Memjion, 1^5 except for the purpose of shewing how such a connexion might have arisen. There are three ways in which this may be conceived to have happened. One, which would perhaps be the simplest explanation of the fact, is a migration by which the people to which the legend belonged had exchanged its earlier seats for a new country in the West. In this case the hero who represented it would assume the character of a conqueror, who had led a victorious army out of the East. And there can be no doubt that such migrations very often changed the face of western Asia, as we are led to believe in particular with regard to the Phrygians, from the fact men- tioned by Herodotus, that they were related to the Arme- nians; for though he expresses this by saying that the Ar- menians were a colony of the Phrygians ^^5 historical analogy renders it much more probable that the latter race originally sprang from Armenia. It would however be also possible, that the exploits of a foreign conqueror, who had passed through the land in ancient times, should have been transferred to a native hero. And thus the legend of Memnon may appear to attest the expedition of Osymandyas or Sesostris. But this explanation can only be adopted by those who are satisfied as to the reality of the enterprises attributed to these conquerors, which of late has begun to be vehemently questioned. Indeed it appears that even in the last century suspicions had arisen among the learned on the subject. Marsham, in the spirit of criticism which prevailed in his age, distinguishes between the expeditions of Sesostris and Osymandyas, by what appears to him a decisive mark. He observes (Canon, p. 404) that the Bactrians are not num- bered among the nations conquered by Sesostris, whereas they formed a part of the empire of Rameses, as described in the monument shewn to Germanicus, or at least by the priests who interpreted it, and having afterwards rebelled were reduced to submission by the victorious arms of Osy- mandyas, who on this occasion made a progress through the extensive dominions acquired by Sesostris. Perizonius (iEgypt. Orig. p. 301) is so far from admitting the force of this argu- es VII. 73. See Hoeck's Kreta i. p. 125. He produces several strong arguments drawn partly from history and partly from geography for his opinion that the Arme- nians were the ancestors of the Phrygians.
