[Juenger-list] EJ, DIE SCHERE #70: Notes 3 & 4: Memnon's Statue; Goethe on Breathing

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EJ, DIE SCHERE #70 Note 3: The singing statue of Memnon

It is mentioned by ancient authors like Strabo, Plinius, Tacitus. The 
ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA has this information about it:

In Egypt the name of Memnon was connected with the colossal (70-foot [21-metre]) 
stone statues of Amenhotep III near Thebes, two of which still remain. The more 
northerly of these was partly destroyed by an earthquake in 27 BC, resulting in a 
curious phenomenon. Every morning, when the rays of the rising sun touched the 
statue, it gave forth musical sounds like the twang of a harp string. This was 
supposed to be the voice of Memnon responding to the greeting of his mother, Eos. 
After the restoration of the statue by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (ad 
170) the sounds ceased; they were attributed to the passage of air through the 
pores of the stone, caused chiefly by the change of temperature at sunrise. 


EJ, DIE SCHERE #70 Note 4: Goethe about breathing

EJ refers to one of the poems under the title of Talismane in the West-östlicher 
Divan, published in 1819: 

            Im Atemholen sind zweierlei Gnaden:
            Die Luft einziehen, sich ihrer entladen;
            Jenes bedrängt, dieses erfrischt;
            So wunderbar ist das Leben gemischt.
            Du danke Gott, wenn er dich preßt,
            Und dank ihm, wenn er dich wieder entläßt.

[Goethe: West-östlicher Divan, S. 9. Digitale Bibliothek Band 1: Deutsche 
Literatur, S. 47104 (vgl. Goethe-BA Bd. 3, S. 12)]

A rough translation: There are two blessings in breathing, to be pressed when 
breathing in, to be refreshed when breathing out. Life is of the same wondrous 
mixture. Thank God when he presses you, and thank him when he lets you go free 
again.