Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

CHAPTER VIII

THE COLOSSUS OF THEBES AND HIS MUTE COMPANION

In the neighborhood of the ancient city of Thebes there were two colossal figures facing the east, each of which was hewn out of a single stone. Though alike to all external appearances, one of them possessed this strange property. As soon as the rays of the rising sun fell on its lips, sounds could be heard apparently proceeding from its mouth, so that the statue was believed to be speaking to the sun. The other figure remained indifferent to the sun's rays, remaining mute at daybreak, noon, and sunset, as well as the rest of the twenty-four hours of the day. The speaking colossus of Thebes was known as Memnon.

As you probably know, Thebes was formerly the capital of Southern Egypt. This ancient city was situated in lat. 26° S. in a portion of the valley of the Nile near the Libyan Mountains.

Thebes appears to have been founded during the first Egyptian dynasty. No large buildings have been discovered that are older than those of the eleventh dynasty, or about 2500 B. C.

The word Memnonium means a place sacred to the memory of the dead. At a much later date, the Greeks consecrated the speaking statue to Memnon, the son of Eos, the Morning, and Tithonis, the Sun. Memnon, or Tithonis, was a Prince of Troy, and was, therefore, obliged to take part in the Trojan war in which he was slain by Achilles. At the supplication of Eos, Zeus transferred Memnon from Hades to Olympus.

Thomson's translation of Salverte's "Philosophy of Magic,

Prodigies, and Apparent Miracles," published in London in 1846, contains, besides a great number of other curious things, considerable information concerning the speaking statue of Memnon. The upper part of the speaking statue was broken at an unknown period. This accident, however, did not prevent the sounds from still being heard; for it is declared that on the rising of the sun the sounds were heard as before, now appearing to come from the lower part of the monolith. Letronne, in a book known as "La Statue Vocale de Memnon" (The Speaking Statue of Memnon), says the statue was restored during the third century of the Christian Era, masses of gray stone being substituted for the destroyed portions of the single stone from which the statue had been originally hewn.

The Colossi of Thebes were two statues, or effigies, of the same Egyptian king, Amenoph, or Amenhotep, or Amenophis III, a sovereign of the eighteenth dynasty, who reigned about 1500 B. C. The architect who made the statue was of the same name as his royal master, Amenhotep, son of Hapu. Among other inscriptions engraved on a statue of the architect himself are the following words:

"For my lord, the king, was created the monument of sandstone. This did I which seemed best in my own eyes, causing to be made two images of a noble, hard stone in his likeness, in this his great building, which is like unto heaven.

"After this manner made I perfect the king's images, wonderful for their breadth, lofty in their height. The stature whereof made the gate towers to look small. Forty cubits 1 was their measure. In the glorious sandstone mountain wrought I them. On this side and on that, on the east side and on the west. Furthermore, I caused to be built eight ships wherein they were carried up and set in this lofty building. It will last as long as the heaven endureth."

1 The cubit can be taken as equal to 18.25 inches.

The following description of the appearance of the statue of Memnon was given in a paper read before the Royal Society in London in 1843.

"Each figure represents a colossal male seated on a throne supported on a pedestal. The features of the face have long ago been so hacked as to be indistinguishable. The arms, drawn close to its sides, rest on its stalwart thighs; the hands with their outstretched fingers are turned slightly inward, and rest on the knees. The attitude is that of a giant resting after the fatigue of a successful war. The height of the figure is fifty-one feet excluding the pedestal, or sixty-four feet with the pedestal."

The Egyptians declare that when Cambyses, the Persian, conquered Egypt, he ordered the speaking statue of Memnon to be destroyed, as well as other sacred monuments of Egypt. This fact, however, is questioned by Strabo, the ancient geographer, who declares that the statue was overthrown by an earthquake which destroyed many buildings in Egypt.

It does not appear that the speaking statue made any especial impression on the Egyptians, probably because they knew of other speaking statues. When, however, Egypt was conquered by Cambyses, as well as during later years, it attracted no little attention; and it gradually became the custom of distinguished Greek and Roman travellers, great generals, or rulers, who visited Egypt and heard the statue address the sun, to engrave on it what they had heard. A rivalry appears to have arisen between these distinguished men to outdo one another in what they claim they heard the statue speak; for, when more was so said to one traveller than to another it proved that this traveller was especially favored by the gods. Whether this is true or not, the successive inscriptions are more and more wonderful as the number of distinguished visitors who came to the statue increased.

The fame of the speaking statue being thus spread by its distinguished visitors, naturally caused many of the

ancient writers to refer to it. I will quote some of them from explanatory notes added by Thomson to his translation of Salverte's book.

Dionysius, a Roman writer of the Augustian Age, speaks in verse of "The ancient Thebes where the sonorous Memnon hails the rising of Aurora." (The Day or the Morn.) Strabo writes:

"There were two colossal statues, each composed of a single stone, and standing near one another. One of them remains entire. It is said that the upper part of the other was overturned by an earthquake; and it is also believed that a sound, resembling that produced by a slight blow, proceeds from the base, and from that part of the colossus resting on it. I, myself, in company with Aelius Gallus, and a number of his soldiers, heard it towards the dawn of day. But whether, in reality, it proceeded from the base of the colossus, or was produced by connivance, I cannot decide. In uncertainty of the real cause, it is better to believe anything than to admit that a sound can issue from stones similarly disposed."

The elder Pliny, the Roman historian (born A. D. 23), says: "At Thebes, in the Temple of Serapis, stands the image said to be consecrated to Memnon, which, daily, is heard to emit a sound when the first rays of the sun fall upon it."

Letronne has restored and translated some seventy-two of these inscriptions, engraved on the sides of the statue by its distinguished visitors from which it would seem that the statue does not always employ the same words, nor did it always limit this speech to the exact hour of sunrise. You will be able to understand this better if I quote for you, in brief, some of these inscriptions. No less than six of these inscriptions declare that the statue had spoken twice during the same day. Another declares that, at the time of the visit of the Emperor Adrian, the statue had spoken three times during the same day. This, of course, was alleged to be a

special miracle that was granted as an evidence of the favor of the gods to the emperor.

Another inscription declares that the statue actually made an address to Adrian, speaking to him in a very friendly

manner.

Still another inscription is as follows:

"Memnon, the son of Tithon and Aurora, up to this date, had merely permitted us to hear his voice; to-day he greeted us as his allies and friends. I caught the meaning of the words as they issued from the stone. They were inspired by nature, the creator of all things."

Accounts vary as regards the character of the sounds uttered by the statue at the dawn of day. Some say that they were musical sounds, not unlike those produced by a lute, or by a copper instrument. Others declare that distinct words were uttered which were entirely understood by the hearer.

And now as to the manner in which the statue was caused to produce these wonderful and distinct sounds. Of course, no one in these times believes that Memnon's speech had anything of a miraculous nature about it. Assuming the accounts as related to be correct, it would certainly appear that some mechanical device was employed for making the statue speak.

Some of the ancient writers in referring to the statue of Memnon appeared to suspect that the sounds were produced by the connivance of the priests. Juvenal says: "The statue of Memnon, the son of Aurora, was so contrived, by a mechanical artifice, that it addressed a greeting both to the sun and to the King, with a voice apparently human. In order to ascertain the source of the apparent miracle, Cambyses caused the statue to be cut in two, after which it continued to salute the sun, but addressed the King no longer."

In later days various explanations have been suggested as to the cause of the sound. One suggestion is that a series of successive musical sounds similar to those employed in

« ForrigeFortsett »