Memnon

In Greek epic tradition Memnon is the son of Tithonus (a mortal prince) and Eos (the goddess of the dawn). He is presented as a king who rules in Aethiopia and later sails with a large army (variously described as Aethiopians and Indians in different sources) to aid Troy during the Trojan War. His story is preserved in the lost Aethiopis and later summaries and continuations of the Trojan cycle (for example Quintus of Smyrna's Posthomerica) and is adapted in Roman poetic reception (notably Virgil).

Narrative and iconographic sources emphasize Memnon's heroic military accouterments and the large forces that accompany him rather than detailed physiognomy. Classical accounts attribute to him armor forged by Hephaistos; vase-painting motifs (e.g., Attic red-figure imagery) show Eos lifting his corpse, and Virgil uses the epithet translated as "black Memnon" (nigri Memnonis arma) in Roman reception. Sources also describe his army as numerous and composed of Aethiopians and sometimes Indians.

Memnon is portrayed as an exceptional warrior of near-divine status: he kills Antilochus, wounds Achilles, and fights with prowess compared in sources to Achilles. He is a heroic demigod figure by parentage (mortal father, divine mother) and is the recipient of divine-crafted arms (Hephaestus' armor). Divine actors intervene around his death in various traditions—Zeus and other gods are moved by Eos and either grant special honors, a posthumous grace to Eos (a daily sight of her son), or in some variants grant immortality—accounts differ across sources.