[2513] See B. xxxvi. c. [38]. See also the Lydian stone, or touchstone, mentioned in B. xxxiii. c. [43].
[2514] From Βάσανος, a “touchstone.”
[2515] Philostratus gives a short account of this group, and copies of it are to be seen in the Vatican, and in the grounds of the Tuilleries.
[2516] See B. v. c. 10.
[2517] The Egyptians called it, not Memnon, but Amenophis, and it is supposed that it represented a monarch of the second dynasty. This is probably the statue still to be seen at Medinet Abou, on the Libyan side of the Nile, in a sitting posture, and at least 60 feet in height. The legs, arms, and other parts of the body are covered with inscriptions, which attest that, in the third century of the Christian era, the priests still practised upon the credulity of the devotees, by pretending that it emitted sounds. It may possibly have been erected for astronomical purposes, or for the mystic worship of the sun. The Greek name “Memnon” is supposed to have been derived from the Egyptian Mei Amun, “beloved of Ammon.”
[2518] Ajasson remarks that under this name the ancients meant, first, yellow calcareous Alabaster, and secondly, Chalcedony, unclassified.
[2519] See end of the present [Book].
[2520] See B. vi. cc. 27, 28, 32.
[2521] “Variatum est.”
[2522] Ajasson thinks that these columns, in reality, were made, in both instances, of yellow jasper, or else yellow sardonyx, a compound of sard and chalcedony.