I am currently a student in the MA program in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at Brandeis University. . What do you think casting a Black woman as Queen Elisabeth would have done to the ratings? It is that hypocrisy that bugs me. This doesnt necessarily mean anything, however, since, in Greek black-figure vase paintings, all men are portrayed with black skin and all women are portrayed with white skin. Would love your thoughts, please comment. The founding director of the Hutchins Center is Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is also chairman ofThe Root. Their real blackness is not to be questioned for a moment. Given that in the USA blacks represent 13% of the population, they are at present over represented in most media. Caucasians are known culture vultures, they dont want to accept black people or any other culture unless its for their conveniency. ), ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of an ancient Greek black-figure vase painting dating to c. 550 c. 525 BC, showing the Aithiopian warrior Memnon with stereotypically African features. Was he a divine being? The evocation of a world of mysterious, irrational forces on the vase reveals a side of the Greek temperament at odds with the magisterial order imposed on human society by the Olympian gods. Ares. Cerberus is the multi-headed dog that guards the entrance to the underworld in Greek and Roman mythology. The dearest of the goddesses. 44. Its hard to be 100% sure about what you mean when you dont write in complete sentences. Im rambling now but I hope you understand where Im coming from. Assuming everything is racist is in its self racist in my eyes as its drawing clear lines in the sand where there aught not be. All the ancient depictions I am aware of show her with either blond hair or black hair. From $1.40. Homer asks the Muses both in the Iliad and Odyssey to help him tell the story in the most proper way, and until . NOTE ON TEXT by James Brunson They could have put Memnon in played by a Black actor. Photo by Christer Waara/CBC Why the crow is black (According the the Greeks/Romans) Apollo, the son of the most powerful greek God Zeus, had an important, albeit tumultuous relationship with crows. Greek God Names for Cats. Achilles confronted Memnon of the field of battle. No eagle. Beauty for the planetIf the beauty fan in your life is eco-friendlytake a gander at the Earthling Co.s delightful, giftable options. One almost has to forget every thing ever learned. Black storm trooper? After winning the war, he now must endure a lengthy, ten-year journey to return, and . Coeus (Koios) - Titan God of the North, the Rational Mind and Intellect. Were Achilles and Zeus Black in Greek Mythology? Look at all of the Egyptian based movies they always have a white person playing Cleopatra or one of the ancient Kings or Queens. Your brain tells you this cant be right and takes you right out. Robert Graves: The Greek Myths. After he had seduced the nymph to play with him and caress him in his pasture for some time, at last he persuaded her to mount him, when he fled with her to Crete, where he succeeded in his wishes, and by her he had Minos, Sarpcdon, and Rhadamunthus. If anything, the character of Agamemnon in the Iliad is even more of a pathetic jerk than the character in Troy: Fall of a City. I see you fail to address the fact that there is no push to diversify Bollywood ( which is bigger than Hollywood) or any other film industry. It is true that, in ancient Greece, Achilles and Zeus were both consistently portrayed as what most people today would generally consider white. That being said, I think that most of the outrage over the fact that Troy: Fall of a City portrays Achilles and Zeus as black is motivated more by racial prejudice than by actual concern for faithfulness to traditional portrayals. 2.Herodotus indicates that the loud cries of triumph, olulu, ololu, uttered in honour of Athene were of Libyan origin. However, if there were African peoples who worshipped the Greek gods, they possibly saw them as they did themselves. The most famous Aithiopian in Greek mythology is Memnon, the king of Aithiopia, who was an ally of the Trojans during the Trojan War and led a massive army of Aithiopians against the Achaians. The same evocation of blackness characterizes the head of Hermes confronting her own. Myths / Mortals / Sisyphus Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra ( Corinth) in Greek mythology. Iris - Goddess of the Rainbow, Messenger of the Gods. Stick with these three and enjoy this meaning, as well as a true representation of power. And I dont see any pressure on Bollywood to increase their use of white or non-Indian actors. Its the principality of the whole thing. No one is asking for black actors to portray a Japanese emperor in a made in Tokyo film. The primordial god was born near the beginning of time in Gaia. It will be continually updated with additions, corrections and more information on each of the gods. No Greek or Cypriot ( who isnt racist ) cares that Greek heroes are being played by black actors, I think were just more upset that theyre NEVER played by Mediterranean actors! Finally, life started within the egg, and when it burst, Eros, the god of love sprung out. Some of my main historical interests include ancient religion, mythology, and folklore; gender and sexuality; ethnicity; and interactions between Greek cultures and cultures they viewed as foreign. Every single theory can be discredited relatively easily despite having what seems to be a lot of support. I was just getting in to the show, I had only just managed to get over the poor casting choices of the other characters. Anglo-Saxon are using my culture and the religion of my ancestors for money purpose. I am not uninformed. As in any society, the farther a given form departed from Greek norms, the more unsettling it seemed. The toes are often white, the brown or black paint being kissed away by the devotees, and the white wood left. Do you think it unusual Hercules, Persus, Athene, Cassopia, Andromeda etc. Seems very hypocritical and targeted. Aphrodites hair in Botticellis painting has always looked more blond than red to me personally, but, looking at it again, I could definitely see how someone could see it as red. Im also confused by what you say about Helen of Troy being a little too old. Helen is portrayed in the show by the German actress Bella Dayne, who, according to her Wikipedia page, was born in either 1987 or 1988. Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude, Your Tax Dollars Are Funding Anti-Abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Abbott Elementary's Tyler James Williams Plays, Death Of A Salesman and The Wire's Wendell Pierce Plays. Ares was an ancient Greek god of war and one of the 12 Olympians he was the son of Zeus and Hera. Anyways, now that I have that confession off my chest, let us move on to discuss how the show portrayed Zeus and Achilles and how the shows portrayal does not line with how the ancient Greeks imagined these characters. At informal male gatherings known as symposia, heady philosophical discussions usually progressed to drunken riotousness as the contents of the skyphoi were replenished. Small and weak in demeanor. However I forgave these poor choices in favour of the historical accuracy, the ships, the costumes, the props, I was trying my hardest to get on board up until I saw Achilles. Considering the other peoples who ruled over the Greeks in history (Persians, Romans, Normans, Catalans, Venetians, Ottomans), the Black Africans were the best thing that ever happened to them. Arion is taken to the Underworld to train to be a warrior. They make up well over 13% of artists in the music industry, there are entire TV networks dedicated to showing Exclusively black Created content and over the past decade approximately 20% of film roles have been played by black actors. We have costumes for a reason. Being that you people are running the evil empire that controls the whole world. Were Achilles and Zeus Black in Greek Mythology?. Theseus promised his father that on return, he would hoist white sails if he was successful, and the crew would fly black sails if he had been killed. No thunderbolt. Again dont speak about things you dont understand yourself (books exist). . This response was hardly demeaning, however, since for the Greeks the exotic in nature held an enormous capacity for warding off evil. In our endeavours to recover the lost science of former ages, it is necessary that we should avail ourselves of rays of light scattered in places the most remote, and that we should endeavour to re-collect them into a focus, so that, by this means, we may procure as strong a light as possible: collect as industriously as we may, our light will not be too strong. The scriptures clearly said his skin was like burnt brass, yet Europeans still took it upon themselves to make him look like a white man and confuse the world. When they are thus described, I suppose they are meant to be represented as priests of the sun; this was probably confined to the celebration of the Isiac or Egyptian ceremonies. Disappointingly, Memnon is totally absent from nearly all modern adaptations of the story of the Trojan War, perhaps because his story is so similar to Hektors. Netflix is becoming a buzzkill like the rest of pandemic 2020. It sends the message that black people are part of the western story. Anything sacred or saintly is described as black. Scandinavia 1000 years ago had a more homogenenous population than today and pretending otherwise is to my mind silly. Anu Mauro. Further evidence that the ancient Greeks imagined Achilles as fair-haired comes from the fact that, when he was living as a woman on the island of Skyros, he is said to have taken the name (Prrha), which is derived from the Greek word (pr), meaning fire. Achilles is supposed to have taken this name because he had fiery red hair. leapt away, a groan came from the ground, the bushes blanched, the spattered sward was soaked with gouts of blood, stones brayed and bellowed, dogs began to bark, black snakes swarmed on the soil and ghostly shapes of silent spirits floated through the air. Fresco depicting Pentheus and the Bacchants, from Pompeii, 1st century CE, via National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Greek women were usually forced to marry when they were in their mid-to-late teenaged years. And there is no such thing as supremacy, that plays along with the delusional ideas Europeans created to be above every other race. You cant give your series a title like that and then try to make the ending in which Troy falls seem like a surprise. Coeus (Koios) - Quick Facts. Because it breaks immersion. This name would be an interesting option for an intimidating black stallion or gelding. An engraving by the French engraver Bernard Picart (lived 1673 1733), for instance, clearly depicts him as such. This topic can go on for decades. I must now request my reader to turn back to the first chapter, and to reconsider what I have said respecting the two Ethiopias and the existence of a black nation in a very remote period. White actors have been playing the part of Jesus for decades. The funny part is that the ancient Greeks themselves recognized and applauded this. Why not? The visual difference between a white blond Greek and a dark bald African is much more noticeable than the difference between a blond white women and a white woman with red hair, that looks almost blond. that they are an imitation of bronze: but the number that are left with white teeth, &c, let out the secret. The Nereid sea nymphs were known for their astounding beauty. Ha ha, the truth hurts to so many people. Welcome to the Gnostic Warrior by Moe Bedard. In some instances women was more powerful than some men. I graduated with high distinction from Indiana University Bloomington in May 2022 with a BA in history and classical studies (Ancient Greek and Latin languages), with departmental honors in history. It is a decision productions are free to make as long as they own the reception, good or bad. Does the Word Dinosaur Really Mean Terrible Lizard? Nearby, in the same storm, the Black Dog appeared in Blythburgh. To be very clear here, I am not mad over this; I was just confused and a little disappointed. The moment of potential metamorphosis from a rational creature into another, less comprehending form alludes to the ecstatic experience undergone by the initiates of the cult. 8. Given the lengths TFOACs particular adaptation of The Iliad goes to stay true to the minor threads and subplots of the epic, it is hard to ignore the distractingly forced multiracial casting that was so obviously coerced by modern inclusivity agendas. 84. Among the Etruscans, the masklike black face placed on the eaves of a sacred shrine served as a powerful means to repel evil forces, a quality incidentally attributed to the kabeiroi themselves. By Avi Kapach Last updated on Dec. 1st, 2021. The story states that Jupiter fell in love with a daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and Telephassa, and in order to obtain the object of his affections he changed himself into a white bull. You people are obsessed with our culture and its so plain to see everywhere you go, I have yet to see any black people trying to fit into European culture please cut it out. Minotaur is a very loose retelling of the famous Greek myth. She offers him the fateful potion, which he rejects with a surprised gesture. Very often the black figures have given way to white ones, and in these cases the black ones, as being held sacred, were put into retired places in the churches, but were not destroyed, but are yet to be found there. The aithiopian of Homer and early Greeks werent black but Near Eastern while the Aithiopian from Vth century (and later) were seen as subsaharan african. Aegyptus was given Arabia as his kingdom; but also subdued the country of the Melampodes, (blackfeet) and named it Egypt after himself. The story of the Judgment of Paris has been told and retold countless times, both in literary versions and in artistic form. In many instances these images and pictures are shaded, not all one colour, of very dark brown, so dark as to look like black. I think that is something different than thinking that black people shouldnt be in a story seen as western. It is true that, in ancient Greece, Achilles and Zeus were both consistently portrayed as what most people today would generally consider "white.". And searching for this on Google only gives you the white wash version of most things. In Greek mythology, the Amazons (or also known as the Amazonian Women) were a tribe of female warriors, supposedly descended from ARES, the Greek god of war, and the Naiad Harmonia. Ever since its original publication in 1942, Edith Hamilton's Mythology has been widely seen as the quintessential introduction to Greek mythology for adults, even as countless other introductions to the topic have come and gone. This page is a list of the names of Greek gods in ancient mythology and their roles. Is it possible, that this coincidence can have been the effect of accident? ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble portrait head of Memnon, the black adoptive son of the Athenian philosopher Herodes Atticus, who was named after the famous Aithiopian king Memnon. Arguing the skin-color of Greek gods is ridiculous, in my opinion. Filming for the show took place in 2017, so Dayne was about twenty-nine or thirty years old at the time. There is, in fact, a very good reason why the push for diversity in casting only goes one way; its because people of color have long been oppressed in the English-speaking world, and films and television shows made in the English-speaking world are overwhelmingly reserved for white people. Rendered in strict profile, her negroid features are clearly evident. I understand historical movies/series cant always be 100% accurate, but Its gotta be somewhat believable to carry any validity. Are there any black people in Greek mythology? Enough with assuming everything is racist. I do think it is also important that not to assume to many people care too much about these things. Greek God Forearm And Bicep Tattoo. Cleopatra VII was a hellenized woman of 100% Macedonian ancestry. 2. This was the name of a nymph in Greek mythology who was transformed into a fountain. 65% of all NBA players need to be white. The line about burnt brass that AI references here is actually from the Book of Revelation 1:15, which is not a description of Jesus as he looked on earth, but rather a highly symbolic description of a terrifying apparition of the celestial Jesus that appears to John of Patmos in a vision. The Minotaur is an iconic half-man, half-bull character in Greek mythology. Myths / Creatures / Gorgons. Andromeda's fate was sealed when Cassiopeia bragged that Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereid sea nymphs. They were a lot more merciful to the Greeks than the Western Europeans or the Turks. View all posts by Spencer McDaniel. Pretty much the only things that are agreed upon across portrayals are that he is young, clean-shaven, handsome, and muscular. Its very much a follow the money and who benefits theory. This noise producing activity in our time is now actually called But that isnt really my main point. Nestor, Antilochoss father, begged Achilles to kill Memnon and avenge Antilochoss death. Apotheon. A quote regarding Black mythology from Michael B. Jordan's recent Vanity Fair interview has sparked conversation on Twitter . On other skyphoi, the range of black figures includes the highly popular type of the cave-dwelling pygmy. Throughout the Greek legends, an Africoid or dark-skinned people are associated with Danaus and the Danaids. Rasmus, I agree %. Look at damn near every genre of music was created by a black person from Rock, Country to Jazz and hip hop. The appeal of this and other ancient mysterious religions such as the Egyptian Isis cult lay in the profound shift from the conventional obeisance to the gods to a rapturous, personal identification with the divine by initiates to the cult. He would go on to become the King of Egypt and Libya. For instance, an ancient Greek black-figure vase painting dated to between c. 550 and c. 525 BC that is currently on display in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels portrays an Athiopian warrior (probably Memnon) with thick red lips, a short, broad nose, and a projecting lower facefeatures that have been stereotypically associated with Africans throughout history. At least the Black Africans cultivated and educated the Greeks once they had them firmly under their control. Before them stands Hermes, the winged god of communication and safe passage. Neither work even claims to be an accurate representation of the Aegean Bronze Age either. iam not sure about this.but i will ask Zeus! Not surprisingly, years later the story of the God-King and his divine son appear in many other cultures. The numerous drinking vessels found at the Kabeirion seem to have formed an integral part of the rituals held at the sanctuary. Greek form of Argus. According to Greek mythology, Zeus's wife Hera once transformed her servant, Galinthias, into a black cat as punishment for impeding the birth of Hercules. P.s. Firstly they should have tanned all the actors / hired darker skin actors to better represent the hot climate, they should have at least tried to speak with less of an English accent. I agree. The First Minoan Age began soon afterwards, and Cretan culture spread to Thrace and Here, however, the straightforward treatment of the event has taken on a radically different form. Is it necessary for me to point out to the reader in this pretty allegory the peopling of Europe from Phoenicia, and the allusion in the colour of the Bull, viz. We are all humans. The black characters Troy: Fall of a City left out. So it is okay to have an English king portrayed by a black actor, or a Greek god, etc, but it is most definitely NOT okay for a white actor to play Malcolm X or Shaka Zulu or Kublai Khan. The reader has already seen the striking marks of similarity in the history of Cristna and the stories related of Jesus in the Romish and heretical books. Notice the Ethiopians living in the far south of Africa. Making the Distant Past Relevant to the Present Day, The miniseries Troy: Fall of a City, which originally aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom in spring 2018 and was thereafter distributed internationally on Netflix, created quite a stir of controversy due to the fact that, in the series, the characters Zeus and Achilles are portrayed by black actors. Many people attacked the series, accusing it of blackwashing.. But Achilles? The fateful event is here reduced to only three summarily rendered characters. E.g. But, hey, that is war and colonization. According to the Aithiopis, the Achaian hero Antilochos, the son of Nestor, killed Memnons dear comrade Aisopos on the field of battle, so Memnon killed Antilochos. He ran into a church, causing fear and panic. knowledge of which Greek and Eastern deities were worshiped in different parts of the Black Sea area during antiquity tchite, to the fair complexions of the Europeans? Athena - Goddess of Wisdom. Danaus, suspecting a plot would not consent and when an oracle confirmed his fears that Aegyptus had it in his mind to kill all the Danaids, prepared to flee from Libya. * John, ch. NOTE ON TEXT By Robert Graves I dont why people have a problem with with Black actors playing the part of Zeus and Achilles. The infant God in the arms of his black mother, his eyes and drapery white, is himself perfectly black. As far as anyone can tell, in ancient Greece, Achilles was never envisioned as what we today would call black. Nonetheless, in Troy: Fall of a City, he is portrayed by David Gyasi, a British actor of Ghanaian ancestry. ), ABOVE: Ancient Greek polychromatic vase painting dating to c. 300 BC depicting Achilles dressed in armor and a plumed helmet slaying Memnon, the king of the Aithiopians.
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