Memnon in Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
（Μέμνων), a son of Tithonus and Eos, and brother of
Emathion. In the Odyssey and Hesiod he is described as the
handsome son of Eos, who assisted Priam with his Ethiopians
against the Greeks. He slew Antilochus, the son of Nestor,
at Troy. (Hes. Th. 984, &c.; Hom. Od. 4.188, 11.522;
Apollod. 3.12. § 4.) Some writers called his mother a
Cissian woman (Κισσια), from the Persian province of Cissia.
(Strab. p. 728 ; Hdt. 5.49, 52.) As Eos is sometimes
identical with Hemera, Memnon's mother is also called
Hemera. [Eos.] Homer makes only passing allusions to Memnon,
and he is essentially a postomeric hero. According to these
later traditions, he was a prince of the Ethiopians, and
accordingly black (Ov. Amor. 1.8. 4, Epist. ex Pont. 3.3.
96; Paus. 10.31.2); he came to the assistance of his uncle
Priam, for Tithonus and Priam were step-brothers, being both
sons of Laomedon by different mothers. (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 18.)
Respecting his expedition to Troy there are different
legends. According to some Memnon the Ethiopian first went
to Egypt, thence to Susa, and thence to Troy. (Pats.
1.42.2.) At Susa, which had been founded by Tithonus, Memnon
built the acropolis which was called after him the
Memnonium. (Hdt. 5.53, 7.151; Strab. p. 728; Paus. 4.31.5.)
According to some Tithonus was the governor of a Persian
province. and the favourite of Teutamnus; and Memnon
obtained the command of a large host of Ethiopians and
Susans to succor Priam. (Diod. 2.22, 4.75; Paus. 10.31.2.) A
third tradition states that Tithonus sent his son to Priam,
because Prian had made him a present of a golden vine.
(Serv. ad Aen. 1.493.) Dictys Cretensis (4.4) makes Memnon
lead an army of Ethiopians and Indians from the heights of
Mount Caucasus to Troy. In the fight against the Greeks he
was slain by Achilles. The principal points connected with
his exploits at Troy are, his victory over Antilochus, his
contest with Achilles, and lastly, his death and the removal
of his body by his mother. With regard t tthe first, we are
told that Antilochus, the dearest friend of Achilles after
the fall of Patroclus, hastened to the assistance of his
father, Nestor, who was hard pressed by Paris. Memnon
attacked Antilochus, and slew him. (Pind. P. 6.30, &c.)
According to others, Memnon was fighting with Ajax; and
before his Ethiopians could come to his assistance, Achilles
came up, and killed Ieninon (Dict. Cret. 4.6); the same
accounts represent Antilochus as having been conquered by
Hector. (Ov. Ep. 1.15; Iygin. Sab. 113.) According to the
common account, however, Achilles avenged the death of
Antilochus upon Memnon, of whose fate Achilles had been
informed by his mother, Thetis. While both were fighting
Zeus weighed the fate of the two heroes, and the wale
containing that of Memnon sank. (Pind. O. 2.148, Nem. 3.110,
6.83; Quint. Smyrn. 2.224, &c.; Philostr. Icon. 2.7; Plut.
De And. Poit. 2.) According to Diodorus (2.22) Memnon was
not killed in an open contest, but fell into an ambush in
which the Thessalians lay in wait for him. Eos prayed to
Zeus to grant her son immortality, and removed his body from
the field of battle. She wept for him every morning; and the
dew-drops which appear in the morning are the tears of Eos.
(Serv. ad Aen. 1.493; Ov. Met. 13.622.)
Philostratus (Her. 3.4) distinguishes between a Trojan and
an Ethiopian Memnon, and believes that the former, who was
very young and did not distinguish himself till after the
death of Hector, slew Antilochus; and he adds, that
Achilles, after having avenged his friend, burnt the armour
and Lead of Memnononn the funeral pile of Antilochus. Sonme
say that the Ethiopian warriors burned the body of Memnon,
and carried the ashes to Tithonus (Diod. 1. c.); or that
those who had gone to Troy under his general, Phallas,
received his ashes near Paphos, in Cyprus, and gave them to
Memnon's sister, Himera, who was searching after his body,
and buried them in Palliochis (an unknown place), whereiepon
she disappeared. (Dict. Cret. vi. ]0.) Tombs of Memnon were
shown in several places, as at Ptolemais in Syria, on the
Hellespont, on a hill near the mouth of the river Aesepus,
near Paltou in Syria, in Ethiopia and other places. (Strab.
pp. 587, 728.) His armour was said to have been made for him
by Hephaestus, at the request of his mother; and his sword
was shown in the temple of Asclepius, at Nicomedeia. (Paus.
3.3.6.) His companions, who indulged in excessive wailings
at his death, were changed by the gods into birds, called
Memnonides, and some of them died of grief. (Serv. ad Aen.
1.755.) According to Ovid (Ov. Met. 13.57G, &c.), Eos
implored Zeus to confer an honour on her son, to console her
for his loss. He accordingly caused a number of birds,
divided into two swarms, to fight ill the air over the
funeral sacrifice until a portion of them fell down upon the
ashes of the hero, and thus formed a funeral sacrifice for
him. According to a story current on the Hellespont, the
Memnonides every year visited the tomb of Memnon, cleared
the ground round about, and moistened it with their wings,
which they wetted in the waters of the river Aesepus. (Paus.
10.31.2; comp. Plin. Nat. 36.7.)
At a comparatively late period, when the Greeks became
acquainted with Egypt, and the colossal statue in the
neighbourhood of Thebes, the stone of which, when reached by
the rays of the rising sun, gave forth a sound resembling
that of a breaking chord, they looked upon that statue as
representing the son of Eos, or confounded it with their own
Helios, although they well knew that the Egyptians did not
call the statue Memnon, but Amenophis. (Paus. 1.42.2; comp.
Callistrat. Stut.1.9.) This colossal figure, made of black
stone, in a sitting posture, with its feet close together,
and the hands leaning on its seat, was broken in the middle,
so that the upper part had fallen down; but it was
afterwards restored. (Paus.l.c.; Strab. p. 816; Philostr.
Her.3.4, Icon.1.7, Vit. Apollon. 6.4; Lucian, Tox. 27; Tac.
Ann. 2.61; Juv. 15.5.) Several very ingenious conjectures
have been propounded respecting the alleged meaning of the
so-called statue of Memnon; and some have asserted that it
served for astronomical purposes, and others that it had
reference to the mystic worship of the sun and light, though
there can be little doubt that the statue represented
nothing else than the Egyptian king Amenophis. (Creuzer,
Symbolik,p. 149, &c.; Jablonski, De llfemnone;and the
various works on Egyptian antiquities.)
The fight of Memnon with Achilles was often represented by
Greek artists, as for example, on the chest of Cypselus
(Paus. 5.19.1), on the throne of Apollo, at Amyclae
(3.18.7), in a large group at Olympia, the work of Lycius,
which had been dedicated there by the inhabitants of
Apollonia (5.22.2), in the Lesche at Delphi, by Polygnotus
(10.31.2; comp. Millingen, Momnunt. Inedit. 1, 4, 5, 40). -
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology,
William Smith, Ed.
Read More
