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Memnon

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Prince of the Ethiopians, who went to the assistance of his uncle Priam, and was slain by Achilles. His mother Eos was inconsolable for his death, and wept for him every morning.

The Greeks used to call the statue of Am enophʹis III., in Thebes, that of Memnon. This image, when first struck by the rays of the rising sun, is said to have produced a sound like the snapping asunder of a chord. Poetically, when Eos (morning) kisses her son at daybreak, the hero acknowledges the salutation with a musical murmur. The word is the Egyptian mei-amun, beloved of Ammon.

“Memnon bending oʹer his broken lyre.”


Darwin: Economy of Vegetation, i. 3.

Memnon. One of Voltaire’s novels, designed to show the folly of aspiring to too much wisdom.

Memnon’s sister. Himĕra, mentioned by Dictys Cretensis.


Black, but such as in esteem

Prince Memnon’s sister might beseem.”


Milton: Il Penseroso.

The legend given by Dictys Cretensis (book vi.) is that Himera, on hearing of her brother’s death, set out to secure his remains, and encountered at Paphos a troop laden with booty, and carrying Memnon’s ashes in an urn. Pallas, the leader of the troop, offered to give her either the urn or the booty, and she chose the urn.

Probably all that is meant is this: Black so delicate and beautiful that it might beseem a sister of Memnon the son of Aurora or the early day-dawn.

 

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Mellifiuous Doctor (The)
Melon
Melons (French)
Melons
Melpomene
Melrose Abbey (Register of)
Melusina
Mélusines
Melyhalt (Lady)
Memento Mori (A)
Memnon
Memorable
Memory
Men in Buckram
Men of Kent
Men of Lawn
Men are but Children of a Larger Growth
Menah
Menalcas
Menam
Menamber

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Memnon