Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/166

156 156 Memnofi. The fables relating to the last of these mythical persons have likewise been forced into the shape of a political his- tory. Yet no one believes that they have any other kind of historical foundation than the propagation of a certain worship from the remote East to the shores of the JEgeaxi. And such Mr J. conceives to be the real import of the various legends concerning Memnon. He too was a god^ whose rites were carried from Ethiopia through Egypt and Asia to the coast of the Propontis. To clear the way for his hypothesis Mr J. combats the opinion of Marsham and Jablonski, who imagined that Ethi- opia in the fable of Memnon included Upper Egypt. He contends that according to the greater part of the ancient authors this name was applied to the country of which . Meroe was the capital. Philostratus asserted that Memnon was worshipped at Meroe as well as at Memphis by Ethi- opians as well as by Egyptians ^^5 and that he cherished a 16 . his hair in honour of the Nile^ which rose in Ethiopi and Agatharchides mentions that the Memnonia at Thebes were built by Ethiopians'"^. The descriptions of Lycophron^^ and Quintus Calaber '% which speak of Cerne and the southern Ocean, point the same way : and the exceeding beauty for which Homer praises the hero, is a characteristic not of the Egyptians but of the Ethiopians, who, Herodotus says, were '■■^ Heroica p. 699, Ouovaiv avTco Kai-d M6p6T]V Kal MejULCpiv AiyvTrTioi /cat Ai0t- OTres, eireLSdv dK-rlva TrpwTijv 6 -iJXlo^ 6K(3dXij, »6 Imag. I. 7. o i-d)v (iocTTpvxoov dcTTaxvSy oi)s olfxai Ne/Xo) eTpeffye' 'NeiXov yap AiyVTTTLOL p.6V €XOV(TL TttS €K(3ods, AtO/oTTeS ^6 TCtS TTir/d^, ThcrC IS B. CUHOUS misprint in the German, which is not noticed in the corrigenda : dass er sem Heer dem dthiopischen Nil gen'dhert habe. ^7 Ap. Phot. p. 448 Bek. These Ethiopians however are here represented as comparatively recent invaders : he is speaking of the gold mines on the Red Sea : vpi]Tai fiev VTTO twv irpojTMu tov tottov fiaotXewv tc^u /uLeTaKXtov n (Pu(tl9, ^teAtTre € ^uepyodcra iroTe p,ev AiQioTTOiv eirl i-ijv Myvir^ov Tridov^ avveXdovTo^ Kal iroWd U'S TToKet^ €TV (t>povpiitTavT09 (u(^' (Zv Kal^d MepLvoueca avvTen-eXecrdaL aGi), iroTe oe M-i]d(jov Kal Tleparcov eirLKpaTijaduTcov, ^8 Cass. 18. Aurora goes forth Tidw.dv hv Koi^yai t^^ K.>z;,;9 ^rreXas Aiirodaa. On the other positions of this fabulous island the reader may consult Eustath. ad. Dionys. Perieg. 218, who speaks of the Travvcr^a^ot Aidioir^U^ Avtco kir' 'Q/ceaz/o. TTvp.dnn'i's irapd Ttp-irea Kepvt]^, There is a learned and luminous dissertation on this subject in Volcker's Mythische Geographic, p. 56—81. II. 118. Memnon describes aV-a/iaTou iripaTa x^ovd^, dvToXla^ -re 'HeXiov Kal Keavo-Lo KeXevdov Me'x^is kirl Upidfxoio ttoXlv Kal Trpc^cua',^ "Ui^s. € s 19 iraaav dir' co