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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosenmeyer, Patricia A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Memnon (Mythological character)--Statues--Egypt--Thebes (Extinct city).

Memnon.

Memnon (Mythological character)--Cult--Egypt--Thebes (Extinct city).

Inscriptions, Greek--Egypt--Thebes (Extinct city).

Inscriptions, Greek.

Inscriptions, Latin--Egypt--Thebes (Extinct city).

Inscriptions, Latin.

Pilgrims and pilgrimages--Egypt--Thebes (Extinct city).

Pilgrims and pilgrimages.

Egypt--Civilization--332 B.C.-638 A.D.

Egypt.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white)

Other Title:

language of ruins

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Summary:

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.

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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

ISBN:

0-19-087528-3

0-19-062633-X