The language of ruins : Greek and Latin inscriptions on the Memnon colossus / Patricia A. Rosenmeyer.

9780190626334 (electronic book)

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018.

English

1 online resource : illustrations

DT73.T3

932.3

A colossal statue, originally built to honour an ancient pharaoh, still stands today in Egyptian Thebes, with more than a hundred Greek and Latin inscriptions covering its lower surfaces. Partially damaged by an earthquake, and later re-identified as the Homeric hero Memnon, it was believed to 'speak' regularly at daybreak. By the middle of the first century CE, tourists flocked to the colossus of Memnon to hear the miraculous sound, and left behind their marks of devotion (proskynemata): brief acknowledgments of having heard Memnon's cry; longer lists by Roman administrators; and more elaborate elegiac verses by both amateur and professional poets. This text is the first critical assessment of all the inscriptions considered in their social, cultural, and historical context.

A colossal statue, originally built to honour an ancient pharaoh, still stands today in Egyptian Thebes, with more than a hundred Greek and Latin inscriptions covering its lower surfaces. Partially damaged by an earthquake, and later re-identified as the Homeric hero Memnon, it was believed to 'speak' regularly at daybreak. By the middle of the first century CE, tourists flocked to the colossus of Memnon to hear the miraculous sound, and left behind their marks of devotion (proskynemata): brief acknowledgments of having heard Memnon's cry; longer lists by Roman administrators; and more elaborate elegiac verses by both amateur and professional poets. This text is the first critical assessment of all the inscriptions considered in their social, cultural, and historical context.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on April 18, 2018).

Print version: 9780190626310

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