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Informationen zum Autor MARTIN BERNAL (1937-2013) was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history and a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His celebrated Black Athena trilogy is a controversial series which argues that Ancient Greek civilization and language are Eastern and Egyptian in origin. Klappentext Winner of the 1990 American Book Award 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.” Zusammenfassung 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 influences have been systematically ignored, denied or suppressed. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface and Acknowledgements Transcription and Phonetics Maps and Charts Chronological Table Introduction Background Proposed historical outline Black Athena, Volume I: a summary of the argument Greece European or Levantine? The Egyptian and West Semitic Components of Greek Civilization / a summary of Volume 2 Solving the Riddle of the Sphinx and Other Studies in Egypto-Greek Mythology / a summary of Volume 1 The Ancient Model in Antiquity Pelasgians Ionians Colonization The colonizations in Greek tragedy Herodotos Thucydides Isokrates and Plato Aristotle Theories of colonization and later borrowing in the Hellenistic world Plutarch’s attack on Herodotos The triumph of Egyptian religion Alexander son of Ammon 2 Egyptian wisdom and Greek transmission From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance The murder of Hypatia The collapse of Egypto-Pagan religion Christianity, stars and fish The relics of Egyptian religion: Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism and Gnosticism Hermeticism – Greek, Iranian, Chaldaean or Egyptian? Hermeticism and Neo-Platonism under early Christianity, Judaism and Islam Hermeticism in Byzantium and Christian Western Europe Egypt in the Renaissance Copernicus and Hermeticism Hermeticism and Egypt in the 16th century 3 The triumph of Egypt in the 17th and 18th centuries Hermeticism in the 17th century Rosicrucianism: Ancient Egypt in Protestant countries Ancient Egypt in the 18th century The 18th century: China and the Physiocrats The 18th century: England, Egypt and the Freemasons France, Egypt and ‘progress’: the quarrel between Ancients and Moderns Mythology as allegory for Egyptian science The Expedition to Egypt 4 Hostilities to Egypt in the 18th century Christian reaction The ‘triangle’: Christianity and Greece against Egypt The alliance between Greece and Christianity ‘Progress’ against Egypt Europe as the ‘progressive’ continent ‘Progress’ Racism ...
