Memnon and his Ethiopians

From: tgpedersen@...
Message: 9311
Date: 2001-09-10

--- In cybalist@..., jdcroft@... wrote:
> Regarding the post from Anders and Torsten
>
> > > The allies of Priam also included Ethiopians under Memnon;14
the
> > > Ethiopian allies of Priam must date in all probability to the
> > period
> > > when the Ethiopians were one of the most honored nations,
highly
> > > regarded for their military prowess.
>
> There is another possibility that must be considered.
>
> The Greek Memnon was the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III, the
> Magnificent. This was the pinacle of Egyptian power in the Middle
> East. Two great statues of this Pharaoh were called by the Greeks,
> the Collossi of Memnon, and were damaged by an earthquake roughly
at
> the time of the fall of Troy. Greeks claimed that it was damage
done
> by Poseidon in grief over what happened. For centuries after, one
of
> the statues would utter a strange call as the rising son of the
> morning heated the air within. Eventually (I think it was during
> Roman times), the statue was repaired, and it greeted the sun no
more.
>
> Amenhotep fought campaigns against the Medjay in Nubia, who were
> subsequently incorporated as troops into the Egyptian
army. "King's
> Son of Cush" or "Pi Nehesy" was the name given to the Egyptian
crown
> prince (a little like "Prince of Wales" is the title of the English
> Crown Prince), and the Nubian regiments were placed under his
> control. This title travelled into the Bible as "Phineas" (today
the
> Jewish surname Pincus).
>
> Redford demonstrates that under Amenhotep III a periplus of the
> Eastern Mediterranean was translated into hieroglyphics, and the
> names Knossos, Amnissos, Pylos and Mycenae were translated into
> Egyptian. The Amarna letters speak of the king of Mycenae as one
of
> the "Great Kings". Amenhotep III is an interesting king, as his
> mother Mutemwiya, was daughter of the King of the Hurrians, who
also
> exerted significant power in the Hittite Kingdom at that time.
This
> system of international alliances, that was strengthened after the
> Battle of Kadesh, brought peace and security to the whole Middle
East.
>
> At the same time, Lukku, Sharden, Danuana and Meshwesh, the "People
> of the Sea" who made such trouble for Egypt later, are first
> mentioned in the reign of Amenhotep III. The Danuana are the
Homeric
> Danaos, the men of Argos under Diomedes who took such a prominant
> place in the seige of Troy. There are memories in Greece of a
> post "Trojan" expedition against Egypt (supposedly to recover Helen
> who had really been "protected" in Egypt during the course of the
> Trojan war by the Pharaoh of that country, a monarch
> called "Proteus"). TRWS ("Tarusha", or "Troas" people were amongst
> the "Peoples of the Sea" under the reign of Pharaoh Merenptah.
>
> It has been suggested that the Trojan War contains a memory of an
> Achaean campaign against the Hittite dependency of Wilusa, just
> before the collapse of the Hittite Empire at the hands of the
Peoples
> of the Sea, and their Gasga and Phrygian allies. It is quite
> possible that Memnon and his Ethiopians also contains distorted
> memories of these events.
>
> Regards
>
> John

Now that's interesting! But what do you say to this then:


"
Jordanes: The History of the Goths.
VI (43)
In earliest times they sang of the deeds of their ancestors in
strains of song accompanied by the cithara; chanting of Eterpamara,
Hanala, Fritigern, Vidigoia and others whose fame among them is
great; such heroes as admiring antiquity scarce proclaims its own to
be. (44) Then, as the story goes, Vesosis waged a war disastrous to
himself against the Scythians, whom ancient tradition asserts to have
been the husbands of the Amazons. Concerning these female warriors
Orosius speaks in convincing language. Thus we can clearly prove that
Vesosis then fought with the Goths, since we know surely that he
waged war with the husbands of the Amazons. They dwelt at that time
along a bend of Lake Maeotis, from the river Borysthenes, which the
natives call the Danaper, to the stream of the Tanais. (45) By the
Tanais I mean the river which flows down from the Rhipaeian mountains
and rushes with so swift a current that when the neighboring streams
or Lake Maeotis and the Bosphorus are frozen fast, it is the only
river that is kept warm by the rugged mountains and is never
solidified by the Scythian cold. It is also famous as the boundary of
Asia and Europe. For the other Tanais is the one which rises in the
mountains of the Chrinni and flows into the Caspian Sea. (46) The
Danaper begins in a great marsh and issues from it as from its
mother. It is sweet and fit to drink as far as half-way down its
course. It also produces fish of a fine flavor and without bones,
having only cartilage as the frame-work of their bodies. But as it
approaches the Pontus it receives a little spring called Exampaeus,
so very bitter that although the river is navigable for the length of
a forty days' voyage, it is so altered by the water of this scanty
stream as to become tainted and unlike itself, and flows thus tainted
into the sea between the Greek towns of Callipidae and Hypanis. At
its mouth there is an island named Achilles. Between these two rivers
is a vast land filled with forests and treacherous swamps.


VI (47) This was the region where the Goths dwelt when Vesosis, King
of the Egyptians, made war upon them. Their king at that time was
Tanausis. In a battle at the river Phasis (whence come the birds
called pheasants, which are found in abundance at the banquets of the
great all over the world) Tanausis, King of the Goths, met Vesosis,
King of the Egyptians, and there inflicted a severe defeat upon him,
pursuing him even to Egypt. Had he not been restrained by the waters
of the impassable Nile and the fortifications which Vesosis had long
ago ordered to be made against the raids of the Ethiopians, he would
have slain him in his own land. But finding he had no power to injure
him there, he returned and conquered almost all Asia and made it
subject and tributary to Sornus, King of the Medes, who was then his
dear friend. At that time some of his victorious army, seeing that
the subdued provinces were rich and fruitful, deserted their
companies and of their own accord remained in various parts of Asia.
(48) From their name or race Pompeius Trogus says the stock of the
Parthians had its origin. Hence even to-day in the Scythian tongue
they are called Parthi, that is, Deserters. And in consequence of
their descent they are archers -- almost alone among all the nations
of Asia -- and are very valiant warriors. Now in regard to the name,
though I have said they were called Parthi because they were
deserters, some have traced the derivation of the word otherwise,
saying that they were called Parthi because they fled from their
kinsmen. Now when Tanausis, King of the Goths, was dead, his people
worshipped him as one of their gods.
"

Torsten