more or less moistened by their reciprocal positions." (Letters, pp.
257, 258.) But how will this explain the uniformity and the continuity
of the phenomenon?
Another writer, who ridicules the idea of artifice in the matter, must
surely have forgotten the oracle at Delphi, and even the successful impos-
ture of the automaton chess-player in this country.