On the left hand side of the North Colossus is a smaller figure of Amenophis's mother Mutemuia, on the right his wife Tiy; a third figure between the legs is no longer distinguishable. On each side of the throne are figures in sunk relief of two Nile gods twining the traditional symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt, the lotus and the papyrus, round the hieroglyph meaning "unite", symbolizing the unity of the kingdom. This is the famous "musical statue" which attracted many visitors in Roman Imperial times. It was observed that the statue emitted a musical note at sunrise, and this gave rise the the myth that Memnon was greeting his mother Eos (the dawn) with this soft and plaintive note, whereupon his mother's tears (the morning dew) fell on
her beloved son. Strabo expresses doubts on the subject, but Pausanias and Juvenal (second C. A.D.) accept the phenomenon as a fact. If the sound was not heard, it was taken as a sign that the god was angry. The sound ceased to be heard after the Emperor Septimius Severus, perhaps to propitiate the god, had the upper part of the statue rather clumsily restored. No satisfactory scientific explanation of the phenomenon has ever been put forward.
Numerous Greek and Latin inscriptions, in prose and verse, cover the legs of the northern colossus up to the height a man standing at the foot of the statue can reach, suggesting that it was this colossus that gave out the musical sound. The earliest inscription dates from the 11th year of Nero's reign, the latest from the reigns of Septimius Severus and Caracalia; most (27) date from the reign of Hadrian. There is only a single inscription by an Egyptian, in demotic script. Most of the inscriptions are dated. Among the travelers (sometimes alone, sometimes with their wives) who have immortalized themselves in this way are eight governors of Egypt, three epistrategi (military governors) of the Thebaid and two procurators. If the figure remained mute visitors frequently stayed on until the sound was heard; some were not content until they had heard it several times. In A.D. 130 the Emperor Hadrian, with his wife Sabina and a large retinue, stayed here for some days. From his reign date numerous Greek verses on the legs of the statue, most of them by the Court Poetess, Balbilia. One of her effusions, on the left leg, relates in 12 hexameters that Memnon greeted the Emperor before sunrise "as well as he could", but that at the second hour a clear note, as if from a copper instrument, was heard, followed later by a third note, so that all the world could see how dear Hadrian was to the gods. The best verses are those by the "Imperial procurator and poet" Asclepiodotus on the front of the base: "Sea born Thetis, learn that Memnon did not die. When his mother's beams bathe him in a warm radiance then his cry is heard in the Libyan mountains, separated by the Nile from hundred gated Thebes. But thy son, ever eager for battle, now rests in Troy and Thessaly, eternally mute."
Hobbies & Activities category: Standalone sculpture, statue or fountain
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