7. The Bishop of Avranches thinks he has found three provinces of the name of Chus; Ethiopia, Arabia, and Susiana.[1] There were three Ethiopias, that is, countries of Blacks, not three Chusses; and this is perfectly consistent with what M. Bochart[2] has maintained, that Ethiopia (of Africa) is not named Chus in any place of scripture; and this is also consistent with what is said by both Homer and Herodotus.[3] The bishop shews clearly, that the ancient Susiana is the modern Chuzestan or Elam, of which Susa was the capital. The famous Memnon, probably the Sun, was said to be the son of Aurora. But Eschylus informs us, that Cissiene was the mother of Memnon, and to him the foundation of Susa is attributed; and its citadel was called Memnonium, and itself the city of Memnon. This is the Memnon who was said to have been sent to the siege of Troy, and to have been slain by Achilles; and who was also said, by the ancient authors, to be an Ethiopian or a Black. It seems the Egyptians suppose that this Memnon was their king Amenophis. The Ethiopians are stated by Herodotus to have come from the Indus; according to what modern chronologers deduce from his words, about the year 1615 B. C., about four hundred years after the birth of Abraham, in (1996,) and about a hundred years before Moses rebelled against the Egyptians and brought the Israelites out of Egypt. Palaces were shewn which belonged to this Memnon at Thebes and other places in Egypt, as well as at Susa, which from him were called in both places Memnoniums; and to him was erected the famous statue at Thebes, which is alleged to have given out a sound when first struck by the rays of the morning sun. Bishop Huet thinks, (probably very correctly,) that this statue was made in imitation of similar things which the Jewish traveller Rabbi Benjamin found, in the country where the descendants of Chus adore the sun; and this he shews to be the country of which we speak. It lies about Bussora, where the Sabeans are found in the greatest numbers, and who are the people of whom he speaks.
The bishop thinks this Memnon cannot have been Amenophis, because he lived very many years before the siege of Troy, in which he is said to have been an actor. It seems to me to be as absurd to look to Homer or Virgil for the chronology of historical facts, as to Shakespeare, Milton, or any other epic poet. These poems may state facts, but nothing of a historical or chronological kind can be received without some collateral evidence in confirmation. It never was supposed to be incumbent on any epic poet to tie himself down to mere historical matters of fact. And wherever it is evident, either from the admission of a later historical author or from any other circumstance, that he is relating facts from the works of the poets without any other authority, he can be as little depended upon as they can.
The bishop has shewn that the accounts of modern authors, George Syncellus, Suidas, Pausanias, Dionysius Periegites, &c., &c., are full of contradictions; that they are obliged to suppose two Memnons. All this arises from these persons treating the poem of Homer as a history, instead of a poem. We shall never have an ancient history worthy of the perusal of men of common sense, till we cease treating poems as history, and send back such personages as Hercules, Theseus, Bacchus, &c., to the heavens, whence their history is taken, and whence they never descended to the earth.
It is not meant to be asserted that these epic poems may not be of great use to a historian. It is only meant to protest against their being held as authority by themselves, when opposed either to other histories or to known chronology. This case of Memnon is in point. Homer wanted a hero to fill up his poem; and, without any regard to date, or any thing wrong in so doing, he accommodated the history to his poem, making use of Amenophis or Memnon, or the religious tradition whichever it was, as he thought proper. These poems may also be of great
