3. Greek Colonization Before Alexander In addition to trade and exploration, the Greeks encountered Africa through colonization. As early as 800 BCE, there were Greek settlements outside Greece. Asia Minor was the focus on the earliest Greek colonization, followed by Sicily and southern Italy. Settlements in northern Africa, beginning in the mid-seventh century BCE, represent a third wave of Greek colonization. 3.1 Naucratis The Egyptian… Read more
4. Imperialism: The Persians and Alexander the Great Alexander the Great was not the first foreign ruler to seize power in Egypt. From 760–656 BCE, Egypt was ruled by the twenty-fifth Dynasty and those kings came from the Kingdom of Kush in Nubia. [1] Although the Kushites imposed their rule on Egypt, the new leadership did not represent a cultural shift for… Read more
5. Imperialism: Rome Rome’s involvement with Africa began with a conflict over power in Sicily. The island lay between Italy and Africa and became the catalyst for Rome’s first conflict with the North African city of Carthage, which was a growing naval power in the third century BCE. In addition to Rome’s attempt to control territory beyond the Italian peninsula, Roman perceptions of Carthaginian culture increased enmity… Read more
6. Isis Africa’s most influential cultural export to the Greco-Roman world was the worship of the goddess Isis. The worship of Isis became very popular with both Greeks and Romans and spread throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Isis was assimilated to various Greek and Roman divinities and forms of religious activities (e.g. mystery cults). In the Egyptian pantheon, Isis is the sister and wife of Osiris… Read more
Bibliography Asheri, D., A. Lloyd, and A. Corcella. 2007. A Commentary on Herodotus Books I–IV. New York. Austin, M. 2008. “The Greeks in Libya” in Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas, Volume Two, ed. G. R. Tsetskhladze, 187–217. Mnemosyne, Supplementa 193. Leiden. Bietak, M., and N. Marinatos. 1995. “The Minoan Wall Paintings from… Read more
Preface to the Edition of 1990 This study was written in 1975–76 as my doctoral dissertation. In preparing it for publication 13 years later, I made such revisions as seem to me to render the text clearer and more readable. This new edition does not, however, incorporate recent work on the Homeric poems or new ways of thinking about semantic problems. My object was to… Read more
1. The Problem Homeric Greek nēpios, at first glance, does not present obvious semantic problems. LSJ [1] give as a first meaning “infant, child,” citing νήπιον, οὔ πω εἰδόθ’ ὁμοιΐου πολέμοιο [2] nēpios, who knew nothing yet of the joining of battle [3] IX 440 [4]… Read more
2. ΗΠΙΟΣ The word ēpios, used in Homer of persons, feelings, and medicines, is glossed by LSJ as “gentle…kind…soothing…assuaging.” This interpretation is supported by its association with the word aganos (“gentle”) in the phrase: μή τις ἔτι πρόφρων ἀγανὸς καὶ ἤπιος ἔστωσκηπτοῦχος βασιλεύς No longer now let one who is a sceptred king be eagerto be gentle and ēpios ii 230–231… Read more
3. Children Nēpia Tekna In the last chapter, I tried to show that while the idea of fatherhood is a frequent contextual associate of ēpios, the basic meaning of this word is something like “connecting.” Thus it implies a social relationship between the ēpios person and someone else. And, indeed, whenever the word ēpios describes a person in the Iliad or Odyssey, that person is… Read more
4. Adults In Chapter Three, I proposed that the word nēpios expresses the very limitations that can be overcome, in certain symbolic frameworks, through initiation rituals—namely, childhood, ignorance, and what Eliade calls “the profane condition.” The subject of that chapter was children; in the Homeric language (or world view) children, as a class, are nēpios. All who are nēpios are not children, however. This chapter discusses… Read more
