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HEADERTEXT.
153

Menmoii. 153 of astronomical observations (Opusc. i. p. 27). The name Amenophis he interprets either guardian of the city of Thebes ^^5 or announcer of good tidings^ quasi dicas evay- 'yekiGTYis^ and he refers this meaning as well as the other to the astronomical observations of which he conceives the statue to have been an instrument. Creuzer, as might be supposed, takes a different view of the subject, though he is perfectly willing to adopt Jablonski'^s first explanation of the word, to which, as he remarks, the etymology of the Greek name corresponds so closely that it might be taken not for a corruption but for a translation of the Egyptian ^^ This Phamenophis-Memnon is, according to Creuzer, identical with Osymandyas, and closely resembles the Persian Mithras. All his attributes and legends point to the vicissitudes of light and darkness, the changes of the seasons, the courses of the planets. He is himself of dazzling beauty, but his followers who bring their offerings to his tomb shew the complexion of night. He answers the greeting of his worshippers with a joyful strain when he is touched by the first rays of the rising sun, but in the evening his voice is plaintive like the tone of a broken chord. He is Horus in the prime of his strength and beauty; but again he is doomed to an untimely death, and is bewailed as Maneros, and corresponds to Linus and Adonis and the other heroes of this numerous class. Another German writer ^^ has proposed a very singular hypo- thesis about the Egyptian Memnon, which perhaps deserves to be noticed, though it is very difficult to describe it with the necessary brevity, without making it appear more fan- ciful and arbitrary than it really is. He compares Memnon, not with the young victorious god Horus, but with his van- quished adversary Typhon, who though overpowered still retains a feeble and lingering existence, and from time to time sends forth a faint note of lamentation over his own sufferings. He represents however no physical object or ^^ In one of the inscriptions Mefxvo^v Qii^aLoju irpofxaxo'^. 'I Symbolik i. p. 453. He refers to Plato, Cratylus p. 395, who says of Aga- memnon OTL ovv ayao-Tos KaTci t]v eTTL/uLOvriv outos 6 duiip evcrmxaivei to ouo^a 6 'Ayafx€fiva)v—the most essential quality, Creuzer observes, of a guardian and champion. '2 Wilhelm von Schiitz in the Wiener Jahrblicher xxi. p. 107. Vol. II. No. 4. U