Black Athena : the Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization / Martin Bernal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bernal, Martin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greece--Civilization--To 146 B.C.

Greece.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (728 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, 2020.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

What is classical about Classical civilization? In one of the most audacious works of scholarship ever written, Martin Bernal challenges the foundation of our thinking about this question. Classical civilization, he argues, has deep roots in Afroasiatic cultures. But these Afroasiatic influences have been systematically ignored, denied or suppressed since the eighteenth century—chiefly for racist reasons. The popular view is that Greek civilization was the result of the conquest of a sophisticated but weak native population by vigorous Indo-European speakers—Aryans—from the North. But the Classical Greeks, Bernal argues, knew nothing of this “Aryan model.” They did not see their institutions as original, but as derived from the East and from Egypt in particular. In an unprecedented tour de force, Bernal links a wide range of areas and disciplines—drama, poetry, myth, theological controversy, esoteric religion, philosophy, biography, language, historical narrative, and the emergence of “modern scholarship.”

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Transcription and Phonetics

Maps and Charts

Chronological Table

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Ancient Model in Antiquity

Chapter 2. Egyptian Wisdom and Greek Transmission from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance

Chapter 3. The Triumph of Egypt in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Chapter 4. Hostilities to Egypt in the 18th Century

Chapter 5. Romantic Linguistics: The Rise of India and the Fall of Egypt, 1740–1880

Chapter 6. Hellenomania, I: The Fall of the Ancient Model, 1790–1830

Chapter 8. The Rise and Fall of the Phoenicians, 1830–85

Chapter 9. The Final Solution of the Phoenician Problem, 1885–1945

Chapter 10. The Post-War Situation: The Return to the Broad Aryan Model, 1945–85

Conclusion

Appendix. Were the Philistines Greek?

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-9788-0715-5

OCLC:

1153507077