I made this article as part of a publication brief for my university course, though I should put it on my website so everybody can read it and learn the truth. I had to create an essay based on an object as part of the brief. The second part involved making a illustration on Adobe Illustrator, and tying the essay and i
As a fan of Greek and Roman mythology, I brought a statue of a charioteer whilst visiting Rome, thinking it was accurate to Roman culture. I was right and wrong. The statue has ‘Biga’ inscribed into it by the artist of initials ‘VE.MA’, who I was unable to identify, which the Collins Dictionary defines as “a chariot drawn by two horses” (no date). The physical details are appropriate to Roman chariot racing. In this regard, the statue is accurate. However, a glaringly obvious fault stands out: its whiteness.
I was shocked when I discovered my understanding of statues from the Roman and Greek era was incorrect. Archaeologists like Vinzenz Brinkmann of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich have been finding ‘“significant evidence of polychromy”’ on classical statues, and many professionals in the field of archaeology share my surprise at this revelation (Talbot, 2018; online).
The Greeks used more than marble, as “Greek sculptures skilfully joined metal and gemstones” in their works such as the Charioteer of Delphi, which is not marble but bronze (Usanova, 2021).
The reason why colour has been bleached from our classical art is partly due damage over time, since the statues were buried and the traces of pigment being “lost to cleaning and contact with air and sunlight” when excavated (Liebieghaus, 2020).
The establishment of ‘whiteness’ in classical statues originates in the Renaissance era, when Europe was starting to rediscover the civilisations of Greece and Rome. The statues they found were damaged, the pigmentation gone, thus they believed that classical statues were originally white. This became so engrained in the European psyche that according to Historian Nell Ivan Painter, ‘“Color in sculpture came to mean barbarism, for they assumed that the lofty ancient Greeks were too sophisticated to color their art”’ (Bond, 2017; online).
The world I live in is entrenched in this concept of whiteness in the classical arts, not only through statues, but through architecture too. I regularly see the white pillars of Tate Britain on my way to college and don’t consider how buildings too would have been painted. The issue of whiteness extends beyond marble, into skin colour too.
Many Greek gods and goddess who have become symbols of Western power, originated not in Greece, but Northern Africa. Herodotus writes that “They [the Libyans] celebrate a yearly festival of Athena… honoring in the way of their ancestors that native goddess whom we [the Greeks] call Athena” (Herodotus, p 180). According to Berber (Northern African) mythology, Athena is the daughter of Poseidon, a powerful Libyan sea god, and the lake Tritonis. Athena’s weaponry and clothing are of Libyan origin. Both father and daughter are present in Britannia, the female personification of Britain, who uses Poseidon’s trident and Athena’s war helm and robes.
Europe ignored the role of Africa, as according to Gloria Dickenson professor of African-American Studies at The College of New Jersey,’“during the 19th century, many European writers, limited by ethnocentrism and racism, decided that black Africa could have had nothing to do with Europe’s rise to greatness.”’ (Clark, 2022; online).
My object: a tourist statue from Rome by artist of initials VE.MA, who I was unable to trace.
As I read the Greek historian Herodotus’ Histories when he describes the civilisations outside of Greece, I struggled to see them as non-white, even when discussing a range of nations from Libya to Assyria. The Greeks saw skin colour in a non-discriminatory way. The meaning of ‘black’ and ‘white’ as a race was absent during the classical era. Ulysses of Homer’s Odyssey, when returning home to Ithaka in the disguise of a beggar, sheds his guise with the aid of Athena, who made him ‘“dark-skinned again”’ (Erik, 2018; online). To be dark-skinned in Grecian times referred to the wisdom and age of the man, who’s skin would darken under the sun during the length of his endeavours.
On the other hand, to be white was to be effeminate, young, weak. Aristophanes in the Assemblywomen writes of a “handsome young fellow, as white as Nikias”, criticising the youth for his white skin yet to be tanned like Ulysses’ was (Erik, 2018; online). The Greeks saw skin colour differently than it is seen today. For the Romans “Albus means pale, lusterless white, while candidus means bright, gleaming white. Ater is flat, matte black while niger is glossy black,” going by the quality of the skin not the hue itself (Erik, 2018; online). The Greeks called wine ‘black’.
Here I would like to point out that although my statue is of Roman inspiration, whatever effected the Greeks was handed to the Romans, who rebranded Grecian mythology after they conquered the Greeks. The Romans changed small details of the Greek gods, thus Athena became the Roman Minerva, two forms of the same goddess. Chariots featured heavily in Greek culture as well as Roman, with chariot racing integrated into the Olympics in 680 BC.
The myth of Typon, in my opinion, challenges the concept of Grecian gods originating in Egypt. Typon, the father of monsters, attacked Olympus. The Olympians fought back, engaging the monster in a war that ravages the known world. Losing the war, the gods, according to Nicander, with the exception of Athena and Zeus, “transformed into animal forms and flee to Egypt: Apollo became a hawk, Hermes an ibis, Ares a fish, Artemis a cat, Dionysus a goat, Heracles a fawn, Hephaestus an ox, and Leto a mouse,” to hide from Typhon, thus founding the Egyptian gods who adopted the animal heads of the Greek gods (Religion Fandom, no date). I find this hard to believe, as the Egyptian Empire predated the Greeks by thousands of years. Is the Typhon myth the Greeks disclaiming the role of Northern Africa in their mythology?
Zeus striking Typhon down with his lightning bolt. Image taken from Grunge.com
Despairingly, there is backlash amongst academia in the classics. Mixed Classicist, in his/her article Reflections: Against the denial of racism in classics, talks about an “Oxbridge classicist, someone who lectured me as an undergraduate” finding no evidence for racism in the classics, published in his article in the Spectator (Mixed Classist, 2020). If enough influential high ranking classicists prevent the “epistemic injustice” of racism in classics from being addressed, then a racism-free education in classic is harder to achieve (Chae, 2018).
Daisaku Ikeda
There is little public knowledge of the growing awareness of white supremacy in classical sculpture on the internet. There are plenty of websites about it, but little reaches the public ear.
Racism is not limited to Northern Africa. The charioteer statue holds Middle Eastern influences, as the chariot originated in Mesopotamia. The myth of Europa, a princess of Phoenicia, modern day Lebanon, is important. Zeus who “fell in love with Europa... and carried her away from her homeland”, took the form a white bull, carrying her on his back as he headed to Crete (House of European History, no date.). The land she travelled over, “got its name from the princess Europa.” (House of European History, no date.). To quote Daisaku Ikeda, no “society can exist in isolation”. The Greek world was influenced from as far afield as India, with Dionysus adopting the Indian leopard as his symbol (Brainy Quote, no date; online). When tackling racism in the classics, the focus should be on the known world at that time too.
Personally, I believe this is down to the ‘tourist mindset’. Whilst in Rome, I saw the white statues in the museums. I believed what was physically in front of me was fact. Museums must do more to show colour, like what the Leibieghaus Sculptures Collection is doing, guided by Brinkmann’s work, in their Gods in Colour exhibition, creating colour reproductions of sculptures. Unless we give Northern Africa recognition, we will never overcome racism in Europe. The public needs to be educated about the truth.
Bond, Sarah. E, June 7 (2017), Why We Need to Start Seeing the Classical World in Color, Hyperallergic, viewed 10/05/2022, < https://hyperallergic.com/383776/why-we-need-to-start-seeing-the-classical-world-in-color/ >
Brainy Quote, n.d., Daisaku Ikeda Quotes, viewed 18/04/2022, < https://www.brainyquote.com/ citation/quotes/daisaku_ikeda_469600 >
Chae, Yung In, February 28 (2018), White People Explain Classics to Us, Eidolon, viewed 27/04/2022, < https://eidolon.pub/white-people-explain-classics-to-us-50ecaef5511 >
Clark, Josh, March (2022), Did the ancient Greeks get their ideas from the Africans?, Howstuffworks, viewed 27/04/2022 < https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/greek-philosophers-african-tribes1.htm >
Collins, n.d. Definition of ‘biga’, viewed 27/04/2022, < https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/biga#:~:text=a%20chariot%20drawn%20by%20two%20horses >
Erik, January 29 (2018), Race in Antiquity: Skin Color, Go-Greeking, viewed 27/04/2022 < https://co-geeking.com/2018/01/29/race-in-antiquity-skin-color/>
House of European History, n.d., Myth of Europa, viewed 17/05/2022 < https://historia-europa.ep.eu/en/focus/myth-europa#:~:text=The%20story%20of%20Europa%20and,family%20to%20live%20with%20him >
Liebieghaus, (2020), Gods In Colour, viewed 27/04/2022, < https://buntegoetter.liebieghaus.de/en/>
Mixed Classicist, 26 July (2020), Reflections: Against the denial of racism in classics, Wordpress, viewed 27/04/2022 < https://mixedupinclassics.wordpress.com/2020/07/26/reflections-racism-denial/ >
Religion Fandom, n.d. Typhon, viewed 03/05/2022 < https://religion.fandom.com/wiki/Typhon#Flight_to_Egypt >
Talbot, Margaret, 22 October (2018), The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture, The New Yorker, viewed 27/04/2022 < https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/the-myth-of-whiteness-in-classical-sculpture >
Usanova, Natalia, May 31 (2021), Everything You Know about Antique Sculpture is Wrong: The Charioteer of Delphi, Art In The Evenings, viewed 27/04/2022 <https://live-for-art.com/works/sculpture/the-charioteer-of-delphi/ >
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