Memnon. 167 it. The premature death of Memnon may I conceive be satisfactorily accounted for by two causes, which, though dis- tinct from each other, may have had an equal share in the formation of the legend. In the first place it must be re- marked, that it is not owing to a merely accidental association of ideas that all the qualities of an accomplished hero, the highest fulness of strength, fleetness, beauty, and courage, meet to adorn the character of Achilles, who is to be cut off in his prime. This cannot be denied, even by one who should con- tend that Homer was only relating a fact, and that Achilles may be considered as much a historical person as Brasidas. For still it will be certain that it could be only by the choice and design of the poet, that the hero^^s untimely death is re- presented as the price which he has to pay for his glory ^^. Hence it is clear that his fate is nothing more than the ap- propriate epical expression for the same feeling which after- wards breaks out in the plaintive strains of the lyric muse, the feeling of sadness produced by the shortness and uncer- tainty of life, by the inflexible destiny which contracted all human enjoyments within a narrow span, and often embittered it with sorrow, often snatched away the most precious gifts of nature and fortune, almost before the possessor had time to taste them. That this motive entered into the composition of the legend of Memnon, seems the more probable, because he is slain by Achilles, and because it is by his hand that Nestor is bereaved of the youthful Antilochus. It was not however only the high degree of beauty and valour attributed to Memnon that may have given this turn to the legend ; it might be very naturally suggested by his character as a conqueror. For he was a conqueror of ancient times : his greatness had past away ; his name was preserved only by a faint echo of his old renown ; a new generation had sprung up to occupy the scene of his exploits ; what monu- ment of him could be found there but his tomb ? That this was a natural train of thought, appears to me sufiiciently proved by what Sallust says of the African legend about Hercules, who was believed, after leading a vast army out of the East to the conquest of the Western world, to have died 39 II. XVIII. 95 — 121. ols Kal eycov, et Sij fxoL bfxon) fxolpa reVu/CTat, KetVo/x', kirei K€ ddvu)' vvv dk Kio^ ca-dXov dpoLfxrv,
