Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/879

Rh M E M M E M 847 testing&quot; towns represented at the diet of Spires. During tlio Thirty Years War it was alternately occupied by Swedes and Imperialists. In 1800 the French under Moreau gained a victory over the Austrians near Memmingen. Compare Dobel, Memmingen i7ii Reformationszcitaltcr, 1877-78. MEMNON&quot;. In the Homeric mythology (or rather the mythology of the Troica in the much fuller form in which it existed in the times of Pindar and the tragic poets) this hero was called the son of Tithonus (the half-brother of Priam) and Eos (Aurora). Tradition represented him as an Ethiopian prince who came to assist the Trojans against the Greeks, and performed prodigies of valour, but was at length killed by Achilles, after having himself slain Antilochus, the son of Nestor, an event alluded to in Pindar, Pyth., vi. 32-39. His story must have been very famous, for more than one Greek play was composed bearing the title. The chief source from which our knowledge about Mem- non as a chief is derived is the second book of the Post- Homerim, by Quintus Smyrnpeus, where his exploits and death are described at length. That Memnon was slain by Achilles is more than once affirmed by Pindar (Nem., vi. 52 ; Isthm., iv. 41, vii. 54). He is mentioned also in the Odyssey (xi. 522), with especial praise for personal beauty ; but the allusion to him is quite casual, and is one of many proofs that the compilation of that and the sister epic presupposes in the reader or hearer a full knowledge of the whole tale of Troy. Modern philology associates Mem non like Achilles, whom he so closely resembles in many particulars, ami like Sarpedon, who seems the representa tive of Memnon in the Iliad with solar phenomena. He was the son of the dawn, and, though he might vanish from sight for a time, he could not be destroyed, and there fore it was said that Zeus, moved by the tears of his mother, granted him immortality. In this respect, as alsj in wearing bright armour made by Hephrcstus, he is the counterpart of Achilles, who symbolizes the mid-day sun in his glory ; and that Memnon is said to have come from the far east, i.e., from the region of sunrise, is in itself significant. Ovid, in a beautiful elegy on the death of Tibullus, Amor., lib. iii. 9, 3, thus associates the fates of Memnon and Achilles : Memnona si mater, mater ploravit Aeliillem, Et tangunt magnas tristia fata deas, Flcbilis indignos, Elegeia, solve capillos ; Ah niinis ex vero nunc tibi nomen erit. Like the body of the dead hero Sarpedon (II., xvi. G81), so that of Memnon was borne through the air, a legend represented on Greek vases of a rather early date. This appears to mean that the sun, the offspring of the dawn, careers through the sky to the place of his departure in the west. Another account represents Zeus as navmg sent forth birds from the funeral-pile of Memnon, which straightway fought with each other, and many fell back as victims to the soul of the hero. The mere fact that a Memnonium, or temple in honour of the hero, was erected both at Susa and at Egyptian Thebes, both of which places were centres of sun-worship, is a strong confirmation of the probability, derived from his mythical pedigree, that he was really a sun-god. Sir G. W. Cox remarks, 1 &quot;of Memnon s head the story was told that it retained the prophetic power of the living Helios or of Surya. The story is found in the myth of the Teutonic Wismir, and it might have been related of Kephalos, the head of the sun ; &quot; and again (p. 267), &quot; Eos, the mother of Memnon, is so transparently the morning th it her child must rise again as surely as the sun reappears to run his daily course across the heaven.&quot; With respect to the meaning of the name, it may pos sibly be the same as Agamemnon, which has a prefix 1 Mythology and Folklore, p. 13*. meaning brave.- It has been thought that Me/u-coi/ and /xv^twv, &quot; mindful,&quot; are but forms of the same word, and that the prophetic power attributed to the head of the Egyptian Memnon, which was said to utter sounds at sunrise, is connected with this idea. It was said that the sound resembled the moaning noise or the sharp twang of a barp-string, and it may even be surmised that the syllables mem-non imitated the resonance. The Egyptian head is said to be a bust of King Amenophis; 3 but if the Greeks fancied it uttered the word mcmuon, they would Lave called it by that name. The tendency, however, to give a Greek shape and inflexion to words which sounded bar barous will sufficiently account for the misnaming of the statue. Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 816, declares that he himself heard it in company with ^Elius Gallus and several of his friends, and Pausanias (i. 42, 2) says &quot; one would compare the sound most nearly to the broken chord of a harp or a lute.&quot; See also Juv., Sat., xv. 5 ; Tac., Ann., ii. 61. Memnon, as an Ethiopian, was of course represented as a black ; hence Virgil (J?n., i. 493) speaks of &quot; nigri Memnonis arma.&quot; The figure itself was cut out -of black basalt, but that is a material not uncommon in Egypt Speaking quite generally, it seems reasonable to conclude that the Memrton from Ethiopia (which the early Greeks placed in the far east rather than in the south) typifies the eastern sun summoned to oppose the enemies of dark ness from the west. MEMPHIS, the capital of the old Egyptian empire, founded by Menes, the first historical king ; see vol. vii. pp. 731, 770. In the time of Strabo (xvii. p. 807) it was the second city of Egypt, inferior only to Alexandria, and with a mixed population like the latter. Memphis was still an important though declining place at the time of the Moslem conquest. Its final fall was due to the rise of the Arabic city of Fostat on the right bank of the Nile almost opposite the northern end of the old capital; and its ruins, so far as they still lay above ground, gradually disappeared, being used as a quarry for the new city. The remains of &quot;Menf &quot; were still imposing late in the 12th century, when they were described by Abd el-Latif. In the Old Testa ment Memphis is mentioned under the names of Moph (Hos. ix. 6) and Noph (Isa. xix. 13; Jer. ii. 16; Ezek. xxx. 13, 16). MEMPHIS, a city of the United States, and port of entry, capital of Shelby county, Tennessee, is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi river just below the mouth of Wolf river, in about 35 8 N. lat. and 90 5 W. long , 450 miles below St Louis- and 826 miles above New Orleans. The bluff on which the city stands has an average elevation of 47|- feet above high-water mark, with a further fall of 36 feet to extreme low water. Memphis is methodically and tastefully planned, and is adorned with many elegant private residences and public build ings, conspicuous among the latter being the United States custom house, located upon the esplanade between Front Street and the river, and built of the best quality of marble, the product of Tennessee quarries. A small park in the centre of the city contains a bust of Andrew Jackson. The streets are mostly well-paved, and are supplied with water from the Wolf river by the Holly system. The bayou Gayoso, with several branches, inter- sects the city, and prior to 1880 received most of ita drainage. Since that date over 40 miles of sewers and more than that length of subsoil drain-tiles have been constructed on the Waring system, providing the city with a superior system of drainage. 2 Sir G. W. Cox, Mjilholngy of the Aryans, p. 20. S, ed. 2. 3 *au&amp;lt;FVw0, as the Thebans themselves said, according to Pausanias, cited beiow.