£99.99

Oxford University Press The Language of Ruins: Greek and Latin Inscriptions on the Memnon Colossus

Price data last checked 33 day(s) ago - refreshing...

View at Amazon

We'll watch every seller, every day. One email when your price arrives.

It has never been this cheap. We have no record of a lower price.

£100 today · cheaper than every other day in the last 3 months

NEW HERE?

Amazon shows you one price. We show you all of them.

Tosheroon watches Amazon prices so you don't have to. Every product on Amazon has a price history — we make it visible. Set the price you'd actually pay, and we'll email you the second it gets there. No app, no account, one email.

WHAT'S ON THIS PAGE

↓ Price chart
when this has been cheap or pricey
↓ Forecast
where the price is heading next
↓ Statistics
all-time high & low, recent range
↑ Price alert
name your number, we'll email you

Price History & Forecast

Grey patches = out of stock. Cheaper = lower on the chart. Hover for exact prices.

Last 58 days · 58 data points (no recent data)

Historical
Generating forecast…
£100.00 £99.99 £99.99 £99.99 £100.00 £100.00 £100.00 26 April 2026 10 May 2026 24 May 2026 07 June 2026 22 June 2026

Price Distribution

Price distribution over 58 days • 1 price levels

Days at Price
58 days 0 15 29 44 58 £100 Days at Price

Price Analysis

Most common price: £100 (58 days, 100.0%)

Price range: £100 - £100

Price levels: 1 different prices over 58 days

Description

A colossal statue, originally built to honor an ancient pharaoh, still stands today in Egyptian Thebes, with more than a hundred Greek and Latin inscriptions covering its lower surfaces. Partially damaged by an earthquake, and later re-identified as the Homeric hero Memnon, it was believed to "speak" regularly at daybreak. By the middle of the first century CE, tourists flocked to the colossus of Memnon to hear the miraculous sound, and left behind their marks of devotion (proskynemata): brief acknowledgments of having heard Memnon's cry; longer lists by Roman administrators; and more elaborate elegiac verses by both amateur and professional poets. The inscribed names left behind reveal the presence of emperors and soldiers, provincial governors and businessmen, elite women and military wives, and families with children. While recent studies of imperial literature acknowledge the colossus, few address the inscriptions themselves. This book is the first critical assessment of all the inscriptions considered in their social, cultural, and historical context. The Memnon colossus functioned as a powerful site of engagement with the Greek past, and appealed to a broad segment of society. The inscriptions shed light on contemporary attitudes toward sacred tourism, the role of Egypt in the Greco-Roman imagination, and the cultural legacy of Homeric epic. Memnon is a ghost from the Homeric past anchored in the Egyptian present, and visitors yearned for a "close encounter" that would connect them with that distant past. The inscriptions thus idealize Greece by echoing archaic literature in their verses at the same time as they reflect their own historical horizon. These and other subjects are expertly explored in the book, including a fascinating chapter on the colossus's post-classical life when the statue finds new worshippers among Romantic artists and poets in nineteenth-century Europe.

Product Specifications

Format
hardcover
Domain
Amazon UK
Release Date
10 May 2018
Listed Since
11 October 2017

Barcode

No barcode data available

Similar Products You Might Like

Oxford University Press Greek Historical Inscriptions 478-404 BC
96% match

Oxford University Press Greek Historical Inscriptions 478-404 BC

Oxford University Press

£42.39 25 Jul 2026
Voir les mythes: Poésie hellénistique et arts figurés
96% match

Voir les mythes: Poésie hellénistique et arts figurés

Taschen

£63.11 06 May 2026
The British Consular Service in the Aegean and the Collection of Antiquities for the British Museum
96% match

The British Consular Service in the Aegean and the Collection of Antiquities for the British Museum

Routledge

£141.05 17 Jun 2026
Greek Historical Inscriptions 478-404 BC
96% match

Greek Historical Inscriptions 478-404 BC

Oxford University Press

£181.70 11 Jun 2026
Greek and Roman Small Size Sculpture
96% match

Greek and Roman Small Size Sculpture

De Gruyter

£109.00 13 Jun 2026
The British Consular Service in the Aegean and the Collection of Antiquities for the British Museum
96% match

The British Consular Service in the Aegean and the Collection of Antiquities for the British Museum

Routledge

£47.99 09 Jul 2026
Hellenomania: 5 (British School at Athens - Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies)
96% match

Hellenomania: 5 (British School at Athens - Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies)

Routledge

£125.42 16 Jun 2026
Hellenomania: 5 (British School at Athens - Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies)
96% match

Hellenomania: 5 (British School at Athens - Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies)

Routledge

£49.89 03 Jul 2026
Images in Mind: Statues In Archaic And Classical Greek Literature And Thought
96% match

Images in Mind: Statues In Archaic And Classical Greek Literature And Thought

Princeton University Press

£46.34 08 Jul 2026
Corpus of Inscriptions of the Herakleopolitan Period from the Memphite Necropolis: Translation, commentary and analyses: 1459 (British Archaeological Reports International Series)
96% match

Corpus of Inscriptions of the Herakleopolitan Period from the Memphite Necropolis: Translation, commentary and analyses: 1459 (British Archaeological Reports International Series)

£91.00 24 Jul 2026
Sperlonga: Die homerischen Gruppen und ihre Bildquellen: 340 (Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 340)
96% match

Sperlonga: Die homerischen Gruppen und ihre Bildquellen: 340 (Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 340)

VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften

£39.98 17 Jul 2026
Between Ecstasy and Truth: Interpretations of Greek Poetics from Homer to Longinus
96% match

Between Ecstasy and Truth: Interpretations of Greek Poetics from Homer to Longinus

Oxford University Press

£32.43 16 Jun 2026
Role Models in the Roman World: Identity and Assimilation (Supplements to the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome): 07
96% match

Role Models in the Roman World: Identity and Assimilation (Supplements to the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome): 07

University of Michigan Press

£82.63 11 Jun 2026
Ancient Methone, 2003-2013 (2 volume set): Excavations by Matthaios Bessios, Athena Athanassiadou, and Konstantinos Noulas (Monumenta Archaeologica)
96% match

Ancient Methone, 2003-2013 (2 volume set): Excavations by Matthaios Bessios, Athena Athanassiadou, and Konstantinos Noulas (Monumenta Archaeologica)

£116.71 17 Jun 2026
The Gods in Epic: Poets and Critics of the Classical Tradition (Clarendon Paperbacks)
96% match

The Gods in Epic: Poets and Critics of the Classical Tradition (Clarendon Paperbacks)

Oxford University Press

£74.86 11 Jun 2026
Monsters in Greek Literature: Aberrant Bodies in Ancient Greek Cosmogony, Ethnography, and Biology (Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies)
96% match

Monsters in Greek Literature: Aberrant Bodies in Ancient Greek Cosmogony, Ethnography, and Biology (Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies)

Routledge

£110.13 15 Jul 2026
The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973: Final Reports Volume II; The Lesser Phrygian Tumuli Part 2 The Cremations (University Museum Monograph)
96% match

The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973: Final Reports Volume II; The Lesser Phrygian Tumuli Part 2 The Cremations (University Museum Monograph)

University of Pennsylvania Museum Publications

£92.89 09 Jul 2026
Large Scale Rhodian Sculpture of Hellenistic and Roman Times (Access Archaeology)
95% match

Large Scale Rhodian Sculpture of Hellenistic and Roman Times (Access Archaeology)

Archaeopress Access Archaeology

£77.25 08 Jul 2026
Beyond the Cyclades: Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context from Mainland Greece, the North and East Aegean
95% match

Beyond the Cyclades: Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context from Mainland Greece, the North and East Aegean

Oxbow Books

£28.73 03 Jul 2026
A Student Commentary on Pausanias Book 1 (Michigan Classical Commentaries)
95% match

A Student Commentary on Pausanias Book 1 (Michigan Classical Commentaries)

University of Michigan Press

Price unavailable
Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World, AD 50-250
95% match

Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World, AD 50-250

Oxford University Press

£93.00 14 Jul 2026
New Perspectives on the Hellenistic Peloponnese: History, Politics and Material Culture
95% match

New Perspectives on the Hellenistic Peloponnese: History, Politics and Material Culture

Bloomsbury Academic

£76.39 12 Jun 2026
Classical New York: Discovering Greece and Rome in Gotham
95% match

Classical New York: Discovering Greece and Rome in Gotham

Fordham University Press

£60.72 12 Jul 2026
Language and History in Ancient Greek Culture
95% match

Language and History in Ancient Greek Culture

University of Pennsylvania Museum Publications

£52.82 04 Jul 2026