Black Athena

Martin Bernal argues that we should take the writers of the Classical and Hellenistic periods seriously when they claimed that their higher culture and their religion in particular, derived from Egypt and the Levant.

In his controversial series of books Black Athena, Martin Bernal proposed that we should take the writers of the Classical and Hellenistic periods seriously when they claimed that their higher culture and their religion in particular, derived from Egypt and the Levant. Since the beginning of the 19th century, argues Bernal, Northern Europeans have denied that Greece, the cradle and epitome of Europe, could have received the basis of its civilization from African and Asian inferior ‘races – and have viewed their successes in the contemporary world as the result of innate superior
qualities and they have therefore tried to project them back into the past. Volume III of Black Athena, which argues that Greek is an Indo-European language in its

phonology and morphology, has just been published. Bernal with be in conversation with Frederic Raphael, author of Some Talk of Alexander, screenwriter and winner of an Oscar for his screenplay of Darling.
Participating chair: Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the author of The Return of Ulysses.
Nash Room, £10/ £9 concs/ £8 ICA members

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund