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ATHENA :
NEITHER BLACK NOR WHITE BUT BRIGHT. Greco - European Athena compared to the Afro - Asian one.
Professor Stavros Theofanides, Panteion University
The current controversy about Athena' s color is nonsense. In Mythology, all white people think that their God is white and all black people think that their God is black.
-What is the origin of God indeed ? Greek-European or Afro-Asian?
Every human community creates its own gods. The Greeks , with their own culture, created their own gods, they gave them their own names, presented them in accordance with their own image, and portrayed them with their own colors. The Afro - Asians , with their own culture, created their own gods with their own characteristics. The attached pictures show the great difference between the Greek and the Afro-Asian conceptions about the image of their respective gods and goddesses : The Greek- European Athena is a solemn and serious lady "conceived in Greece " according to the Greeks' own image. The Egyptian ( or Afroasiatic) "Athena" is some kind of a totem or animal or monster, not a human being! It is "made in Afro-Asia".
As the religious feeling or the need for religion prevails to all people it produces their own Athenas . There is no superiority aspect in the case of the two Athenas. There are only different images and concepts about them. The Greek- European Athena is the creation of well-known Great Poets ( Homer, Hesiod, ), and the product of " the Greek miracle".
- The Afro-Asian "Athena" is the creation of some unknown Magicians or mysterious Priests. - The Greeks created their gods or goddesses, like Athena , in their own image, in their own "measure"
- The Afro-Asians created their gods or goddesses as beasts, monsters, lions, birds etc. - The Greek gods and goddesses were human, familiar, friendly, companionable, even laughable.
- The Afro- Asian gods and goddesses were fearsome, mysterious, awesome, and sometimes horrifying..
The Greek Athena bears no relation to the Afro-Asian one at all.. . In fact, the Greek Athena as a human creature had more than a hundred epithets or appellations according to the human imagination and particular needs e.g Ergani (= Athena of Work and Technology). Kalliergos (=Athena of Great Art Works), Agoraia, Pronaia, Voulaia etc. The Afro-Asian " Athena" was a monstrous creature the result of fear or spectre ( a bete noir )
According to the ancient Greek philosopher Isokrates, " Greeks (or Hellenes) are all those who share the same cultural values " (< της παιδεύσεως της ημετέρας μετέχοντες ..>) irrespective of whether they are " black", "white", etc. Athena, in Greek culture and philosophy, is neither black nor white, but bright..
Professor Stavros Theofanides, Panteion University, Athens January / 1987