Memnon The Nubian King of Aethiopia Ethiopia — Dark ChamberZ Temple of Knowledge

Memnon

The Nubian King of Aethiopia Ethiopia

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Sources: https://brewminate.com/memnon-mythological-greek-king-of-ancient-aethiopia/

In Greek mythology, Memnon was a king of Aethiopia and son of Tithonus and Eos. As a warrior he was considered to be almost Achilles’ equal in skill. During the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troy’s defense and killed Antilochus, Nestor’s son, during a fierce battle. Nestor challenged Memnon to a fight, but Memnon refused being there was little honor in killing the aged man.

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Nestor then pleaded with Achilles to avenge his son’s death. Despite warnings that soon after Memnon falls so too would Achilles, the two men fought. Memnon drew blood from Achilles but Achilles drove his spear through Memnon’s chest, sending the Aethiopian army running. The death of Memnon echoes that of Hector, another defender of Troy whom Achilles also killed out of revenge for a fallen comrade, Patroclus.

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After Memnon’s death, Zeus was moved by Eos’ tears and granted him immortality. Memnon’s death is related at length in the lost epic Aethiopis, composed after The Iliad, circa the 7th century BCE. Quintus of Smyrna records Memnon’s death in Posthomerica. His death is also described in Philostratus’ Imagines.

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Dictys Cretensis, author of a pseudo-chronicle of the Trojan War, writes that “Memnon, the son of Tithonus and Aurora, arrived with a large army of Indians and Aethiopians, a truly remarkable army which consisted of thousands and thousands of men with various kinds of arms, and surpassed the hopes and prayers even of Priam.”

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Memnon leading his army of Aethiopians, arrives at Troy in the immediate aftermath of an argument between Polydamas, Helen, and Priam that centers on whether or not the Aethiopian King will show up at all. Memnon’s army is described as being too big to be counted and his arrival starts a huge banquet in his honour.

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As per usual the two leaders (Memnon and, in this case, Priam) end the dinner by exchanging glorious war stories, and Memnon’s tales lead Priam to declare that the Aethiopian King will be Troy’s savior. Despite this, Memnon is very humble and warns that his strength will, he hopes, be seen in battle, although he believes it is unwise to boast at dinner.

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Before the next day’s battle, so great is the divine love towards Memnon that Zeus makes all the other Olympians promise not to interfere in the fighting. In battle, Memnon kills Nestor’s son, Antilochos, after Antilochos has killed Memnon’s dear comrade, Aesop.

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Seeking vengeance and despite his age, Nestor tries to fight Memnon but the Aethiopian warrior insists it would not be just to fight such an old man, and respects Nestor so much that he refuses to fight. In this way, Memnon is seen as very similar to Achilles – both of them have strong sets of values that are looked upon favorably by the warrior culture of the time.

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When Memnon reaches the Greek ships, Nestor begs Achilles to fight him and avenge Antilochos, leading to the two men clashing while both wearing divine amour made by Hephaestus, making another parallel between the two warriors. Zeus favours both of them and makes each man tireless and huge so that the whole battlefield can watch them clash as demigods. Eventually, Achilles stabs Memnon through the heart, causing his entire army to flee in terror.

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In honour of Memnon, the gods collect all the drops of blood that fall from him and use them to form a huge river that on every anniversary of his death will bear the stench of human flesh. The Aethiopians that stayed close to Memnon in order to bury their leader are turned into birds (which we now call Memnonides) and they stay by his tomb so as to remove dust that gathers on it.

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Memnon in Africa

Roman writers and later classical Greek writers such as Diodorus Siculus believed Memnon hailed from “Aethiopia”, a geographical area in Africa, usually south of Egypt. Because the original historical work by Arctinus of Miletus only survives in fragments, most of what is known about Memnon comes from post-Homeric Greek and Roman writers. Homer only makes passing mention to Memnon in the Odyssey.

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Herodotus called Susa “the city of Memnon,” Herodotus describes two tall statues with Egyptian and Aethiopian dress that some, he says, identify as Memnon; he disagrees, having previously stated that he believes it to be Sesostris. One of the statues was on the road from Smyrna to Sardis. Herodotus described a carved figure matching this description near the old road from Smyrna to Sardis.

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Pausanias describes how he marveled at a colossal statue in Egypt, having been told that Memnon began his travels in Africa:

In Egyptian Thebes, on crossing the Nile to the so-called Pipes, I saw a statue, still sitting, which gave out a sound. The many call it Memnon, who they say from Aethiopia overran Egypt and as far as Susa. The Thebans, however, say that it is a statue, not of Memnon, but of a native named Phamenoph, and I have heard some say that it is Sesostris. This statue was broken in two by Cambyses, and at the present day from head to middle it is thrown down; but the rest is seated, and every day at the rising of the sun it makes a noise, and the sound one could best liken to that of a harp or lyre when a string has been broken.

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Philostratus of Lemnos in his work Imagines, describes artwork of a scene which depicts Memnon:

Now such is the scene in Homer, but the events depicted by the painter are as follows: Memnon coming from Aethiopia slays Antilochus, who has thrown himself in front of this father, and he seems to strike terror among the Achaeans – for before Memnon’s time black men were but a subject for story – and the Achaeans, gaining possession of the body, lament Antilochus, both the sons of Atreus and the Ithacan and the son of Tydeus and the two heroes of the same name.

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According to Manetho Memnon and the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty Amenophis was one and the same king. According to ancient Greek poets, Memnon’s father Tithonus was snatched away from Troy by the goddess of dawn Eos and was taken to the ends of the earth on the coast of Oceanus.

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According to Hesiod Eos bore to Tithonus bronzed armed Memnon, the King of the Aethiopians and lordly Emathion. Zephyrus, god of the west wind, like Memnon was also the first-born son of Eos by another father Astraeus, making him the half-brother of Memnon.

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When Memnon died, Eos mourned greatly over the death of her son, and made the light of her brother, Helios (Sun), to fade, and begged Nyx (Night), to come out earlier, so she could be able to freely steal her son’s body undetected by the armies of the Greeks and the Trojans.

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After his death, Eos, perhaps with the help of Hypnos and Thanatos, the gods of sleep and death respectively, transported the slain Memnon’s dead body back to Aethiopia, and also asked Zeus to make Memnon immortal, a wish he granted.

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There are statues of Amenhotep III in the Theban Necropolis in Egypt that were known to the Romans as the Colossi of Memnon. According to Pliny the Elder and others, one statue made a sound at morning time.

Santa Cristina - Memnon

King Memnon: A Mythical Warrior of the Trojan War

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Memnon The Nubian King of Aethiopia Ethiopia

Memnon’s Speaking Stone: Two Poems by Julia Balbilla

Source: https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2021/03/20/memnons-speaking-stone-two-poems-by-julia-balbilla-2/

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Julia Balbilla is a Roman poet from the time of Hadrian. She composed Greek verse. For more of her poems see Rosenmeyer 2008 below and Brennan 1998 for additional historical context

Julia Balbilla, Two Poems

In Memnonis pede sinistro. C. I. 4727 coll. Add. III p. 1202.

“I, Balbilla, heard from the stone when it spoke

Either the divine voice of Memnon or Phamenoth.

I came here alongside my beautiful queen Sabina,

as the sun kept its course in the first hour.

In the fifteenth year of Hadrian’s reign

When Hathyr had made its twenty-fourth day,

It was on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Hathyr.

῎Εκλυον αὐδάσαντος ἐγὼ ‘πὺ λίθω Βάλβιλλα

φώνας τᾶς θείας Μέμνονος ἢ Φαμένωθ·

ἦνθον ὔμοι δ’ ἐράται βασιλήιδι τυῖδε Σαβίνναι,

ὤρας δὲ πρώτας ἄλιος ἦχε δρόμος,

κοιράνω ᾿Αδριάνω πέμπτωι δεκότωι δ’ ἐνιαύτωι,

φῶτ]α δ’ ἔχεσκεν ῎Αθυρ εἴκοσι καὶ πέσυρα·

εἰκόστωι πέμπτωι δ’ ἄματι μῆνος ῎Αθυρ.

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In Memnonis crure sinistro. C. I. 4725 coll. Add. III p. 1201 sq.

“Julia Balbilla [wrote this]

When August Hadrian heard Memnon

I’ve learned that the Egyptian Memnon, bronzed by

The bright sun, sounds out from a Theban stone.

When he gazed upon Hadrian, the kingliest king

He addressed him as much as he could before the light of the sun.

But as Titan was driving through the sky on white horses

Holding the second part of the day in shadow,

Memnon’s voice rang out again like struck bronze,

High-pitched: and he let loose a third sound greeting.

And then Lord Hadrian hailed Memnon in return

And left on this column for future generations to see

Inscribed verses telling of everything he saw and heard.

And it was clear to everyone how much the gods love him.

᾿Ιουλίας Βαλβίλλης, ὅτε ἤκουσε τοῦ Μέμνονος ὁ σεβαστὸς

᾿Αδριανός.

Μέμνονα πυνθανόμαν Αἰγύπτιον, ἀλίω αὔγαι

αἰθόμενον, φώνην Θηβαίκω ‘πὺ λίθω·

᾿Αδρίανον δ’ ἐςίδων, τὸν παμβασίληα πρὶν αὐγὰς

ἀελίω χαίρην εἶπέ [v]οι ὠς δύνοτον·

Τίταν δ’ ὄττ’ ἐλάων λεύκοισι δι’ αἴθερος ἴπποις

ἐ]ν σκίαι ὠράων δεύτερον ἦχε μέτρον,

ὠς χάλκοιο τυπέντος ἴη Μέμνων πάλιν αὔδαν

ὀξύτονον· χαίρων καὶ τρίτον ἆχον ἴη.

κοίρανος ᾿Αδρίανος χ[ήρ]αις δ’ ἀσπάσσατο καὖτος

Μέμνονα. κἀ[πιθέμαν] καλλ[ιλό]γοισι πόνοις

γρόππατα σαμαίνο[ν]τά τ’ ὄσ’ εὔιδε κὤσσ’ ἐςάκουσε·

δᾶλον παῖσι δ’ ἔγε[ν]τ’ ὤς [v]ε φίλ[ε]ισι θέοι.

Pictures Videos Music and Additional Reading

Πολεμάω (I fight) - War Chant - Ancient Greek going to battle - Repetitive Heroic Drums

A black archer whose feet and legs face left, upper body facing right, flanked by two Amazones. "Mayence identifies the black person with Memnon, whereas Beazley and Bothmer regard him as an attendant of Memnon."

Object ID: A130 Amphora Origin: Attica Category: Vase painting Material: terracotta; Location: Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire; Bruxelles, BelgiumArtist: The Swing Painter Dating: 460-440 BCE.

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Black Kingdoms of The Nile

Source: https://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi1/1_retel1.htm

In the 1820s, the Western world was thrilled to hear news of the rediscovery of the monuments of ancient Nubia - or "Kush," as it was called in the Bible. The ruins, hundreds of miles south of Egypt in the Sudan, had been reported almost simultaneously by individual British, French, and American travelers, whose excited descriptions and glorious illustrations of temples and pyramid fields delighted scholars and reawakened interest in this mysterious African kingdom.

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Greek traditions told of Memnon, a legendary Nubian king who had fought in the Trojan War; they spoke of Nubia's people, who were the "tallest and handsomest on earth," and whose piety was so great that the gods preferred their offerings to those of all other men.

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They also knew that historical Nubian kings had once conquered Egypt and ruled it for sixty years and that their dynasty was counted as Egypt's Twenty-fifth. The Greeks, however, did not call these people "Nubians" or "Kushites," as we do today; they called them Aithiopes ("Ethiopians"), which in Greek meant "Burnt-Faced Ones." They knew perfectly well that Nubians were black-skinned, as are the Sudanese of the same regions today.

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During the 1840s, the great German egyptologist, Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-1884) led an expedition to record the monuments of Egypt and Sudan for the King of Prussia. On his return, he asserted confidently that the Greek term "Ethiopian," when referring to the ancient civilized people of Kush, did not apply to "negroes," but was used to describe reddish-skinned people closely related to the Egyptians, who "belonged to the Caucasian race."

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Again, in 1852, when the American diplomat Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) visited Sudan and gazed upon the temple carvings of sumptuously clad gods and rulers with clearly African features, he also found it inconceivable that they could have been created by black-skinned Africans. Rather, he asserted, echoing Lepsius, they must have been created by Egyptians or by immigrants from India or Arabia, or, in any case, "by an offshoot ... of the race to which we belong."

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Lepsius and Taylor failed to acknowledge the fact that the Greeks themselves never confused "Ethiopians" with Egyptians, or that they always used the term "Ethiopian" to apply equally to the peoples of Kush and central Africa. Such racist opinions and "scientific" distortions among Western scholars of the 19th century, while not universal, did, unhappily, predominate and shaped the attitudes that for another full century would retard and confuse the discipline of Nubian Studies and African civilization in general.

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So remote was the northern Sudan that scientific archaeology could not take place there until the British seized control of the country in 1898 and opened it up with the completion the Cairo-Khartoum railway. The first major excavations were undertaken by famed Egyptologist George A. Reisner (1867-1942), whose team, sponsored by Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, would first excavate Kerma in 1913, the Gebel Barkal Temples from 1916-1920, and all the royal pyramids of Kush between 1917-1924.

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Almost single-handedly, Reisner laid the foundations of Nubian history, reconstructing it from the Bronze Age to the dawn of the Christian era. He also deciphered the names and approximate order and dates of all the Kushite monarchs through some seventy generations, from the 8th century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D. It was a towering achievement, almost unparalleled in the annals of archaeology.

The Colossi of Memnon (Arabic: el-Colossat or es-Salamat) are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which stand at the front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, the largest temple in the Theban Necropolis. They have stood since 1350 BC, and were well known to ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as early modern travelers and Egyptologists.

The statues contain 107 Roman-era inscriptions in Greek and Latin, dated to between AD 20 and 250; many of these inscriptions on the northernmost statue make reference to the Greek mythological king Memnon, whom the statue was then – erroneously – thought to represent.

Shades Of Memnon: Book One By Gregory Walker

Tales of Memnon have inspired poets and sages for 3000 years, portraying an amazing figure whose name became associated with statues along the Nile, with temples and tombs in ancient Turkey and Iran and with artwork and literature from ancient Greece and Rome. Celebrated by early Greek writers, Memnon was granted immortality by the gods in "The Ethiopis," the third epic poem related to the Trojan War.

Memnon (Original Mix)

The Black Pharaohs: The Kingdoms of Kush - The Great Civilizations of the Past.

Min 7:43 Optional

Memnon The Immortal

illustrated by Mshindo Kuumba