Language of Ruins
Subtitle: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780190626310
Subjects: Inscriptions, greek; Inscriptions, latin; Pilgrims and pilgrimages; Egypt, civilization
Description: 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.