I imagine, ladies and gentlemen, that when you first read the subject
of the address to be delivered before this society to-day, you were a
bit surprised, and, I trust, a bit interested. To claim an African
origin for the Grecian civilization is hardly in keeping with the
historical traditions inherited from our school days. It savors of a
sort of heresy and passes far beyond the limits of popular opinion.
There is a peculiar unanimity among all historians to state without
reservation that the greatest civilization the world has ever known
was pre-eminently Aryan, but historians are not always to be relied
upon. They write for their own race and times and are careful to give
as little credit as possible to races and events which fall within the
pale of their prejudices. I question, however, if there is to be
gained any ultimate good by subverting truth and popularizing error.
Indeed, I believe that if to-day our historians, authors, press and
pulpit would give the public the truth as far as it is possible to
attain it, to-morrow would find us filled with a new vigor and a fresh
determination to conquer the wrongs and inconsistencies of human life.
The old idea of the Grecian civilization was that it sprung, like
Minerva, full armed from the brow of Zeus. It seemed to have no
tangible beginning. The fabled kings and heroes of the Homeric Age,
with their palaces and strongholds, were said to have been humanized
sun-myths; their deeds but songs woven by wandering minstrels to win
their meed of bread. Yet there has always been a suspicion among
scholars that this view was wrong. The more we study the moral aspects
of humanity the more we become convinced that the flower and fruit of
civilization are evolved according to laws as immutable as those laws
governing the manifestations of physical life. Historians have written
that Greece was invaded by Aryans about 1400 B.C., and that henceforth
arose the wonderful civilization; but the student knows that such was
an impossibility and that some vital factor has been left out of the
equation. When the Aryans invaded Greece they were savages from
Neolithic Europe and could not possibly have possessed the high
artistic capacities and rich culture necessary for the unfolding of
Ægean civilization. "Of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a
bramble bush gather they grapes."
Speaking of the two foremost Grecian states, Herodotus writes as
follows: "These are the Lacedæmonians and Athenians, the former of
Doric, the latter of Ionic blood. And, indeed, these two nations had
held from very early times the most distinguished place in Greece, the
one being Pelasgic, the other a Hellenic people, and the one having
never quitted its original seas, while the other had been excessively
migratory." "The Hellenes," wrote Professor Boughton in the _Arena_
some years ago, "were the Aryans first to be brought into contact with
these sunburnt Hamites, who, let it be remembered, though classed as
whites, were probably as strongly Nigritic as are the Afro-Americans."
"Greek art is not [Greek: autochthonus]," said Thiersch some fifty
years ago, "but we derived from the Pelasgians, who, being blood
relations of the Egyptians, undoubtedly brought the knowledge from
Egypt." "The aptitude for art among all nations of antiquity,"
remarked Count de Gobineau a few years later, "was derived from an
amalgamation with black races. The Egyptians, Assyrians and Etruscans
were nothing but half-breeds, mulattoes." In the year 1884 Alexander
Winchell, the famous American geologist, upset Americans with an
article appearing in the _North American Review_. From it I quote the
following: "The Pelasgic empire was at its meridian as early as 2500
B.C. This people came from the islands of the Ægean, and more remotely
from Asia Minor. They were originally a branch of the sunburnt Hamitic
stock that laid the basis of civilization in Canaan and Mesopotamia,
destined later to be Semitized. Danaus and his daughters--that is, the
fugitive 'shepherds' from Egypt--sought refuge among their Hamitic
kindred in the Peloponnesus about 1700 B.C. Three hundred years before
this these Pelasgians had learned the art of weaving from Aryan
immigrants. In time they occupied the whole of Greece and Thessaly.
Before 200 B.C. they established themselves in Italy. Thus do we get a
conception of a vast Hamitic empire existing in prehistoric times,
whose several nationalities were centered in Mesopotamia, Canaan,
Egypt, Northwestern Africa, Iberia, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia
and Central Europe--an intellectual ethnic family, the first of the
Adamites to emerge into historic light, but with the records of its
achievements buried in gloom almost as dense as that which covers the
ruder populations that the Hamites everywhere displaced. To this
family, chiefly, are to be traced the dark complexions of the nations
and tribes still dwelling around the shores of the Mediterranean."
It was to be expected that such statements as the foregoing would
throw the scholastic world into a ferment. There was a scramble to
bolster up the cause of Aryanism and to preserve this one
civilization, at least, to the credit of the Caucasian race. Homer was
scanned with a patience unknown to college students and the classic
myths were refined in the alembics of master minds. Yet there were
some who cared for truth more than for racial glory and among them was
Dr. Schlieman. Armed with a spade he went to the classic lands and
brought to light a real Troy; at Tiryns and Mycenæ he laid to view the
palaces and tombs and treasures of Homeric kings. His message back to
scholars who waited tensely for his verdict was, "It looks to me like
the civilization of an African people." A new world opened to
archeologists and the Ægean became the Mecca of the world. Traces of
this prehistoric civilization began to make their appearance far
beyond the limits of Greece itself. From Cyprus and Palestine to
Sicily and Southern Italy, and even to the coasts of Spain, the
colonial and industrial enterprise of the Myceneans has left its mark
throughout the Mediterranean basin. The heretics were vindicated.
"Whether they like it or not," declared Sir Arthur Evans before the
London Hellenic Society a short time ago, "classical students must
consider origins. The Grecians whom we discern in the new dawn were
not the pale-skinned northerners, but essentially the dark-haired,
brown-complexioned race." Perhaps Sir Arthur's words will carry weight
with you when I remark that his wonderful discoveries in classical
lands have brought him the honor of election last year as president of
the British Association, the most notable assemblage of scholars in
the world. I might further mention that Professor Sergi, of the
University of Rome, has founded a new study of the origin of European
civilization upon the remarkable archeological finds, entitled "The
Mediterranean Race." From this masterly work I choose the following:
"Until recent years the Greeks and Romans were regarded as Aryans, and
then as Aryanized peoples; the great discoveries in the Mediterranean
have overturned all these views. To-day, although a few belated
supporters of Aryanism still remain, it is becoming clear that the
most ancient civilization of the Mediterranean is not of Aryan
origin. The Aryans were savages when they invaded Europe; they
destroyed in part the superior civilization of the Neolithic
populations, and could not have created the Græco-Latin civilization.
The primitive populations of Europe originated in Africa and the basin
of the Mediterranean was the chief center of movement when the African
migrations reached the center and north of Europe."
What, then, are some of those discoveries which have so completely
destroyed the ethnic fetish of the Caucasian race? The greatest and
most conclusive of them all was the discovery of the palace of Minos
by Sir Arthur Evans. In 1894 this scientist undertook a series of
exploration campaigns in central and eastern Crete; it has so happened
that some years previous he had been hunting out ancient engraved
stones at Athens and came upon some three or four-sided seals showing
on each of their faces groups of hieroglyphics and linear signs
distinct from the Egyptian and Hittite, but evidently representing
some form of script. Upon inquiry Sir Arthur learned that these seals
had been found in Crete, and to Crete he went. The legends of the
famous labyrinth and palace of Minos came back to him and were
refreshed by the gossipy peasants, who repeated the tales that had
come down as ancestral memories. In wandering around the site of his
proposed labors Sir Arthur noticed some ruined walls, the great gypsum
blocks of which were engraved with curious symbolic characters,
crowning the southern slope of a hill known as Kephala, overlooking
the ancient site of Knossos, the city of Minos. It was the prelude to
the discovery of the ruins of a palace, the most wonderful
archeological find of modern times.
Who was Minos? In the myths that have come down to us he was a sort of
an Abraham, a friend of God, and often appears as almost identical
with his native Zeus. He was the founder and ruler of the royal city
of Knossos, the Cretan Moses, who every nine years repaired to the
famous cave of Zeus whether on the Cretan Ida or on Dicta, and
received from the god of the mountain the laws for his people. He was
powerful and great and extended his dominions far and wide over the
Ægean Isles and coast lands, and even Athens paid to him its tribute
of men and maidens. To him is attributed the founding of the great
Minoan civilization.
I will not have time today to review the mass of archeological data
which the discoveries of this civilization have produced. They
consist of cyclopean ruins of cities and strongholds, tombs, vases,
statues, votive bronzes, and exquisitely engraved gems and intaglios.
That which is most valuable in establishing the claim of the African
origin of the Grecian civilization is the discovery of the frescoes on
the palace walls. These opened up a new epoch in painting and are of
the utmost interest to the world. The colors are almost as brilliant
as when laid down more than three thousand years ago. Among these
frescoes are numerous representations of the race whose civilization
they represent. It was a race neither Aryan nor Semitic, but African.
The portraitures follow the Egyptian precedent and for the first time
the mysterious Minoan and Mycenean people rise before us. The tint of
the flesh is of a deep reddish brown and the limbs finely moulded. The
profile of the face is pure and almost classically Greek. The hair is
black and curling and the lips somewhat full, giving the entire
physiognomy a distinct African cast. In the women's quarters the
frescoes show them to be much fairer, the difference in complexion
being due, probably, to the seclusion of harem life. But in their
countenances, too, remain those distinguishable features which link
with the African race.
You will pardon me, I trust, if occasion is taken here to impress upon
you the value of genuine archeological evidence. Historians may write
anything to reflect their vanity or their prejudices, but when the
remains of ancient civilizations rise out of the dust and sands and
give the lie to their assertions there is nothing more to be said.
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenecia, Greece, and Rome, have all been claimed
for the Aryan, but the spade has unearthed stone that bears sentient
witness to the fact that Africa has been the pioneer in the field of
civilization. We wonder, then, why the historians continue to ignore
these remains and persist in continuing falsehood. There can be but
one answer and that is racial vanity prefers falsehood to truth and
prejudice demands suppression rather than expression.
Yet these frescoes of Crete need not be such a surprise to scholars
and public after all. The very classics themselves have more than
hinted of the great part played by Africa in the development of
Grecian civilization. Let us revert to the myths and trace the descent
of Minos and his progeny. You will recollect that the ancient heroes
of Greece were divided into the older and younger branches, the former
belonging to the house of Inachus, distinctly Hamitic, while the
latter belonged to the race of Japotus, distinctly a mixture.
The Pelasgic races of the south traced their descent from Inachus, the
river god and son of Oceanus. The son of Inachus, Phoroneus, lived in
the Peloponnesus and founded the town of Argos. He was succeeded by
his son, Pelasgus, from whom the aforementioned races of the south
derived their name. Io, the divine sister of Phoroneus, had the good
fortune, or perhaps misfortune, to attract the attention of the
all-loving Zeus and as a consequence incurred the enmity of Hera. She
is transformed into a beautiful heifer by Zeus, but a gadfly sent by
Hera torments her until she is driven mad and starts upon those famous
wanderings which became the subject of many of the most celebrated
stories of antiquity. Æschylus reviews her roamings in his great
tragedy, "Prometheus Bound," and makes Io to arrive at Mount Caucasus
to which the fire-bringer is chained. It is here that Prometheus
delivers to her the oracle given him by his mother, Themis,
Titan-born. He directs her to Canobos, a city on the Nile, and tells
her that there Zeus will restore her mind.
"and thou shalt bear a child
Of Zeus begotten, Epaphos, 'Touchborn,'
Swarthy of hue."
Aryan parents do not usually bear black children and to show that
Æschylus was thoroughly cognizant of the ethnical relationship here
implied, permit me to quote from "The Suppliants," another of his
tragedies. The Suppliants were the fifty daughters of Danaus, the
Shepherds of Egypt, and they described themselves as, "We, of swart
sunburnt race," "our race that sprang from Epaphos," and when they
appear before the Argive king, claiming his country as their ancestral
home, their color causes him to question their claims in the following
words:
"Nay, stranger, what ye tell is past belief
For me to hear, that ye from Argos spring;
For ye to Libyan women are most like,
And nowise to our native maidens here.
Such race might Neilos breed, and Kyprian mould,
Like yours, is stamped by skilled artificers
On women's features; and I hear that those
Of India travel upon camels borne,
Swift as the horse, yet trained as sumpter-mules,
E'en those who as the Æthiops' neighbors dwell.
And had ye borne the bow, I should have guessed,
Undoubting, ye were of the Amazon tribe."
No, Æschylus made no mistake. He meant just what he wrote and the
discoveries of the wonderful Minoan civilization have proven that the
swarthy touch-born son of Zeus and Io was the incarnation of the
African element that raised Greece to the very pinnacle of
civilization. Minos is in direct descent from Epaphos and from the
latter's prolific progeny we note such names as Agenor, Cadmus,
Europa, Ægyptus, Danaus, Perseus, Menelaus, husband of the famous
Helen, Hercules, and Agamemnon, chosen by the Greeks to lead them
against Troy.
If I should conclude at this point my thesis would be complete and
conclusive, but there are other subjects which demand some attention.
I cannot pass in silence the supposed testimony to the presence of the
fair type in Greece, and to its superiority over the darker
population, furnished by the Homeric poems. This supposed testimony
has precipitated wordy wars as terrible, though perhaps less
sanguinary, as those which were engaged in by the gods and heroes
themselves. The fault, however, lies with the translators rather than
with the epics. From the work of these industrious authors we get the
idea that golden hair and blue eyes were so common that there was
little chance of any other sort of people lingering around. The truth
of the matter is that these translators, like historians, have
permitted their prejudices to warp their accuracy. There is not in the
entire writings of Homer an adjective or description applying to any
of the principals that even suggests a single one of them having blue
eyes and golden hair. Indeed, it is quite the reverse. Athena is
[Greek: glaukôpis]; [Greek: glaukos] means blue like the sea and the
unclouded sky; the olive is [Greek: glaukos] also, and Athena is
guardian of the olive. [Greek: Glaukôpis] means that her eyes are
brilliant and terrible. Apollo in Homer is [Greek: chrusaoros], that
is to say, bearing a golden sword; while [Greek: xanthos], which has
been mistranslated to mean fair, means reddish brown and brown,
Artemis is [Greek: chruseê], golden, that is to say, brilliant, but
never fair. Neptune is [Greek: kuanochaitês], that is to say, bluish,
blackish, like the dark and deep waves of the ocean. Eos, the dawn, is
[Greek: chrusothronos, rododaktulos, krokopeplos], because the color
of the dawn is golden, rosy and red. Neither Hera nor Kalypsos is fair
from the descriptive adjectives. Achilles is [Greek: xanthos] which,
as was said before, means reddish brown and brown. Agamemnon is also
[Greek: xanthos] and remember, if you please, that he is in direct
descent from Epaphos, the swarthy ancestor of the Pelasgic houses.
So you see that even our translators are not to be trusted. Professor
Sergi made an extensive investigation of the supposed testimony to the
presence of the fair type in Greece and his conclusions are as
follows: "In Homer none of the individuals are fair in the
ethnographic sense of the word. I could bring forth a wealth of facts
to show that what I have just stated regarding the anthropological
characters of the Homeric gods and heroes may also be said, and with
more reason, of the types of Greek and Roman statuary which, though in
the case of the divinities they may be conventionalized, do not in the
slightest degree recall the features of a northern race." Hence the
blue-eyed and golden-haired gods and goddesses who grace the canvases
of our art galleries and theater curtains are but pigmentary creations
from the minds of artists who visualize the peculiarities of their own
race just as the Jewish Madonna is depicted as a Spanish, Dutch,
German, English, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian, and even as an
African mother by the different nationalities in turn.
Another idea which seems to be rapidly taking hold upon the scholastic
mind is that the Iliad and Odyssey are in reality Minoan epics made
over, if you please, to fit the later Grecian epochs. While the Homer
we know professedly commemorates the deeds of Achaean heroes,
everything about them is non-Hellenic. The whole picture of the
civilization, including home life, dress, religious worship, and
architecture, is Minoan and Mycenean. Warriors' weapons are of bronze
when the age to which we attribute Homer was an iron age. The
combatants use huge body shields when, as a matter of fact, such
shields had been obsolete long previous to 1200 B.C. The form of
worship, hymns and invocations to deities, and the use of certain
sacrificial forms were all adaptations from the Mycenean ritual. The
arrangements of the palaces and courts as narrated in the epics were
counterparts of the Minoan and Mycenean palaces and had long since
passed out of existence. Among the discoveries in Crete have been
found pictorial scenes exactly as described in Homer, and the artistic
representations upon the shield of Achilles and upon the shield of
Hercules, as described by Hesiod, have been duplicated among the ruins
of Crete. Upon intaglios recovered we find combatants striking at each
other's throats and you will recollect that Achilles does just this
thing in his fight with Hector. I might continue these coincidences
indefinitely, but I believe that the point I desire to make is
sufficiently clear to merit your attention. The great Grecian epics
are epics of an African people and Helen, the cause of the Trojan
war, must henceforth be conceived as a beautiful brown skin girl.
In the press and periodicals of our country we read that the classics
are doomed and about to pass out of our lives, but the classics can
never die. I sometimes dream of a magical time when the sun and moon
will be larger than now and the sky more blue and nearer to the world.
The days will be longer than these days and when labor is over and
there falls the great flood of light before moonrise, minds now dulled
with harsh labor and commercialism will listen to those who love them
as they tell stories of ages past, stories that will make them tingle
with pleasure and joy. Nor will these story tellers forget the
classics. They will hear the surge of the ocean in Homer and march
with his heroes to the plains of Troy; they will wander with Ulysses
and help him slay the suitors who betrayed the hospitality of the
faithful Penelope; they will escape from Priam's burning city with
Æneas, weep over Dido's love, and help him to found a nation beside
the Tiber. And the translators who shall again bring into life the
dead tongues will not let prejudice cloud their brains or truth make
bitter their tongues. The heroes of Homer shall, like the Prince of
Morocco, wear the livery of the burnished sun and be knit by binding
ties to the blood of Afric's clime from whence civilization took its
primal rise.
Permit me now, ladies and gentlemen, to show definitely the debt which
Greece owes to the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations. Crete, as I have
said before, appears to be the center from which the Mediterranean
culture radiated. It is the "Mid-Sea Land," a kind of half-way house
between three continents, and its geographical position makes it the
logical cradle of European civilization. It is near the mainland of
Greece, opposite the mouths of the Nile and in easy communication with
Asia Minor, with which it was actually connected in late geological
times. As I mentioned before, the civilization expanded in every
direction and at the time of the conquest it had firm hold upon
Greece, appearing at Mycenæ, Tiryns, Thebes, Orochomenos, and other
places. That some vanguard of Aryan immigrants came into contact with
this culture at its climax is plain from the evidence furnished by
Homer. That they mingled with the inhabitants is certain. The later
onrush about 1200 B.C. destroyed in part the civilization found there,
but fortunately there was not utter destruction. These rude people
realized the difference between their savagery and their enemies'
culture. They, too, merged with the inhabitants and formed the Grecian
people of historic times. This amalgamation is clearly apparent in the
Greeks to-day and because of it Count de Gobineau has called their
ancestors half-breeds and mulattoes. Note, also, if you will, that
Greek genius burned brightest in those parts of Greece where the
Minoan elements were most thoroughly planted.
If you should inquire the source of the Minoan civilization I would
first call your attention to the fact that Herodotus attributed much
of the Grecian civilization to Egypt, and secondly to the opinion
expressed by Sir Arthur Evans in his presidential address before the
British Association last fall. "My own recent investigations," said
he, "have more and more brought home to me the all pervading community
between Minoan Crete and the land of Pharaohs. When we realize the
great indebtedness of the succeeding classical culture of Greece to
its Minoan predecessor the full significance of this conclusion will
be understood. Ancient Egypt itself can no longer be regarded as
something apart from general human history. Its influences are seen to
lie about the very cradle of our civilization. The first quickening
impulse came to Crete from the Egyptian and not from the Oriental
side." Herodotus has been called the father of lies, but at this late
date we again see him vindicated in a conclusion reached by the
greatest living authority upon classical archeology.
Before closing I wish again to enforce the fact that the ferment
creating the wonderful Grecian civilization was preeminently the
ferment of African blood. Take all the archeological facts of the last
fifty years and read them up or down, across or diagonally, inside and
out, and this fact rises into your mind like a Banquo that will not
down. Historians may distort truth and rob the African race of its
historical position, but facts are everywhere throwing open the secret
closets of nations and exposing ethnic skeletons that laugh and jest
at our racial vanities. The Aryan savages of Europe came down upon
Greece, found there a great civilization, merged with the inhabitants
and builded a greater. The all but savage European of the Dark Ages
knew nothing of culture save what had been taught him by the Roman
legions, the heirs of the Mediterranean civilization. This little was
almost forgotten until religious fanaticism started the Crusades and
brought them into contact with the civilized refinement of the
Arabians, Moors and Saracens, likewise peoples in whose veins flowed
the fiery ferment of African blood. If, as Sir Arthur Evans declares,
classical students must consider origins and admit the ancient
Grecians of African descent, so must they go a bit further and admit
the Renaissance to have sprung because of contact between feudal
Europe and African Mohammedanism. Again we must admit, no matter how
bitter the taste, that the mixed race has always been the great
race--the pure race always the stagnant race. One potent reason for
the possible downfall of European civilization to-day is the fact that
the Aryan element has proven incapable of the mighty trust. It has
forgotten the everlasting lesson of history that mergence of distinct
types means the perpetuation of nationalism. The sole tenet of Europe
has been the domination of the world by the Caucasian and suddenly it
discovers that the term Caucasian is too narrow to include both Saxon
and Teuton. Hence a war for the extermination of both.
The end of the world is not near and the dream of a millennium is
equidistant. The sum of all that is past is but a prelude of that
which is to come. It has taken the brute a myriad of years for his
gaze to reach beyond them. Civilization is a mixture of dictions and
contradictions and none of us to-day is sure that we know just what it
means. Through all there yet remain:
"Those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day,--
Are yet the master-light of all our seeing,--
Upholds us, cherish and have powers to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of Eternal Silence."
I close with the hope of a time when earthly values will be measured
with a justice now deemed divine. It is then that Africa and her
sun-browned children will be saluted. In that day men will gladly
listen with open minds when she tells how in the deep and dark
pre-historic night she made a stairway of the stars so that she might
climb and light her torch from the altar fires of heaven, and how she
has held its blaze aloft in the hall of ages to brighten the wavering
footsteps of earthly nations.