1825.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the MEMNoNIUM. 
T is generally supposed that the 
sepulchral temple of Osymanprs, 
described by Diodorus Siculus as being 
at Thebes, and the Mrmnonivum, are 
the same. But, although inferences 
have been drawn from the description, 
as if it were really the case, the fact has 
never been plausibly made out, much 
less proved. It has been said, that 
Diodorus was misled into the inaccu- 
racy of calling it the Tomb of IsmanpEs, 
or Osymanopes, because there really 
was a sepulchral tomb of that king near 
Memphis; but this is mere conjecture. 
That there was a Mremnonium at 
Thebes, cannot be doubted ; and that in 
this stood the vocal statue of Mremnon, 
is no less evident from concurrent tes- 
timony. The ruins of this building, 
also, are to be seen at this day, as well 
as the ruins of the statue itself. But, 
that the seated colossus, which is called 
the Statue of Memnon, is not so, al- 
though mistaken for it by Greek and 
Roman visitors, may be, it, appears to 
me, established by strong proof. 
Strabo places the vocal statue near 
Thebes, on the western bank of the 
Nile; and says, that it was one of the 
two colossal seated statues, half of 
which was broken down to the seat, and 
thrown down (as was reported) by an 
earthquake. He went to listen to the 
sound of it, with Ailius Gallus; but he 
treats it as a trick, ora fable. How- 
ever, it is quite evident that he con- 
siders one of the seated Colossi of the 
Plain to be Memnon, and that one 
which has been, since his time, rebuilt 
with courses of stone from the waist 
upwards. Juvenal, also, in his 15th 
Satire, 5th verse, labours, evidently, 
under the same mistake. Pausanias 
says, that not far from Thebes and the 
Syringes (probably the painted excava- 
tions called the Tombs of the Kings), is 
a colossal vocal statue of Memnon, in a 
sitting posture. But he does not say 
one of two sitting statues, nor a broken 
statue ; and he states, that the Thebans 
deny it to be Memnon; some affirming 
that it was PHamenorr, others Seso- 
stris. Polyznus, the Athenian, how- 
ever, clearly refers to the broken-seated 
statue as that of Memnon; but, instead 
of agreeing with the testimony above, 
to the effect that it was overthrown by 
an earthquake, states that Cambyses 
broke it in two. 
Egyptian Researches :—The Memnonium. 
493 
Philostratus is the first authority to 
be quoted on the opposite side, because 
his description disproves the fact of the 
seated and broken colossus being Mem- 
non: for he says, that “ it had the feet 
open, and in a posture of rising up from 
the seat ;” which characteristics by no 
means apply to it. Again, Pliny’s rela- 
tion does not square with the vulgar 
belief; for he says, that the vocal statue 
(not two sitting statues) was erected in 
the temple of Serapis, near Thebes.— 
Pocock’s account of the present state 
of the Memyonium and the vocal image 
is to the following effect :—Close to the 
pyramidal gate, which opens upon the 
ruins of the temple— 
—is a LARGE COLOSSAL STATUE, BROKEN 
off about the MIDDLE of the trunk. It is 
twenty-one feet broad at the shoulders 
(giving about sixty feet for its height), and. 
from the top of the head to the bottom of 
the neck is eleven feet. This appears to 
me to be the real statue of Mrmnon.”’ 
Pocock describes the first court of the 
Memnonium as having square pillars, 
with statues (holding the crook and lait 
of Ceres) against them. 
“Tn the second court are the remains of 
two colossal statues, sitting—they are of 
black granite, and the head of one of them, 
which lies on the ground, is three feet five 
inches Jong. A great number of pillars are 
still standing in the edifice, of which there 
are two sorts, one more beautiful than the 
other. At a considerable distance, are 
what are vulgarly called the Colossal _ 
Statues of MEMNON, which front the Nile. 
The first appears to represent a man sitting, 
and the second, a woman in the same pos- 
ture. The statue to the north has been 
broken away at the middle, and built up 
with five tier of stones—and their features 
are mouldered away by time.” 
From this description of a scrupu- 
lously faithful traveller, we should infer 
the following particulars: —That this 
Temple of Memnon, or Serapis, as Pliny 
terms it, was built on the ordinary 
model of the Egyptian temples, than 
which nothing can be more uniform— 
two androsphynxes usually preceded 
the double-turreted pyramidal gateway. 
This gave access into a quadrangle, in 
the extremity of which another gate led 
into a colonnaded court, the opposite 
face to the entrance constituting the 
open portico of the temple. Then fol- 
lowed the pronaos, and from three to 
six smaller chambers, or sekoi (as it 
might happen), all roofed and dark, and 
sometimes supported by Caryatide pil- 
lars, sometimes not. The miscalled 
seated 
