Like depicting Jesus, a semite, with blonde hair and blue eyes, or anything else like that? It's cultural appropriation, if we were to assess it in modern terms?
I feel like such an ass for overlooking this. The D'Aulaire's book turned me on to Greek myths and I've glossed over the Ethiopian fact for decades. Thankfully I can rectify this in my own stories. Have you written here about Pandora?
I have not--there's actually a great comparison between the original myth as written by Hesiod and the D'Aulaires' version that shows how the D'Aulaires decided to make Pandora more northern European in appearance. In D'Aulaires, she's made of white marble, her eyes are made of sapphires, and lips are of rubies, while in the original version there's no mention of stones at all--she's made of (brown) clay. Perhaps someday I'll write that up. Thanks for reading!
In writing Iphicles as one of the main characters in BECOMING HERCULES, it came as a revelation to me that Iphicles has Ethiopian heritage on both sides of his family, with Amphitryon and Alcmene both being grandchildren of Perseus and Cassiopeia. Though the D’Aulaires’ book still has a prominent place on my bookshelf, I'll be leaning in the other direction to say that Iphicles is noticeably darker than his Theban peers and justifiably proud of his Ethiopian heritage.
Like depicting Jesus, a semite, with blonde hair and blue eyes, or anything else like that? It's cultural appropriation, if we were to assess it in modern terms?
It's a complex topic. I recently had a little conversation on Twitter about this: https://twitter.com/DWFrauenfelder/status/1525523123185008640
I feel like such an ass for overlooking this. The D'Aulaire's book turned me on to Greek myths and I've glossed over the Ethiopian fact for decades. Thankfully I can rectify this in my own stories. Have you written here about Pandora?
I have not--there's actually a great comparison between the original myth as written by Hesiod and the D'Aulaires' version that shows how the D'Aulaires decided to make Pandora more northern European in appearance. In D'Aulaires, she's made of white marble, her eyes are made of sapphires, and lips are of rubies, while in the original version there's no mention of stones at all--she's made of (brown) clay. Perhaps someday I'll write that up. Thanks for reading!
Cool. I have plenty to read here anyway ;)
In writing Iphicles as one of the main characters in BECOMING HERCULES, it came as a revelation to me that Iphicles has Ethiopian heritage on both sides of his family, with Amphitryon and Alcmene both being grandchildren of Perseus and Cassiopeia. Though the D’Aulaires’ book still has a prominent place on my bookshelf, I'll be leaning in the other direction to say that Iphicles is noticeably darker than his Theban peers and justifiably proud of his Ethiopian heritage.
Yes, excellent observation about Iphicles. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.