The myth of Memnon
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Espanya > Cultura Clàssica > 4t ESO > Continuïtat del patrimoni cultural. Mitologia i religió
Enunciat
Read an excerpt written by the poet Julia Balbilla, who lived in the 2nd century AD, related to the Colossi of Memnon. Answer the questions based on the text about the author and the mythological character.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Colossi_of_Memnon_0075_e1.jpg
The statues of Amenhotep III, known as the Colossi of Memnon suffered an earthquake. One of them was more damaged and every morning because of dilation it emitted a sound and was said to sing: it was Memnon's greeting to his mother Eos. During imperial times, illustrious Greek and Roman visitors went there and in order to testify that they had heard Memnon, they would engrave writings on the stone. This is the case of the poet Julia Balbilla who wrote four poems, one of which says:
Memnon, son of Aurora and holy Tithon, seated before Thebes, city of Zeus, or Amenoth, Egyptian King, as learned. Priests recount from ancient stories, greetings, and singing, welcome her kindly, the August wife of the emperor Hadrian. … For my parents were noble, and my grandfathers, the wise Balbillus and Antiochus the king. Balbillus, the father of my mother of royal blood and King Antiochus, the father of my father. From their line I too draw my noble blood, and these verses are mine, pious Balbilla.
Extract from Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology. <https://books.google.es/books/about/Women_Writers_of_Ancient_Greece_and_Rome.html?id=rJpGIrUUPPMC&redir_esc=y> (Bernand and Bernand 1960 n.º 29)
1.- Who are the visitors of the Colossi? In which city and country are they? What information does Julia Balbilla provide about herself?
2.- Carry out some research about the myth of Memnon and write a review.
3.-Look at these two representations of Greek pottery and state the historical moment they represent.
Image 1:
Image 2:
4.-Find some similarities between the figure of Memnon and that of Hector.
5.-What natural phenomenon is explained in that myth?
6.-What type of myth will it be? Why?
a. Anthropogenic.
b. Etiological.
c. Cosmogenic.
d. Foundational.
e. Theogonic.
7.-The red-figure pottery is known as Pietà of Memnon. Which other "pietà" does this remind you of?
Observacions i context
Julia Balbilla, Damo and Caecilia Trebula had their short compositions engraved in Greek on the left leg of one of the Colossi of Memnon. These travelling poets of Roman times, along with others of very different styles such as Sulpicia the elegiac, Sulpicia the satirical, Herennia Procula, Claudia Trophime and Theosebia are heirs to the poetic tradition of Sappho that began in the 7th century BC and finished in the 4th century with Aconia Fabia Paulina.
When her brother, Gaius Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappos, one of the first men of Oriental descent to become consul in Rome, died, Julia Balbilla built for him a funerary monument, the Philopappos, on the hill of the Muses, south-west of the Acropolis of Athens.
Descripció
An approach to the mythical figure of Memnon based on a poem by Julia Balbilla.