The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1889-11-14
COLOSSAL STATUES.
SPECIMENS OF THE, WORK or
scULPToRs IN REMOTE AGES. Y


Rhodes-A Music Making Granite Image
Rameses the Great. @
Among the statues, images OF heroes
ana the gods, and OF symbolic figuree
that scuiptors have fashioned Of stone or
metal From remote ages, some are dis
1fnguished and attract special attention
on account Of their great size. Some are
found in distant and almost inaccessible
places, others are IN cities and aauseus,ss
while few sexistl only IN ;t.ss pages 81
history :, !
Under the successors of Alexander the
taste for colossal statues enioved a
BOONE Colossus came into being In
numerous places The most famous was
Apollo at Rhodes This was by pupil
OF Sysippus, and is ranked among the
seven wonders of the world. Piinv
writes that it was seventy cubits,- or
about one hundred and thirty-two feet
TALL 1t is said to have been placed on
piers at the entrance of the port, as
shown In the illustration, SO that vessels
sailed between the legs when entering
or leaving Rhodes. Fifty-one years after
being erected it was overturned by an
earthquake, and lay PROSTATE for 900
years, when, in 672, it was DESTROYED by
Arabs and the metal exchanged with
Jews for goats.
The first colossal figure met in travel
ing through north Egypt is the sphinx.
beside the pyramids Of Gizeh. The body
IS OF lion, with human head crouch
ing in aplain OF sand. It has the appear
ance OF being the guardian of the pyra:
mlds The sphinx is ninety feet above
the sand The face. including the hair,
is twenty-six feet high. In the Sixteenth
century Prosperous Alplnus, who beheld
it intact, wrote highly Of the beauty Of
the features, and Abdallatiff. a learned
Arab physician, who saw It 400 years be-
fore, praised warmly the sweetness of
the mouth and expression carried in the
smile. This is all lost now, as the nose
is gone and the rest of the face badly de-
faced. The Sphinx is supposed to have
been chiseled 1850 years B. c., by order
OF Thoutmosis ~, to honor the memory
OF his father. Some historians, however.
take the ground that the Sphinx existed
in the time of Cheops, prior to the great
pyramids bearing the name of the prince.
The sound giving statue of Memnon,
which was early overturned by an earth
quake, but restored by Septimius Severus,
easily follows the Sphinx. This colossus
is now without face, the forehead, nose
and mouth having disappeared. The
chest, arms and legs are also broken and
crumbling. Not far away is the statue
of Amenophis. The two great figures are
near Ramesseum, on the left bank Of the
Nile, and are each sixty feet in height.
They are all that remain Of the palace of
Amenophis III. Each statue is on base
of red granite as high as four story
house. 1t was in Nero's reign that the
musical propensities of the Memnon came
to light. Refer to almost any one Of the
ancient histories, and the melodious
sounds that the Memnon gives forth at
sunrise will be found spoken Of Tacitus
compares them to the ring made BY
breaking the string Of Tyre. On the
Memnon legs and base are seventy-two
Inscriptions, the earliest in Neros time,
dated A. D. Al, and the last 1870 years
after, in the reign of Septimius Severus.
The most famous inscription is that of
the Emperor Adrian, who in 1870 went
with the Empress Sabina to upper
Egypt. Their names, half in Latin and
half in Greek, are still distinctly visible.
The renown of the speaking Memnon
was much increased under the Antho-
nys, and pilgrims came to make offer
ings at its feet, never doubling that the
sounds were other than the voice of
Memnon, the hero of Homer, the king of
the east, saluting his mother, Aurora,
each morning at the suns rising. Science
in recent years has "laid out" the ro-
nance of mythology in the most prosaic
way, by finding that the stones in the
statue gave out different noises when the
sun began to shine on them after the cool
and dew of the night
Luxor is an Arab village, which gives
its name to the ruins in the midst of
which it is established. These ruins are
the remains of the grand palaces con-
structed, one by Rameses the Great, the
other by Amenophis-M emnon of the
eighteenth dynasty. The latter is the
more ancient; the palace of Rameses-
Sesostris is Of later date.
The entrance to the palace of Rameses
is of incompatible grandeur. Against the
entrance stand four colossal statues rep
resenting Rameses the Great. They are
each sculptured of single block of Sy-
enc granite of mingled red and black.
They are seated upon cubical stones, one
of them leaning against q little obelisk.
They are forty-three feet high. Although
they are much dishgured and dilapidat-
ed, one recognizes the high head dress in
the form of inter; the collars that en-
circle their necks, the legends engraved
upon their arms, as well as the patterns
of the robes, fastened by belt around
the waist. These four Colosses, sittinp
in majestic silence at the gates of the
palace, must have produced most i'm
posing effect
Within one of the ruined courts lie the
remains of a gigantic statue of Rameses
the Great. In one block we have the