Croiset remark, the abusive Thersites in the "Aethiopis" is clearly copied from the Thersites of the "Iliad"; in the same poem Antilochus, slain by Memnon and avenged by Achilles, is obviously modelled on Patroclus.
The "Aethiopis" thus included the coming of the Amazon Penthesilea to help the Trojans after the fall of Hector and her death, the similar arrival and fall of the Aethiopian Memnon, the death of Achilles under the arrow of Paris, and the dispute between Odysseus and Aias for the arms of Achilles.
"Prophetic sounds and loud, arise forever "From us, and from all Ruin, unto the wise, "As melody from
Memnon to the Sun.
We do not hear that
Memnon's statue gave forth its melody at all under the rushing of the mightiest wind, or in response to any other influence divine or human than certain short-lived sunbeams of morning; and we must learn to accommodate ourselves to the discovery that some of those cunningly fashioned instruments called human souls have only a very limited range of music, and will not vibrate in the least under a touch that fills others with tremulous rapture or quivering agony.
Maybe I understood because I saw her in that early hour of the morning when even the stony
Memnon sings, in that mystical light of the young day when divine exiled things, condemned to rough bondage through the noon, are for a short magical hour their own celestial selves, their unearthly glory as yet unhidden by any earthly disguise.
Here is a crumbling wall that was old when Columbus discovered America; was old when Peter the Hermit roused the knightly men of the Middle Ages to arm for the first Crusade; was old when Charlemagne and his paladins beleaguered enchanted castles and battled with giants and genii in the fabled days of the olden time; was old when Christ and his disciples walked the earth; stood where it stands today when the lips of
Memnon were vocal and men bought and sold in the streets of ancient Thebes!
The river-horse couches there among the bulrushes, and on a great granite throne sits the God
Memnon. All night long he watches the stars, and when the morning star shines he utters one cry of joy, and then he is silent.
Many a man did he kill in battle--I cannot name every single one of those whom he slew while fighting on the side of the Argives, but will only say how he killed that valiant hero Eurypylus son of Telephus, who was the handsomest man I ever saw except
Memnon; many others also of the Ceteians fell around him by reason of a woman's bribes.
At first he had fancied the Red One to be some colossal statue, like
Memnon, rendered vocal under certain temperature conditions of sunlight.
By the blushes of Aurora and the music of
Memnon, what should be man's morning work in this world?
(21) For the relationship between 'Ozymandias' and the Colossus of
Memnon, see N.