The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon ColossusOxford University Press, 3 d’abr. 2018 - 336 pàgines A colossal statue, originally built to honor 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. The inscribed names left behind reveal the presence of emperors and soldiers, provincial governors and businessmen, elite women and military wives, and families with children. While recent studies of imperial literature acknowledge the colossus, few address the inscriptions themselves. This book is the first critical assessment of all the inscriptions considered in their social, cultural, and historical context. The Memnon colossus functioned as a powerful site of engagement with the Greek past, and appealed to a broad segment of society. The inscriptions shed light on contemporary attitudes toward sacred tourism, the role of Egypt in the Greco-Roman imagination, and the cultural legacy of Homeric epic. Memnon is a ghost from the Homeric past anchored in the Egyptian present, and visitors yearned for a "close encounter" that would connect them with that distant past. The inscriptions thus idealize Greece by echoing archaic literature in their verses at the same time as they reflect their own historical horizon. These and other subjects are expertly explored in the book, including a fascinating chapter on the colossus's post-classical life when the statue finds new worshippers among Romantic artists and poets in nineteenth-century Europe. |
Continguts
The Memnon Inscriptions | 1 |
Sacred Tourism at Thebes | 39 |
The Rhetoric of Address | 77 |
chapter 4 Homeric Memnon | 111 |
chapter 5 Sapphic Memnon | 141 |
chapter 6 Modern Memnon | 169 |
Appendix 1 Map of the Inscriptions | 205 |
Appendix 2 Texts and Translations of the Inscriptions | 211 |
Inscribers Family Members Consuls Emperors | 241 |
245 | |
261 | |
Altres edicions - Mostra-ho tot
The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus Patricia A. Rosenmeyer Previsualització limitada - 2018 |
The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus Patricia A. Rosenmeyer Previsualització limitada - 2018 |
Frases i termes més freqüents
Achilles Aelius Aristides Aeolian harp Aeolic Aethiopis Amenhotep ancient antiquity archaic Arius Artemidorus Asclepiodotus Baillet Bernand and Bernand Caecilia Trebulla Callistratus Cambyses centurion century chapter Cirio colossal statue context cultural dactylic hexameter Damo dawn Denon discussion divine Egyptian Thebes emperor epic epigram epiphany experience Foertmeyer 1989 Funisulanus Gallus graffiti Greek Hadrian harp hear heard Memnon hero Herodotus Homeric honor Iliad imagined imperial inscribed Julia Balbilla K(alendas Kalends Latin lines literary Memnon colossus Memnon inscriptions Memnon speaks Memnon’s voice Memnonem miracle monument mother Nearchus Nile Ozymandias Pausanias Philostratus phrase pilgrimage poet poetic poetry Polygnotus prefect of Egypt proskynema prosopopeia rays reader reference Roman Sabina sacred Sappho second hour silence sound specifically statue of Memnon statue’s stone Strabo strategos temple thauma Thebaid Thebes tion tombs tourists Töv Troy utterance verses visitors voice of Memnon Voigt wife words καὶ τοῦ