Ancient Greece That Ancient Greece Term Paper

The Greeks even believe that the sun had "kissed" the Ethiopians, explaining the deep color of their skin. In fact, according to one of the sources Keita quotes, the Ethiopians "pioneered" religion, inventing many of the customers that existed later in Egypt; according to that same source, the Egyptians were descended from the Ethiopians. Indeed, Herodotus asserted that almost all the names of the Greek gods came from Egypt, and that those names had been known in Egypt "from the beginning of time...." (Keita, 1994, p. 147+). The Greeks, the source maintains, taught the Greeks about ceremonial meetings, processions and liturgies and to assign a day to a deity and to engage in prognostications and use of omens.

On the other hand, it is unlikely that, without the Greeks to conquer lands on both sides of the Mediterranean, the spread of religion and liturgy and myth -- ascribed to the Egyptians and their forebears, the Ethiopians -- that western culture would have the religion- and story-based shape it has today. The ancient world, too, of course, would have lacked these essential cultural attributes.

Keita notes that the position of the Ethiopians, as far as the Greeks and many other ancients were concerned, was that the Ethiopians had an entree to the gods "beyond the imagined scope of any of the other peoples in the region" (Keita, 1994, p. 147+). The fact that the great Greek writers used the position of the Ethiopians to express themselves regarding Greek culture and mythology indicates beyond doubt that those two cultures at least were symbiotic in a very essential way, particularly as the Greeks, proud of their heritage and their exploits, had no reason to admire another culture except if there was a significant 'contract' between them.

Works Cited

Keita, Maghan. "Deconstructing the Classical Age: Africa and the Unity of the Mediterranean World." The Journal of Negro History 79.2 (1994): 147+.…