Posted on 12/28/2018 1:57:14 AM PST by SunkenCiv
The absurd, ahistorical Black Athena theory, which had posited that ancient Greeks were of African descent has been thoroughly debunked on numerous occasions in the past, protothema.gr notes in the following report: But it seems the proponents of this baseless view are attempting to peddle the same nonsense once more. This time via the entertainment route.
Achilles, the ancient Greek hero of the Trojan War is one of the chief characters in the plot portrayed by a black actor in a joint BBC and Netflix multimillion-dollar mini-series expected to air in 2018. The series, called Troy: The Fall of a City, focuses on the war between the Greeks and the Trojans around 1,300 BC and the abduction of Helen of Sparta by the Trojans which led to the mythical conflict. Some photos of the cast were recently released showing David Gyasi, a 37-year-old actor from the UK of African descent in the helmet of the mythical hero and greatest warrior of the Mycenaeans, Achilles...
But the creators of the series did not stop there. They decided to cast two other actors of African descent for principal characters in the show. Lemonga Tsipa will play the cousin of Achilles, Patroclus, while another British actor of African origin, Hakeem Kae-Kazim will portray a key figure in the plot, Zeus.
Let us not be quick to impute any sinister intentions here. It could be that some historical consultant at the BBC and Netflix was not driven by any biased interpretation of history based on their postmodern, politically correct views...but rather had a bad day translating Homers Iliad, where the ancient Greek epic poet clearly describes Achilles as blonde...
(Excerpt) Read more at tornosnews.gr ...
Agriculture apparently was first developed in the Mesopotamian region. I could see some ancient farmers spreading out, coming across the fertile Nile, and settling there. There might have been some blacks there, but they would have been wiped out.
True...the ancient site that was once Troy, has been misdated and continues to be; mostly due to 2 reasons 1)many things were destroyed when Schliemann was digging and he really didn't dig deep enough 2) there really hasn't been much of a follow through, there, since carbon dating was invented.
We'll NEVER really know what the racial diversity really was in Ancient Eygpt, for different reasons; however, as a place that saw quite a few wars and upheavals, as well as it beginning as two separate and distinct sections, prior to the joining of Upper and Lower Egypt, and peoples coming and going ( some as salves from battles won, others as conquerors, and others as immigrants ),it's just guesswork now.
I HATE THE DAMNED BBC AND IT'S MARXIST PC CRAP!
Interesting...BUT...that still does NOT make Achilles a member of the Negroid race! He was a blonde GREEK Caucasoid and supposedly part water nymph! ;^)
The has BBC ordered that every single production be racially diverse. No matter what. Very sad that an institution which for decades produced some of the finest historical documentaries, has stooped to historical revisionism, in the name of political correctness.
And IF it was long ago, he was probably one of the crazed "OUT OF AFRICA"/ Cleopatra was black, Blacks invented EVERYTHING ( all math, etc. and the whites "STOLE" it ) proponents.
You're welcome; glad to be of help.
I always thought it absurd that Hollywood couldn’t come up with enough actors of the character’s supposed race. And bigoted. (And that’s about the extent of my need for diversity in film, etc.)
Hmmmmmmmm...well, then there’s the books that claim that Tut, and his father,Akhenaten, were descendants of the Biblical Joseph, whom his brothers had tried to kill, but he survived and was the dream explainer, Jew. And THAT’s why Akhenaten believe that there was but one real and true God.
don’t care, if the series is done well.
How many Chinese actors and actresses ( do also remember the law against allowing female Chinese immigrants here ),and/or other different races and ethnics here, in the USA, for most of the time movies have been made?
Anna May Wong was in silents and some early talkies, but she's the ONLY one I can think of from that far back.
Fast forward a bit and it's a shame that Lena Horne wasn't in the 1951 version of "SHOWBOAT"; however, 1) she was NOT really light skinned enough to play Julie and her singing style, which I doubt she would have wanted to change, or maybe could not change, would have been ALL WRONG for Julie's solos.
And then there is the fact that Thomas Edison and D.W. Griffith, to name but two of the early film creators/distributors were not just horrible anti-Semites, but also TERRIBLE racists; so no blacks and Jewish actors and actresses changed their names and "passed" as Christians.
Akhenaten’s monolatry was rooted in politics; in order to achieve supreme authority he had to overthrow the cult of Amun. And he was a nut job. :^)
Sidebar:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3147487/posts?page=2#2
Schliemann dug up the citadel of Troy, but destroyed most of the site, including a lot of the revealing data in the various occupation strata. But until he dug there, the Trojan War story had dwindled into a work of fiction in the minds of most scholars.
It isn't just Troy, either -- a French archaeologist excavated the Temple of Delphi over a century ago, and wrote that there was zero evidence of any kind that the ancient descriptions of the temple interior were correct. Then, late in the 20th century, a geologist invited in by the Greek gubmint mapped not one, but two fault lines, and they cross right under where the pythia sat and prophesied. Further research showed that there had been a gas seeping from the cracks in the floor that caused a "high".
One of the things that bothered Schliemann was the small size of his Troy, but the current modern dig at the site has uncovered the rest of the ancient city, spread out around the citadel. Schliemann didn't find it because he never looked for it. He was a pioneer, and a smart guy, an autodidact, but he had his faults as we all do. :^)
I don't either, as long as A) I'm not forced to watch it, and B) no one mistakes it for history. The movie "The 300" was based on a comic book, whoops, graphic novel, and after that movie had come and gone in the theaters, there were plenty of people who apparently took it seriously. OTOH, if that resulted in their getting interested in ancient history, great.
Something could be excellent history. Thew presence of a black guy in the cats doesn’t negate the entire piece. I’ve been watching history since I Claudius. Did all the Romans and Germans have british accents. Doubtful. In fact some Brits and Germans probably had Roman accents centuries ago.
Happy new year. Your posts make this site something special beyond politics. A former history major and a reader of Roman History..
Interesting link.
Schliemann was the first "modern" archeologist, on a hunt for proving that something ( in this case Troy ) had actually existed. Modern methods and techniques hadn't yet come about, so yes, he was a "BULL IN A CHINA SHOP", in his ham handed search. Still and all, he DID prove that there had been cities on that spot, wars and a great fire destroyed what was left of the buildings on that site, and the jewelry he decked his wife in, is an amazing find; though those jewels were probably from a later date than the sack of Troy, in The Iliad.
"I CLAUDIUS" was just a T.V. series, taken from the two books OF FICTION, written by a Brit, Robert Graves, in the 1930s! Neither the novels nor the T.V. series were EVER meant to be taken as "historical" nor "documentaries"! And IF the BBC were to do a remake, casting a black actor as Augustus ( or an Indian, Chinese, or any other race Brit actor, for that matter ), or in any other role would be CRIMINAL, OFF PUTTING, and completely RUIN it!
And as far as your twee "problem" with accents...1) the books were written in the King's English 2) if the actors spoke Latin, you wouldn't understand what they were saying.
Thanks! The thing that wrecked "I, Claudius" for me was how they [SPOILER ALERT!] stabbed Sejanus in his jail cell -- everyone *knows* he was executed by strangulation.
They couldn't cast a water nymph for the part, the water nymphs were hunted to extinction in Roman times. ;^)
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