Early Images of Achilles and Memnon?

Abstract

JN EO-ANALYSTS have persuasively argued that the Iliad indirectly demon strates knowledge of the duel between Achilles and Memnon.1 Yet the Aethiopis, the Epic Cycle poem that narrates their duel, is usually thought to be later than the Homeric poems,2 and undoubted representations of Memnon begin only in the sixth century. A skeptic might therefore con sider the encounter between Achilles and Memnon a post-Iliadic inven tion.3 But mythological images are no measure of the date of mythology; representations of myths often precede their attestation in literature, and vice-versa.4 And by comparison we should note that representations of the duel between Achilles and Hector do not precede those of Achilles and Memnon; in fact, images of Hector dueling Achilles are rare even in the sixth century, and often non-Homeric at that.5 Iconographical evi dence tends to lead to a conclusion already suggested by apparent reflec tions of the Memnon story in the Iliad: that Memnon was a well-known pre-Homeric character. To confirm further the antiquity of myth about