Memnon

In Greek mythology, Memnon (/ˈmɛmnən/; Ancient Greek: Μέμνων, lit. the Steadfast or Resolute one,^[1] was a king of Aethiopia and son of Tithonus and Eos. Memnon was celebrated for both his exceptional physical beauty and his remarkable strength: "Whole throngs of foes fierce-hearted Memnon slew.""(Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica 2.370);  [Eurypylos] was the handsomest I ever saw after divine Memnon. (Od.11.520). According to later traditions Memnon was  black (Ov. Amor. 1.8. 4, Epist. ex Pont. 3.3. 96; Paus. 10.31.2).

During the Trojan War Memnon brought an army to Troy's defense and killed Antilochus, Nestor's son, fierce battle. In Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy, Book 2, Memnon, showing respect for Nestor’s age, saying it would be dishonorable to fight someone much older than himself. Memnon acknowledges that he thought Nestor was a younger warrior when he saw him on the battlefield, expecting a more equal opponent. Memnon urges Nestor to step back from the fight, warning him that if latter doesn't, he might be forced to strike him down. (385).^[2]

Nestor then pleaded with Achilles to avenge his son's death. Despite warnings that soon after Memnon fell 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.

In the fight against the Achaeans, Memnon was ultimately slain by Achilles. However, as they battled, Zeus weighed the fates of both heroes, signifying that they were equal contenders on the battlefield. (Pind. O. 2.148, Nem. 3.110, 6.83; Quint. Smyrn. 2.224, &c.; Philostr. Icon. 2.7; Plut. De And. Poit. 2.)

Eos prayed to Zeus to grant her son immortality, and removed his body from the field of battle. The dew that appears at dawn is said to be the tears that Eos sheds for her lost son. (Serv. ad Aen. 1.493; Ov. Met. 13.622.)

Memnon's death is related at length in the lost epic Aethiopis,^[3] likely composed after The Iliad, circa the 7th century BC. Quintus of Smyrna records Memnon's death in Posthomerica. His death is also described in Philostratus' Imagines.

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."^[4][5]

Topos Text has catalogued 116 extant references to Memnon, the mythical Aethiopian King, son of Tithonus^[6]

digilibLT has catalogued 28 occurrences of Memnon and two occurrences of Aethiopis of in 16 late Latin texts (Latin texts from the second to the seventh century CE)

According to the Posthomerica (Book 2) Memnon arrives at Troy leading his army of Aethiopians, in the immediate aftermath of an argument between Polydamas, Helen, and Priam. Their discussion 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. 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 saviour. 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.

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, Aethiop, son of Pyrrhasus. Next Nestor tries to fight Memnon, seeking vengeance and despite his age, 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 favourably by the warrior culture of the time.

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 armor made by Hephaestus, making another parallel between the two warriors.

In Vergil's Aeneid: Memnon has led his troppes from Aithopia to aid the Trojans:

Eoasque acies et nigri Memnonis arma: Eastern battle arrays (the strategic arrangement of fighters in a battle) and weapons of Memnon

The mythological tradition has Hephaistos crafting Memnon's armor just as he crafted for other famed heroes.

Dido asks Aeneas to describe Memnon's armor in Virgil's Aeneid (1.751). Additionally, Venus implores Vulcan to forge armor for Aeneas: "Therefore I come at last with lowly suit before a godhead I adore, and pray for gift of arms,—a mother for her son. You were not unrelenting to the tears of Nereus' daughter or Tithonus' bride." Venus hopes that Vulcan will do the same for Aeneas by forging him powerful armor. (Verg. A. 8.383) This event described in the Aeneid mirrors a similar scene in Homer's Iliad (Hom. Il. 18.558-709).^[7]

Psychostasia: (The Judgement of Zeus) The weighing of souls was Zeus' method of deciding which of two confronted heroes would die in combat. Zeus accomplishes this with this golden scales in (ll. 8.81-87), in Vergil's Aeneid.^[8]

Between Achilles and Memnon, Zeus favors 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.

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.^[9] The Aethiopians that stayed close to Memnon in order to bury their leader are turned into birds (which we now call Memnonides)^[10] and they stay by his tomb so as to remove dust that gathers on it.^[11]

Eos, the goddess of the dawn, begs Zeus to return her son; the king of the gods doesn't bring Memnon back to life, but he grants his mother a grace, that she will be able to see him alive and to caress him with his rosy fingers every day, when she opens the doors of heaven so as her brother Helios can begin his journey. That will last just a few moments.^[12]

Memnon Pieta: Lourvre G115 (Vase) Eos lifts up the body of her son Memnon. "Kalos" is his inscription. Interior from an Attic red-figure cup, ca. 490–480 BC. From Capua, Italy. Signed by Douris (painter) .

Inscriptions on the left: ΕΕΝΕΜΕΚΝΕRINE (meaning unclear), HERMOΓΕΝΕS KALOS (“Hermogenes kalos” - “Hermogenes is beautiful”). Inscriptions on the right: HEOS (“Eos”), ΔΟRIS EΓRAΦSEN (“Doris Egraphsen” - Do(u)ris painted it). MEMNON (“Memnon”), KALIAΔES EΠOIESEN (“Kaliades epoiesen” - Kaliades made it).

In respect to an ancient understanding mythical Memnon King of the Ethiopians (alternative spellings Aethiopians/Aithiopians) Merriam Webster defines the term as: "a member of any of the mythical or actual peoples usually described by the ancient Greeks as dark-skinned and living far to the south." This information concurs with the same information at Etymonline's entries reference the Greek αἴθω.^[13][14]

Roman writers and later classical Greek writers such as Diodorus Siculus ( 2.22.1 ) state Memnon is from Ethiopia and precisely king of "the Ethiopians who border upon Egypt".

One of the "cyclic poets", Arctinus composed the epics Aethiopis and Sack of Troy, which were contributions to the Trojan War cycle, The original historical work by Arctinus of Miletus only survives in fragments. Much of what is known about Memnon comes from post-Homeric Greek and Roman writers. Homer includes a passing mention to Memnon in the Odyssey.^[15]

Herodotus called Susa "the city of Memnon,"^[16] 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.^[17] One of the statues was on the road from Smyrna to Sardis.^[18] Herodotus described a carved figure matching this description near the old road from Smyrna to Sardis.^[19]

Philostratus The Elder of Lemnos in his work Imagines describes art which depicts Memnon:

1.1.7. MEMNON: This is the army of Memnon; their arms have been laid aside, and they are laying out the body of their chief for mourning; he has been struck in the breast, I think, by the ashen spear. For when I find a broad plain and tents and an entrenched camp and a city fenced in with walls, I feel sure that these are Ethiopians and that this city is Troy and that it is Memnon, the son of Eos, who is being mourned. When he came to the defence of Troy, the son of Peleus, they say, slew him, mighty though he was and likely to be no whit inferior to his opponent. Notice to what huge length he lies on the ground, and how long is the crop of curls, which he grew, no doubt, that he might dedicate them to the Nile; for while the mouth of the Nile belongs to Egypt, the sources of it belong to Ethiopia. See his form, how strong it is, even though the light has gone from his eyes; see his downy beard, how it matches his age with that of his youthful slayer. You would not say that Memnon's skin is really black, for the black of it shows a trace of ruddiness.

2.7.2 Now such is the scene in Homer, but the events depicted by the painter are as follows: Memnon coming from Ethiopia slays Antilochus who had 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...

Memnon, stands, terrible to look upon, in the army of the Ethiopians, holding a spear and wearing a lion's skin and sneering at Achilles.

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.^[20]

According to Hesiod Eos bore to Tithonus bronzed armed Memnon, the King of the Aethiopians and lordly Emathion.^[21] 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. According to Quintus Smyrnaeus, Memnon said himself that he was raised by the Hesperides on the coast of Oceanus.^[22]

According to Scholar Dean, Memnon, had a double or fused identity in classical antiquity. Considered both "Asian and African" for Greek and Roman writers because of his parentage and because of the geographical indeterminacy of Aithiopia and of India. Memnon was definitely black-skinned for Roman writers.^[23]

Memnon Pieta When Memnon died, Eos mourned greatly over the death of her son,^[24] 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.^[25] 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,^[26] and also asked Zeus to make Memnon immortal, a wish he granted.^[27]

The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone 3,400 year old twin statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, located in Luxor, Egypt. Greeks and Romans visitors associated them with mythical Memnon since at least the first century-calling a portrait-colossus of that pharaoh "Memnon." This identification was based, argued by R. Drew Griffith on the fact that the statue faces sunrise on the winter solstice and so was linked to the dawn.^[28]

According to Pliny the Elder and others, one statue made a sound at morning time.^[29]

Pausanias also 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.^[30]

Historian M. Bernal's claim that the Greeks based Memnon on Ammenemes of Egypt.^[31] An Egyptian origin for Memnon appears likely from Zeus' weighing of his fate against Achilles' in the lost epic Aethiopis. There is a similar motif in the early spell of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Like Memnon, Amenhotep formed military pacts with eastern kings, was son of a solar deity, and was exceptionally handsome.

Following an earthquake in 27 b.c. the northernmost of the colossi collapsed, and, at sunrise, began to produce an eerie musical sound that early Greek travelers interpreted as the mythical half-mortal Memnon calling out to his mother Eos, goddess of the dawn. Visitors came from far and wide to hear the song, including the Roman Emperor Hadrian and the Empress Sabine, who had to wait several days before the statue called out to them in a.d. 130.^[32] The bust was restored in the Roman period and mounted on huge sandstone blocks. According to legend, Septimius Severus (r. 193-211 CE), seeking to repair the colossus, inadvertently silenced it forever.^[33] 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Memnon.

• Emathion
• Penthesilea

• Dictys Cretensis, from The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian translated by Richard McIlwaine Frazer, Jr. (1931-). Indiana University Press. 1966. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960. ISBN 978-0143106715
• Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017. ISBN 978-0-241-98338-6, 024198338X
• Herodotus (2003). The Histories. London, England: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-044908-2.
• Herodotus, The Histories with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920. ISBN 0-674-99133-8. Online version at the Topos Text Project. Greek text available at Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. ISBN 978-0674995611. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Philostratus the Elder. Imagines, translated by Arthur Fairbanks (1864–1944). Loeb Classical Library Volume 256. London: William Heinemann, 1931. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Philostratus the Lemnian (Philostratus Major), Flavii Philostrati Opera. Vol 2. Carl Ludwig Kayser. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1871. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pliny the Elder, The Natural History. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff. Lipsiae. Teubner. 1906. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Quintus; James, Alan W. (2004). The Trojan Epic: Posthomerica. Vol. Book II. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP.
• Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. London: William Heinemann, 1913. Online version at theoi.com
• Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy. Arthur S. Way. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1913. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

• Griffith, R. Drew. "The Origin of Memnon." Classical Antiquity 17, no. 2 (1998): 212-34. Accessed June 15, 2020. doi:10.2307/25011083.
• Heichelheim, F. M. "The Historical Date for the Final Memnon Myth." Rheinisches Museum Für Philologie (New Series) 100, no. 3 (1957): 259–63. Accessed June 15, 2020. JSTOR 41243876.
• Petit, Thierry. "Amathousiens, Éthiopiens et Perses". In: Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes. Volume 28, 1998. pp. 73–86. doi:10.3406/cchyp.1998.1340; https://www.persee.fr/doc/cchyp_0761-8271_1998_num_28_1_1340