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![WHY DO ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN SOURCES Nordic Hellas DESCRIBE THEMSELVES AS PEOPLE WITH "NORDIC" FEATURES? Titan goddess Hera (sister & wife of Zeus) Athena (daughter of Zeus) During the course of my investigations into Nordic racial history, I have gathered together some rather interesting material on the presence of the Nordic race in the Classical World. Of particular value, are the researches of J. L. Angel, who performed an extensive survey of all ancient Greek crania. Angel analysed these skulls from a typological perspective, and because of the position he took on the reality of race, he was subsequently much criticised by his contemporaries. FA We may note that Angel (1944), calculated that during the Classical period of Greek history (650-150 BC), 27% of the Greek population had been predominantly Nordic in type. He observed that prior to the Classical period, the Nordic element had been larger, and that after it, the element in question had declined. [Angel (1943; 1944; 1945; 1946a, b, c.] Angel (1971), also noted that the immigrant Indo-Europeans, were of Nordic subrace. "Even as when the lord of fair-haired Hera lighteneth, what time he maketh ready" [Homer, Iliad 750 B.C] "Let her gather the older women on the Acropolis, at bright-eyed Athene's shrine: unlock the doors of the sacred temple, and lay on the knees of golden-haired Athene" Peterson (1974), studied portrait busts of famous ancient Greek personages, and concluded that the aristocracies of Hellas were a product of closely interbreeding, Eupatrid clans. These clans were mostly Nordic in type, being largely descended from the Indo-European invaders. The demos, or common people however, as well as most slaves, were of Mediterranean, Pelasgian descent. 66 [Homer, Illad; 750 B.C] "All-powerful Hera drove these daughters in fear from the lovely halls... while still virgins, they entered the sanctuary of the purple-belted goddess, and said that their father far surpassed in wealth the golden-haired consort of holy, widely powerful Zeus." The study of Greek literature which Sieglin (1935) performed, has demonstrated that many individuals in the elites of ancient Greece, had blond or red hair. For instance, Alcibiades, Alexander the Great, Critias, Demetrius of Phalerum, King Lysimachus, Ptolemy II Philadelphus and King Pyrrhus, were all fair-haired individuals. Dionysius I, the ruler of Syracuse, had blond hair and freckles, whilst the Athenian playwright Euripides, also had a fair and freckled complexion. [Günther (1956).] Some critics have attempted to claim that the Greek word "ksanthos" (xanthos), means "brown-haired", rather than "blond- haired". However, a recent article by Moonwomon (1994), on colour-meaning in ancient Greek, reveals that the word did in fact "Theano took the robe, laid it on golden-haired Athene's knees..." [Bacchylides, Epinicians; 470 B. C.] - [Homer, Iliad ; 750 B.C) Titan goddess Demeter (Sister of Zeus) 66 ENIAYTI "Vow to golden-haired Athene that you'll sacrifice at her shrine." mean blond. [Homer, Iliad; 750 B.C) There are also numerous interesting examples from Greek literature which can be cited. For instance, in Homer's lliad, and Odyssey, whilst the aristocrats such as Achilles and Menelaus have blond hair, the slaves Eurybates and Thersites are brunet. Indeed, the Greek orator Dio of Prusa noted that the Greek ideal of beauty was a Nordic one. The Greeks, he said, admired the blond Achilles, but thought that the barbarian Trojan Hector, was black-haired. [Günther (1956).] In his Argonautica, the Greek poet Apollonius Rhodius, describes the hero Jason, and all fifty of the Argonauts, as blond-haired. [Sieglin (1935).] When the heroine Electra, in Euripides' play of that name, finds a lock of her brother Orestes' hair, on the grave of their father Agamemnon, she can tell that it is his hair, because of its distinctive blond colour. It would appear that the nobility of ancient Greece was distinguished from the dark masses, by its many blond members. [Ridgeway (1909).] The poet Bacchylides said that the women of Sparta were blonde, and Dicaearchus said much the same thing about the women of Thebes. [Günther (1956).] For the Greeks, the most beautiful woman who ever lived, Helen, was a blonde, as were those mythical men such as Adonis, who were famed for their handsomeness. [Sieglin (1935).] "And once the golden-haired, bright-eyed goddess [Athena] made Diomedes an immortal god" - [Pindar, Nemean X; 444 B.C) "So said the bright-eyed goddess and swiftly got up into the car with victory." Demeter (Hesiod, Shield of Heracles ; 700 B.C] For more literary descriptions of pigmentation in ancient Greek poetry and prose, as well as craniological evidence, I can recommend the following works: De Lapouge (1899), Jax (1933), Myres (1930), Reche (1936) and Ridgeway (1901). 66 "And blue-eyed Athene went thence to great Olympus." "But golden-haired Demeter sat there apart from all the blessed gods and stayed, wasting with yearning for her deep-bosomed daughter." [Hesold; the homeric hymns 700 B.c] Günther's works on the subject of Greek racial history (1927; 1928; 1929a, b; 1956; 1961), are particularly valuable. Günther performed a detailed analysis of Greek history, from a biological perspective. Utilising craniological, literary, and pictorial evidence, he reconstructed the racial structure of ancient Greece. He concluded that the Nordic subrace formed something of an ideal for the Greeks, and that the Nordic element was more influential than any other. At the summit of its achievements, Greece possessed a large Nordic element, but as this element declined, so did Greek culture and civilisation. [Hesoid ; Hymn to Demeter; 700 B.C] *..and Zeus's blue-eyed daughter "when fair-haired Demeter amid the driving blasts of wind separates the grain from the chaff," [Homer, Iliad; 750 B.CJ [Homer, Iliad; 750 B.C) Finally, we may observe that in the fourth-century AD, the Jewish physician and sophist Adamantios, described the "true Greek" thus: "On this Athena came close up to him and said, "Son of Arceisius-pray to the blue-eyed Apollo (son of Zeus) "Wherever the Hellenic and lonic race has been kept pure, we see proper tall men of fairly broad and straight build, neatly made, of fairly light skin and blond; the flesh is rather firm, the limbs straight, the extremities well made. The head is of middling size, and moves very easily; the neck is strong, the hair somewhat fair, and soft, and a little curly; damsel, and to Zeus her father." [Homer, Odyssey : 750 8.C] Dionysus (son of Zeus) the face is rectangular, the lips narrow, the nose straight, and the eyes bright, piercing, and full of light; for of all nations the Greek has the fairest eyes." [Günther (1927) 157.] I do not personally believe that the Nordic racial element in ancient Greece was ever predominant, but I do think that it was concentrated in the elites, and that it therefore probably had a disproportionately large influence. It is easiest to study and trace the impact of this particular element, because of its distinctive pigmentation. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Angel, J. L. (1971) Lerna: A Preclassical Site in the Argolid, Volume Il – The People (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press). "But to us, Apollo, splendid in your golden hair, grant in your own contests" De Lapouge, G. V. (1899) L'Aryen: Son Rôle Social (Paris: Albert Fontemoing). [Pindar, Odes ; 472 B. C] Günther, H. F. K. [G. C. Wheeler, trans.] (1927) The Racial Elements of European History (London: Methuen). 66 "Golden-haired Apollo still loves the state of Syracuse and honors Hieron, the city's lawful Günther, H. F. K. (1928) Platon als Hüter des Lebens: Platons Zucht- und Erziehungsgedanken und deren Bedeutung für die Gegenwart (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). ruler." "And golden-haired Dionysus made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife" [Bacchytides, Epinicians; 470 B. C] Günther, H. F. K. (1929a) Rassengeschichte des hellenischen und des römischen Volkes: Mit einem Anhang - Hellenische und römische Köpfe nordischer Rasse (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). [Hesoid, the homeric hymns; 700 B.C] Günther, H. F. K. (1929b) Rassenkunde Europas: Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Rassengeschichte der Hauptvölker indogermanischer Sprache (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). "The golden-haired god [Apollo] sent gentle-minded Eleithula and the Fates to help her." "Ah me, lord Dionysus, where are you faring without your companions, shaking your golden [Pindar, Olympian; 472 B. C.] hair?" Günther, H. F. K. (1956) Lebensgeschichte des hellenischen Volkes (Pähl: Verlag Hohe Warte). [Euripides, Cyclops; 423 B.C] 66 Jax, K. (1933) Die weibliche Schönheit in der griechischen Dichtung (Innsbruck: Universitäts-Verlag Wagner). "beloved of the gold-haired god, Apollo, in fulness of heart" Myres, J. L. (1930) Who Were the Greeks? (Berkeley: University of California Press). [Pindar, Odes; 472 B.C] "this new deity Dionysus, a sorcerer, a conjuror from the Lydian land, fragrant in hair with golden curls" Reche, O. (1936) Rasse und Heimat der Indogermanen (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). 66 "Golden-haired far-darter, son of Zeus" [Euripides, Bacchae; 405 B.C] Ridgeway, W. (1901) The Early Age of Greece, Volume I (London: Cambridge University Press). - [Aristotle, Rhetoric ; 367 B.C.] Artemis (daughter of Zeus) Sieglin, W. (1935) Die blonden Haare der indogermanischen Völker des Altertums (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). Articles 66 "the son of Leto [Apollo), his golden locks flowed in clusters as he moved" Angel, J. L. (1943) "Ancient Cephallenians: The Population of a Mediterranean Island." American Journal of Physical Anthropology, I, 229-260. -[Apollonius Rhodes, Argonautica ; 283 B.C) Aphrodite (daughter of Zeus) Angel, J. L. (1944) "A Racial Analysis of the Ancient Greeks: An Essay on the Use of Morphological Types." American Journal of Physical Anthropology, II, 329-376. Angel, J. L. (1945) "Skeletal Material From Attica." Hesperia, XIV, 279-363. Angel, J. L. (1946a) "Race, Type, and Ethnic Group in Ancient Greece." Human Biology, XVIII, 1-32. Angel, J. L. (1946b) "Skeletal Change in Ancient Greece." American Journal of Physical Anthropology, IV, 69-97. Angel, J. L. (1946c) "Social Biology of Greek Culture Growth." American Anthropologist, XLVIII, 493-533. "Never, never, Lady Artemis, golden-haired child of Zeus, may I endure that slavery." Günther, H. F. K. (1961) "Like a Greek God.... Translated by Vivian Bird from Professor Hans F. K. Guenther's Rassenkunde des Hellenischen Volkes." Northern World, VI (1), 5-16. [Euripides, Phoenician woman ; 411 B.C] Heracles (son of Zeus) 66 Moonwomon, B. (1994) "Color Categorization in Early Greek." Journal of Indo-European Studies, XXII, 37-65. "Aphrodite smiled upon the lovers, her yellow tresses received the tiring that was due to them" Peterson, R. (1974) "The Greek Face." Journal of Indo-European Studies, II, 385-406. - [Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica] Ridgeway, W. (1909) "The Relation of Anthropology to Classical Studies." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, XXXIX, 10-25. Nordic Italy .and Hermione, who was fair as blond Aphrodite herself. [Homer Odyssey, 750 B.C] "ambrosial loveliness that Aphrodite wears when she goes dancing with the Graces, while as for her complexion it was whiter than sawn Ivory. [Homer Odyssey, 750 B.C) 66 66 I will sing of Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful, They clothed her with heavenly "..To requite him [Heracles] for all his labors in purging land and sea. If I were young and still powerful in body, I would have seized my spear and dabbled those flaxen locks of his garments: and adorned her with golden necklaces over her soft neck and snow-white breasts with blood.." [Hesoid , Hymn to Aphrodite ; 750 B.C] [Euripides, Heracles; 416 BCE] It is clear that throughout its history, Italy has been subject to several invasions by predominantly Nordic peoples. The first of 66 these invasions laid the foundations for ancient Rome. The early Patrician class was constituted from Nordic racial elements, "First he [Hercales] cleared the grove of Zeus of a lion, and put its skin upon his back, hiding his yellow hair in its fearful tawny gaping jaws." as C--- affirms: - [Euripides , Heracles 416 BCE] "Their facial type is not native to the Mediterranean basin, but is more at home in the north.... Graces (daughters of Zeus) .the movements from the north introduced Nordics of two varieties; the classic Hallstatt type, and the Keltic Iron Age type which was later to form the basic racial element among the Roman patricians." [C--- (1939) 194; 554.] Rhadamanthus (son of Zeus) The French author Rochat, examined portraits of the ancient Romans, and concluded that the Roman type was essentially Nordic. [Günther (1957).] The Swiss physical anthropologist His (1866), after studying both sculptures and skulls, determined that the true Romans had been Nordic. There also exists a considerable body of evidence in relation to pigmentation. The German classicist Sieglin (1935), studied ancient Roman records, and demonstrated that the family names of most Patrician clans, denoted Nordic racial features, when they were translated from their original Latin. For instance, there were numerous Rufii, Rubrii and Rutilii, names which refer to red hair. There were also Flavi, Flaviani and Fulvi, which reveals blond hair. Sieglin studied all the references that were made to noted Romans, throughout the history of Roman literature. He compiled the following list of individuals, whose names are indicative of their possessing fair hair; Sieglin found: 7 Flavi, 20 Flaviani, 10 Fulvi, 121 Fulvii, 27 Rubrii, 26 Rufi, 24 Rufii, 36 Rufini, 45 Rutilii and 13 Ahenobarbi. He also observed that the names Flavius, Rufi and Rufini, were frequently employed by several Patrician families. [Sieglin (1935) 53.] 66 "Our people who saw it, when they carried fair-haired Rhadamanthus to visit Tityus" We also possess descriptions of famous individuals. In his Life of Cato the Elder, Plutarch states that the Censor had red hair and blue eyes; in the same author's Life of Sulla, he declares that the Dictator possessed golden-blond hair and blue eyes. Suetonius, in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, said that both Augustus and Nero had blond hair and blue eyes, that Galba had blue eyes, whilst Domitian not only had a ruddy complexion, but also composed a poem about an elderly, red-haired Roman that he knew. Suetonius also notes that Nero's gens were referred to as the Ahenobarbi, (Copper Beards), because his clan continually produced men who had red beards. Finally, we can observe that the name "Caesar", derives from the Latin word caesius, which means "blue-eyed". [Günther (1957) 147-162.] [Homer, Odyssey; 750 B.C) (The Graces & Muses were a bunch of demi-goddeses that were commonly referred as the "daughter's of Zeus" who lived with the gods on Olympus) 66 "There yellow-haired Rhadamanthus (son of Zeus) reigns - [Homer Odyssey; 750 B.C] 66 "Son of Alexibias, the fair-haired Graces flare about you." It is interesting to note that the Romans thought that Aeneas, Romulus and Remus, as well as Roma, the goddess who symbolised the Eternal City itself, were all golden-haired individuals. It would seem that the Romans could only have thought that the mythical founders of their people were blond, if they were themselves an originally blond-haired nation. [Ogle (1929).] In his researches Günther (1927; 1929a, b; 1957), has examined in great detail, the racial history of the Romans, and has successfully demonstrated that the origins of Rome's greatness lay in its Nordic racial elements. Achilles (Hero) "Aiakos wears the wreath luxuriant with flowers, the gift of the fair-haired Graces." [Pindar, pythian ; 472 B. C.] ACHILLES 66 This essentially Nordic trend continued into the Early Modern Period. The Germanic invasions refreshed Italy's Nordic stock, "Bright-eyed Muses, tell of the Tyndaridae, the Sons of Zeus, glorious children..." and in time gave birth to the Renaissance. It is significant that the Renaissance flowered in the north of Italy, where the Nordic Calypso element was strongest, and not in the predominantly Mediterranean south. Throughout the Renaissance period, the ideal of beauty was Nordic. Dante's Beatrice, and Petrarch's Laura, were both blondes. Botticelli's and Titian's paintings depicted the blonde woman as being the most beautiful. MAY 22 However, the blond element was not solely confined to images of the ideal. It is equally clear that the many geniuses the Renaissance produced, throughout several different fields of expertise, were also predominantly Nordic. Ripley (1899), thought that because Northern Italy is predominantly Alpine today, most of the great Renaissance figures must also have been Alpine. However, the facts do not confirm his speculations. Sergi and Frassetto (1925), examined the crania of several great Italians, including Dante, Petrarch, Raphael, Foscolo and Volta, and observed that all were either dolichocephalic, or mesocephalic. Of course, the true Alpine is brachycephalic. [Welcker (1884).] "This I heard from fair-haired Calypso, and she said that she herself had heard it from the messenger Hermmes." 66 "Men say that you (Achilles] are son to noble Peleus (grandson of Zeus), and that your mother is Thetis, fair-haired daughter of the sea (Homer, Odyssey; 750 B.C) Briseis (Trojan princess) [Homer Liad, 750 B.CJ In addition to this, we should not neglect the researches of Woltmann (1905). Woltmann studied portrait paintings, busts and written descriptions, to ascertain the physical features of the great men of the Italian Renaissance. He revealed that many of the individuals in question, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Tasso, Galileo, etc., were of Germanic descent, and that they possessed Nordic racial characteristics. The results of his investigations, were as follows: of the 125 men whose eye colour could be discerned, 102 had blue, blue-grey or blue-green eyes; 18 had brown or brown-grey eyes; and 5 had eyes of mixed pigmentation. Of the 108 men whose hair colour could be accurately determined, 68 had blond or red hair; 26 had brown hair; 66 66 "Athena came down from heaven: She stood behind him [Achilles] and held him back by "For he lay in idleness among the ships in wrath because of the fair-haired girl Briseis" his long yellow hair. No other man saw her but Achilles alone." [Homer, Iliad; 750 B.C] (Homer Liad, 750 B.C) Danaans/Achaeans (greek soldiers) 66 and 14 had black hair. [Woltmann (1905) 143-144.] Woltmann also discovered that most of the noble families who ruled over "Achilles then bethought him of another matter, He went and cut off the yellow tock which he had let grow much of Northern Italy, produced blond individuals throughout their generations. Such families as the d'Este of Ferrara, the Bentivoglia of Bologna and the Sforza of Milan, were all largely blond-haired and blue-eyed. [Woltmann (1905) 42-49.] (Homer Liad, 750 B.C) We should also note the words of Bartolomeo Las Casas; in his Historia de las Indias, he depicted Christopher Columbus in the following manner: we laid you (Achilles) on your bed and cleansed your fair skin with warm water and with "He was tall, had a long, striking countenance, aquiline nose, blue eyes, and a light skin, inclined to be ruddy; his beard and hair in youth were fair, but care soon whitened them." [Günther (1927) 215.] ointments [Homer Odyssey, 850 B.C) Even in modern Italy, during the period of the Risorgimento, many of the great politicians and artists were Nordic: Garibaldi had red hair, Cavour was blond, Canova had blue eyes, etc. [Woltmann (1905) 133-141.] If you are interested in this subject, and wish to know more about it, then I suggest that you also read the following works: Cogni (1937), De Lapouge (1899), Los (1968), Plumb (1961) and Reche (1936). Odysseus (grandson of Hermes) The "Danaans" or "Achaeans" were terms used by Homer to colectivly describe the Greek soldiers who fought against the Trojans during the Trojan war. 66 King Priam speaks: "Now I see all the bright-eyed Achaeans whom I know well." BIBLIOGRAPHY Books King Prlam speaks: "But those forces then were fewer than these bright-eyed Achaeans." [Homer Iliad; 750 B.C] Cogni, G. (1937) I valori della stirpe italiana (Milan: Fratelli Bocca). C---, C. S. (1939) The Races of Europe (New York: Macmillan). 66 De Lapouge, G. V. (1899) L'Aryen: Son Rôle Social (Paris: Albert Fontemoing). "Thereafter they were the high tords of the fair-haired Danaans;" Günther, H. F. K. [G. C. Wheeler, trans.] (1927) The Racial Elements of European History (London: Methuen). [Pindar, Odes; 472 B. C.] Günther, H. F. K. (1929a) Rassengeschichte des hellenischen und des römischen Volkes: Mit einem Anhang – Hellenische und römische Köpfe nordischer Rasse (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). 66 Athena speaks: "I will begin by disgulsing you [Odysseus] so that no human being shall know you; I will cover your body with wrinkles; you shalt tose all your yellow hair; As she spoke Athena touched him with her wand and took away all his yellow hair. 66 Günther, H. F. K. (1929b) Rassenkunde Europas: Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Rassengeschichte der Hauptvölker indogermanischer Sprache (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). "... man-conquering Eriphyle became the most powerful of the golden-haired Danaans." [Pindar, Nemean Odes 480 B.C] [Homer, odyssey: 750 8.C) Berenice Il of Egypt Günther, H. F. K. (1957) Lebensgeschichte des römischen Volkes (Pähl: Verlag Hohe Warte). Helen of Troy (Daughter of Zeus) Plumb, J. H. (1961) The Horizon Book of the Renaissance (London: Collins). Reche, O. (1936) Rasse und Heimat der Indogermanen (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). Ripley, W. Z. (1899) The Races of Europe: A Sociological Study (New York: D. Appleton). Sieglin, W. (1935) Die blonden Haare der indogermanischen Völker des Altertums (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag). Woltmann, L. (1905) Die Germanen und die Renaissance in Italien (Leipzig: Thüringische Verlagsanstalt). Articles His, W. (1866) "Beschreibung einiger Schädel altschweizerischer Bevõlkerung nebst Bemerkungen über die Aufstellung von Schädeltypen." Archiv für Anthropologie, I, 61–74. Berenice II Queen Of Egypt Los, F. J. (1968) "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire: The Biological Background." Mankind Quarterly, IX, 3-19. Ogle, M. B. (1929) "The Blonde Aeneas: Vergil, Aeneid 1.592." Classical Weekly, XXIII, 28-30. The Egyptian queen Bernice II from the Ptolemaic dynasty was also blond: Sergi, G. & F. Frassetto (1925) "Esame antropologico delle ossa di Dante nel VI centenario della sua morte." Rivista di 66 Antropologia, XXVI, 3-17. "Berenice's Hair, which, from her glorious head, Fulgent in brightness afar...the consecrate spoils shed by a blond-hued head" "and among them uprose goodly Alexander, lord of fair-haired Helen;" Welcker, H. (1884) "Der Schädel Rafael's und die Rafaelporträts." Archiv für Anthropologie, XV, 417-440. "goodly Alexander, tord of fair-haired Helen, had smitten him with an arrow" - [Valerius Catullus, Carmina; 84 B.C] "LIKE A GREEK GOD..." "Was it not for fair-haired Helens sake?" [Homer, Iliad: 750 B.C) King ptolmey Il of Egypt Translated by Vivian Bird from Professor Hans F. K. Günther's Lebensgeschichte des hellenischen Volkes "It is for this that you (Helen] have cut your locks of golden hair?" (Euripides, Helen; 412 B.C] 66 "Breast, cheek, and golden hairt ah, how grievous you have found Helen" [Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis, 410 B.C) Menelaus இஇஇஇஇ Ptolemy II King Of Egypt Egypt Fragment of a scene on a Greek red-figure vase depicting (from left to right) Odysseus, Agamemnon and Thersites. [Günther (1929) 21.] Ptolemy II Philadelphus the Macedonian prince who ruled Egypt from 283-246 B.C also The Homeric poems describe the gods and goddesses as blond and blue-eyed; the word for bright hair is generally xanthós, into whose definition we will enter later. The Iliad describes Demeter as blonde, Aphrodite as golden-haired; it describes had blond hair: Athena as blue-eyed, and in fact refers to her fifty-seven times as Zeus' blue-eyed daughter Athena. The world is glaukopis, which may be deduced from glaukos, meaning "bright, sparkling." Pindar later described Athena as glaukopis and xantha, thereby clearly referring to her blue eyes and golden hair-colour. "..of such noble sort is the flaxen-haired prince that is throne in these level plains... farewell, Lord Ptolemy; and I will speak of thee as of other demi-gods.." 66 -[Theocritus, Idylls; 270 B.C) "Next to him, yellow-haired Menelaus son of Atreus [grandson of Zeus] After Homer, the description glaukopis becomes more seldom; however, it appears in isolated instances in Sophocles (Oedipus at Colonus, 705) and with Aristophanes (Thesmophoriazusae, 317). A conversation between a Greek and a "and even so Helen dishonoured the couch of golden-haired Menelaus" Roman in the "Attic Nights" of the Roman writer Aulus Gellius, which compares colour meanings in the two languages, gives information about the colour references of the word glaukopis. There (II, 26, 18), glaucum is explained as meaning "grey-blue" and (II, 26, 19), the description glaukopis of the goddess Athena is explained as caesia, "the heavenly blue-eyed." The same tradition, going back to Hom Boios (in Antoninus Liberalis, Collection of Metamorphoses, 15) Agron mocks the bright eyes of the goddess and praises his own dark eyes, and even with the Roman poet Hyginus, in the first century AD, Hera and Aphrodite mock the goddess Athena on account of her bright eyes: quod caesia erat. The word glaukopis was synonymous with glaukómmatos, "bright-eyed," in contrast to melanómmatos, "dark-eyed." Thus, in a commentary to a passage in the Iliad (IV, 147), the Achaean hero Menelaus was described by the commentator Peisander as "blond-haired, tall in stature and bright-eyed," and thereby he used the word glaukómmatos (xanthokómes, mégas en glaukómmatos). "for he knew in his heart that golden-haired Menelaus would win, since he was greatest of the Achaeans." of the blue-eyedness of Athena, is found in the saga of Byssa and Meropis: there, according - [Homer Iliad; 750 B.C) Emperor Augustus: AUGUSTUS SAPPHO. The Odyssey describes the god Rhadamanthys as blond, Aphrodite as golden-haired, Athena again and again as blue-eyed. Also, a name like Phoebus Apollo, deduced from phoibos, meaning "bright, shining, radiating," may not only describe the nature of a Sun-god, but also the bright colour of skin, hair and eyes. The sea-god Poseidon, on the other hand, is described by the Odyssey (III, 6), as dark-haired and dark-eyed - a god of the pre-Hellenic Mediterranean world, whose defeat in battle by Athena in Attica, was represented on the gable of the Parthenon, on the Acropolis. Sappho's Family The Ancient greek poettess Sappho (who was of aristocratic origin) was dark haired (Alcaeus. fragment 55 Bergk) but her daughter Cleis is described as "a girl whose hair is yellower than torchlight" (Sappho. fragment 98a). Furthermore Sappho's eldest brother Charaxus is found described in Ovid as (flava) golden haired (Met. xit. 210). It seems then that although Sappho herself was brunette, most members of her family were in fact blonde which confirms the dominant blonde strain of the Greek aristocracy. The figures of the human world are featured by the Homeric poems as being light-skinned and bright-eyed; thus Achilles, Menelaus and Meleager of the Iliad are described as blond, likewise Briseis and Agamede among the feminine figures; Helen is (III, 121) called "glittering." The Odyssey in many places describes (Wilhelm Sieglin has recorded all these places), Menelaus as blond, it describes Penelope as blonde, Hermione as blonde and Aphrodite as golden-haired. The Iliad and Odyssey mention lily-armed goddesses and princesses, white-armed and silver-footed goddesses and mortal women. Hiştorical tribes with blue eyes and blonde hair: O romanemperors.com Karl Jax has observed that among Homeric references to mortal girls and women, as also with the goddesses of the Homeric poems, dark hair is completely lacking, and Georg Finsler has stressed that the blond hair-colour in Homer is held to be beautiful and striking to such an extent, that the poet, in a moment of carelessness, even calls Odysseus blond, although he was generally accepted as dark-haired. The physical description of the Roman emperor Augustus by Suetonius: The Bhudini tribe: "He had clear, bright eyes, in which he liked to have it thought that there was a kind of divine power, and it greatly pleased him, whenever he looked keenly at anyone, if he let The Bhudini were an ancient tribe of iranian people who lived near the black sea, The Bhudini aswell as other Indo-Iranian/a---- tribes like the Scythians & Alans were commonly described by ancient greek & roman historians as having yellow/red hair. The ancient historian Herodotus gives an account of the Bhudini people: his face fall as if before the radiance of the sun; but in his old age he could not see very The description of the physical features of Odysseus, "the rich in cunning," needs extensive examination, however. Odysseus diverges from the picture of the other Homeric heroes. By the Iliad (III, 193/94, 210/11) he is described as a "sitting giant," appearing when seated near Agamemnon to be as tall as the latter, but in standing, to be shorter, but also broader, more thick- set in shoulders and chest. Thus Odysseus is not, like the other heroes, of tall, slim type. The Odyssey describes him (VI, 231) as light-skinned, and in another place (XIII, 397, 431), his head-hair is called blond (xanthós); however, it calls his beard dark (XVI, 176). According to hair-colour, Odysseus is also described by the Odyssey (VI, 231; XVI, 175; XXIII, 157/58) as hyákinthos, which previously was mostly translated as "brownish." This "hyacinth colour" is, however, as Wilhelm Sieglin has shown, to be described as "reddish," because the hyacinth was cultivated in Hellas as a sub-type with reddish blooms. well with his left eye. His teeth were wide apart, small, and ill-kept; his hair was slightly curty and inclining to golden; his eyebrows met. His ears were of moderate size, and his nose projected a little at the top and then bent stightly inward. His complexion was between dark and fair. He was short of stature (although Jullus Marathus, his freedman and keeper of his records, says that he was five feet and nine inches in helght), but this was concealed by the fine proportion and symmetry of his figure, and was noticeable only "The Bhudini are a large and powerful nation: they all have deep blue eyes, and bright red hair. There is a town in their country called Gelonus which is made out of wood. Each side by comparison with some taller person standing beside him." of its high outer wall is thirty stades long, made entirely of wood, and wood has been used for all its houses and shrines too. They have sanctuaries there which are dedicated to the - [Suetonius , Life of Augustus; 69 CE ] Greek gods and equipped in the Greek manner with statues, altars and buildings of wood; and every third year they celebrate a festival of Dionysus" The sturdy, thick-set and dark-bearded Odysseus is not of the same type as the other Achaean heroes, either in respect to bodily or mental features. The distinction of his being "rich in cunning," as if of a mixed man, was probably not made consciously by the poet; rather, must Odysseus be regarded as a saga figure of the pre-Hellenic world, who is equilibrated by the poet as far as possible to the image of the Achaean heroes. That he is a relic of a strange race, closest to a residue of the Hither-Asiatic type, remains distinguishable, however. Odysseus is a figure like Palamedes, a hero of the the Achaean saga of Troy who, however, only appeared with post-Homeric poets; half-Achaean and half-Levantine, rich in cunning and bold, part Hither-Asiatic, part Nordic, in every way different from the open-hearted noblemen such as Achilles, Patrocles, Agamemnon and Menelaus. Count Gobineau has already observed this weft of a strange type with Odysseus. He called him a Greek with Phoenician ancestors. Odysseus could be courageous when necessary, but preferred cunning; his language is malleable and seductive; lies do not terrify him, treachery does not dismay him, wiliness causes him no trouble. Eloquent, cunning, treacherous, dangerous, he resembles rather a pirate trader from Sidon or a senator from Carthage, while with his richness of [Herodotus, The Histories ; 440 B.CJ Emperor Nero: NERO Thracians: thought, his imperturbability, his capacity of bridling his passions, with the occasional moderation and modesty, which in his case always proceeds from rational calculation, he is rather of Nordic type. V. Bérard was of the opinion that the Odyssey was indeed written by a Greek, but that its hero, Odysseus, was a Phoenician. Thus the mental and physical nature of this hero has again and again called forth conjecture about a pre-Hellenic origin, of which the latest is asserted by Wolfgang Aly. Aly holds Odysseus to be a saga figure from the pre-Hellenic world of the Cretans. The physical description of the Roman emperor Augustus by Suetonius: In the figure of Odysseus, "rich in cunning," we see the after-effect of the East Mediterranean lands on the pre-Indo-Germanic 66 world, the weft of Hither-Asiatic race, which was peculiar to this world, this weft being in every case stronger than the weft of the Western (Mediterranean) race; but with this figure the later Hellas also makes its appearance, a Hellas in which through mixture with the immigrating Indo-Germans, together with the descendants of the original population, and through additional region of Bulgaria, During the Trojan war they allied with the Trojans in the war against wanderings from Asia Minor, the weft of Hither-Asiatic race reached out more and more and penetrated into the upper strata. In the later course of Greek history, more and more Nordic/Hither-Asiatic men like Odysseus must have appeared in the leading strata, becoming more Hither-Asiatic than Nordic, and at length filled with ever more men of preponderantly Hither- Asiatic race. Dishonesty, treachery, crafty calculation, corruptibility, and betrayal, more and more sully the pages of Hellenic history, indeed the history of all Hellenic tribes and settlements. In these characteristics, the Greek appears at length very far estranged from his original Indo-Germanic nature, from the high-aiming purity of all the early ages of the Indo-Germanic peoples, more estranged indeed than the Persian and Iranian of the Achaemenid Age, which in its faith, Mazdaism, had increased this very Indo-Germanic purity, the abhorrence of lies, to a proud confession of its nature. Men of Hither-Asiatic race have always been regarded as more cunning by men of other types. The Phoenicians, a folk with strong Hither-Asiatic weft, "He was about the average height, his body marked with spots and malodorous, his hair light blond, his features regular rather than attractive, his eyes blue and somewhat weak, his neck over thick, his belly prominent, and his legs very slender. His health was good, for though indulging in every kind of riotous excess, he was ill but three times in all during the fourteen years of his reign, and even then not enough to give up wine or any of his usual habits. He was utterly shameless In the care of his person and in his dress, always having his hair arranged in tiers of curts, and during the trip to Greece also letting it grow tong The Thracians were an ancient tribe of people who lived next to greece around the the Greeks , In their tradition they also claim to have descended from the greek god Ares who they accepted as their patron god. The greek philosopher Xenophanes described them with blue eyes & red hair when he compared them with the Ethiopians: and hang down behind; and he often appeared in public in a dining-robe, with a handkerchief bound about his neck, ungirt and unshod." "...Ethiopians are black and snub-nosed, those of the Thracians have blue eyes and red hair." (Suetonius, Life of Nero; 70 CE ) [Xenophanes, Fragments; 544 B.C) Dying hair blonde was a popular trend in ancient Rome: Homer (Iliad, XIV, 288) described as "treacherous men," and "arch swindlers." What was sensed to be Hither-Asiatic in Odysseus, the gift of feeling his way into mental life strange to him, the art of calculating the mental features of other men and other human groups, appears in the later Hellenic age not only in many traders travelling from place to place, but also in merchants of Greek language, in the graeculi paid and despised by the Romans, but permeates also the mode of thinking of many sophists and the opinions they taught. In his speech for Flaccus (17), and in letters to his brother Quintus, Marcus Tullius Cicero (Letters, 30, I, 16, 28; 53, II, 4) has described the mental make-up of many Hellenes of his age, which appeared to him, as to Western Europeans of later ages, to be of the nature of the "Levantine." In the book Encyclopedia of Hair, Victoria Sherrow explains: "Hair dyes were popular in ancient Rome, and historians have found more than 100 different recípes that the Romans used for bleaching or dying hair. Light hair became fashionable after Greek culture reached Italy and the Roman legionnaires began bringing back fair-haired slaves from Gaul. Women, and some men, applied bleaching agents to their hair and then exposed it to the sun to achieve a golden or red color. Wealthier people could afford to sprinkle actual gold dust on their hair to create a blond look, as did the Racial science evidence about the type of the Achaean and the Greek of the Homeric age, is represented by an assertion of the Iliad (XXII, 401); there, Hector the Trojan is described as dark-haired, in fact as non-Achaean, as stranger and foe. This distinction signifies, from a racial historical aspect, an error or an injustice, for the Trojans were themselves indeed relations of the Greeks, one of the pre-Hellenic, Indo-Germanic tribes from the region of the lower Danubian lands. The Trojan woman Briseis is called blonde by the Iliad (XIX, 283); here the contrast is forgotten. With Hector's description, the poet has wished to stress a racial contrast. This struck Dio of Prusa, also called Dio Chrysostomos, a writer, who was born around 40 AD and lived until the beginning of the second century AD; he has (21, 16) drawn attention to the fact that the beauty of the Hellenes must have been other than that of the barbarians: the Hellenes were blond like Achilles or Patrocles, the barbarians dark, as There are many debates to why the Romans wanted to dye their hair, most historians assume it was used mainly for prostitution which started when the Romans captured & imported female sex slaves from Celtic/Germanic tribes. ancient Phoenicians. Another way to achieve a lighter shade was to cover the hair with flower pollen and the crushed petals of yellow-colored flowers. When harsh bleaching agents caused hair loss, Roman women resorted to wigs made from the hair of blond Although another reason could simply be that blonde hair was viewed as an Aristrotic trait that may have determined a persons's social status in Roman society, To prove my point here is a complete List of Roman Emperors who had blond hair and blue eyes: slaves." the description of Hector shows. Emperor Reign Hair Colour Source Eye Colour Source 27 BC-AD "blond-haired" (subflavum) The Boeotian peasant-poet Hesiod (around 700 BC), represents Homer's gods, goddesses, heroes and heroines, as blond people. Athena he each time calls blue-eyed, thus in seven places, Dionysus he describes (Theogony, 947) as blond, likewise Ariadne and loleia (Fragment 110). Augustus Suetonius, 79 "grey-eyed" (glauci) Pliny, XI, 143 14 Tiberius AD 14-37 "grey/blue-eyed" (caesii) Pliny, XI, 142 To the idea of beautiful and noble men belong, for the Hellenic outlook, not only features like light skin, bright hair and blue eyes, but also tall and slim stature. The frequent turn of phrase "beautiful and tall" (kalós kai mégas), which already appears many times with Homer, can be further traced in Hellenic literature from Herodotus to Lucian; it is used for men, women and children. In the description of Nausicaa by the Odyssey (VI, 151) it is shown that to beauty and noble birth, according to Hellenic views, belongs tall stature; the same idea is given by the description of Telemachus by Nestor in the Odyssey (IV, 38). Aristotle says, in his Nicomachean Ethics (IV, 7), that to beauty belongs a tall body; small bodies could admittedly be pretty and well-shaped, but not actually beautiful. The Western race is strikingly represented by these short-statured people of a pretty type. For Nordic sensitivity, the nature of the body and mind of the Western race does not suffice for actual "beauty," because the idea of a beautiful person demands a certain gravity of soul, a greatness of soul, which was described as megalópsychía by the Hellenes, as magnanimitas by the Romans, or as the hôchgemüete of the German Middle Ages. The Western or Atlanto-Mediterranean racial soul is too light in gravity for Nordic feeling, too sparse in content, for the bodily "golden-bearded" (aurea Suetonius, 52; cf. Sieglin barba) Caligula AD 37-41 (1935) 105 "grey/white-haired" (canitieque) Malalas, X. 246 Claudius AD 41-54 Suetonius, 30 "grey-eyed" ήλαυκόφθαλμος) Suetonius. Nero AD 54-68 "blond-haired" (subflavo) Suetonius, 51 "grey/blue-eyed" (caesis) 51 "grey/white-haired" (μιξοπόλιος) "blue-eyed" (caeruleis) Suetonius, 21 Galba AD 68-69 Malalas, X, 258 features to be felt to be "beautiful." Otho AD 69 The Illiad not only allows it to be recognised by which bodily characteristics the Hellene of the early age was distinguished; it also shows in two examples, how the Greeks of the Homeric age viewed ugly men of the lower strata, just as later plastic art Malalas, X, 259; cf. Sieglin (1935) 110 Malalas. X. Vitellius AD 69 "redheaded" (πυρράκης) "grey-eyed" ήλαυκός) allows the recognition of what features the free Greek ascribed to the unfree, to the slaves of native or foreign origin. The Illiad calls two men curly-haired: Eurybates, the herald of Odysseus, a man with rounded shoulders, and Thersites, the "immeasurable gossip," the "first demagogue in Hellas," as he was also called. Both men belong to the lower strata, and thus 259 " wine-coloured eyes" (οινοπαης τους "grey/white-haired" (τολιός) Malalas, X, Vespasian AD 69-79 Malalas, X, 259 οφθαλμούς) 259 are descendants of the pre-Hellenic population, of the Indo-Germanised tribes. Thersites is bow-legged and limps; his head, which has begun to go bald, is of a pointed form: "pointed his head; sewn on the crown with thinnish wool" (Iliad, II, 219). It is striking that a form of head is mentioned here, which differs from that usual to the upper strata. With this "pointed" (phoxós) head, is meant either the sickly form of the so-called "tower-skull" (Turmschädel), or the head form of the Hither-Asiatic race, Titus AD 79-81 "blond-haired" Sieglin (1935) 109 Malalas, X, Domitian AD 81-96 "blond-haired" (faveóc) Malalas, X, 262 "grey-eyed" λαυκός) which with many men of this race may be described as "pointed." Thersites was also conceived by plastic art as a man of Hither-Asiatic race, with pointed head and projecting nose. On a cup from Attica of the time around 450 BC, the fable poet Aesop (sixth century BC), who probably belonged to the slave caste, is also shown with Hither-Asiatic features. 262 Nerva AD 96-98 "grey-haired" Day (2001) 106 "golden-haired" (caesaries) AD 98- In his Philoctetes (440 ff), Sophocles has interpreted Thersites completely according to Homeric tradition, in such a way that one would most of all think of the bodily and spiritual features of the Hither-Asiatic race. This race seems often to have provided folk seducers and demagogues, for which its own capacity of feeling its way into foreign mental life served also the calculation of the human spirit, and the loquacious heightening in themselves of their own feelings and the wish-images of excited crowds. The description in the Iliad of the bodily and mental nature of Thersites the "immeasurable gossip," corresponds to the repulsion felt by a Nordic ruling-caste to whom power belongs, towards a yelping under-man who dares to find fault with the noble power. Adolf Schulten has shown that Polybius (II, 33), has described the Tyrrhenians, originating from Asia Minor, as Thersitai. The name Thersites would thus have been applied to a man of Asian Minor origin, which Homer could still have perceived. Trajan Sieglin (1935) 109 117 AD 117- "dark-haired" Malalas, XI, Hadrian Sieglin (1935) 112 "grey-eyed" λαυκόφθαλμος) 138 (κυανοχαιτα) 277 " wine-coloured eyes" (οινοπαης τους οφθαλμούς) Malalas, XI, "grey/white-haired" (τολιός) Antoninus AD 138- Malalas, XI, 280 Pius 161 280 Marcus AD 161- Aurelius 180 The evidence of Homeric poetry shows, at least, how in the age of the poets, one imagined gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, to be. Thereby, it can be recognised from the Iliad and the Odyssey, that bodily features as well as mental characteristics were regarded as inherited and capable of being passed on, capable of cultivation in refined generations with careful choice of wife. These evidences from poetry show that human individuals and peoples see their divinities according to the image of their own bodily make-up, as Xenophanes (Fragment 14) and Aristotle (Politics, I, 2, 7) have remarked, and from the Iliad and Odyssey it can be seen, that at least the leading families of a people which saw its gods as light-skinned, blond and blue-eyed men of tall stature, must have corresponded completely to this facial image. Evidence from later centuries Lucius Verus AD 161- "blond-haired" Sieglin (1935) 110 169 (flaventium) Malalas, XII, 283; cf. Sieglin (1935) 106 AD 180- "blond-haired" Malalas, XII, Commodus "grey-eyed" (υπόγλαυκος) 192 ( ουλόξανθος) 283 As can clearly be seen from this, there was a predominance of fair characteristics, amongst the Roman ruling class. confirms that the Homeric poems have correctly distinguished the racial peculiarity of the Hellene of early history: this Greek was preponderantly of Nordic type. Of the 18 Emperors from Augustus to Commodus: 9 had blond or red hair; 5 had grey or white hair; 3 had no Otto Beche has pointed out a Graecian word, which by itself alone represents an important assertion about the racial nature of recorded hair colour, and just 1 (Hadrian), was referred to as dark-haired. the Greek: the word "iris" for the iris of the eyes. Iris means in fact a rainbow; a folk with dark, brown or black-brown eyes would never have compared the eye-colouring with a rainbow. Only bright eyes, the blue, blue-green grey of the Nordic Of the 18 Emperors from Augustus to Commodus: 9 had blue or grey eyes; 2 had "wine-coloured eyes" (whatever race, and greenish and brightly-mixed coloured eyes of people with Nordic weft, could explain a word like "iris." This word that may mean), and 7 had no recorded eye colour. could only have been chosen by a people of a preponderantly bright-eyed stock. Sources Although several of the Emperors were white/grey-haired old men, we still possess information which depicts a few of them as light-eved, If records had been made during their youth, it is likely that they would have been called fair-haired as well. Of the 9 Hans F. K. Günther, Rassengeschichte des hellenischen und des römischen Volkes. Mit einem Anhang: Hellenische und Emperors who had fair hair, 5 are listed as also having light eyes, whilst the remaining 4 have no noted eye colour. römische Köpfe nordischer Rasse (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1929), 18-22. Remarkably, only Hadrian is called dark-haired, but even then, he was still described as being light-eyed. Strangely enougn, Hans E. K, Günther, Lebensgeschichte des hellenischen Volkes (Pähl: Verlag Hohe Warte, 1956), 98-104. for whatever reason, we possess absolutely no description at all of the "philosopher Emperor" Marcus Aurelius. Hans F. K. Günther, "Like A Greek God... Translated by Vivian Bird from Professor Hans F. K. Guenther's Rassenkunde des WHY DID ANCIENT PEOPLE LOSE THEIR NORDIC FEATURES? Hellenischen Volkes." Northern World, VI, 1, (1961), 5-16.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/198/614/797.jpg "WHY DO ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN SOURCES DESCRIBE THEMSELVES AS PEOPLE WITH \"NORDIC\" FEATURES? (extended)")
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