Was Andromeda Black? Editor's note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black- history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1.

Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these . What was the original color of the mythical beauty Andromeda—and why does it matter? Today may be Presidents Day, but long before the world heard of Washington, Lincoln or Obama, kings and queens presided over ancient lands that gave rise to the so- called great civilizations from which ours descends. In a blended world of fact and fiction, folk tales and history, the children of these royals often played pivotal roles.

Sorcerer Blu-ray (1977): Starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer and Francisco Rabal. A group of outcasts from different backgrounds/nationalities are forced by.

This week, we meet the daughter of one such couple, 2,5. Greek scribes, absent the aid of brilliant scientists like Neil de. Grasse Tyson, fashioned mythologies to make sense of the universe through the tempestuous gods believed to be charting its course. The name of this princess was Andromeda, a heroine of earthly plays and heavenly constellations. Now I know, having mentioned the word “Greek” above, you might be thinking Andromeda was white, but to quote the great Cab Calloway doing Porgy and Bess, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” Andromeda was a sister . The reason for Andromeda’s sacrifice is that her mother, Cassiopea, wife of Cepheus, has outraged Poseidon, the Olympian god of the sea, by claiming she is more beautiful than any creature on land or sea. What causes Perseus to intervene is Andromeda’s singular beauty, so overpowering, we are told, that Perseus asks Cepheus for her hand in exchange for saving her life.

Once promised, Perseus holds up the decapitated, snake- locked head of Medusa in his bag (another of his heroic feats) to turn the giant sea serpent to stone. To convey Andromeda’s virginal essence, the makers of Clash of the Titans films cast Judi Bowker and, later, Alexa Davalos—one actress blond, the other brunette—both white. Not only do their Andromedas appear to satisfy Hollywood’s idea for a perfect match for Perseus, they, like the films as a whole, earnestly are trying to evoke for us our own inherited perceptions of Ancient Greek culture with living figures we might have seen in a Rubens painting or on the side of a vase at the Museum of Fine Art. There’s only one wrinkle. While the myth of Perseus and Andromeda played out in the realm of the Greek gods, Andromeda’s parents were the king and queen of Ethiopia. And Ethiopians were black.

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The Greek Meaning of . While their manuscripts are lost to us today, we do know Euripides’ Andromeda (4. B. C. E.) was set in Ethiopia. Daniel Ogden writes in his book Perseus, “We have explicit testimony of the fact.” To be sure, Ethiopia wasn’t the only option. As Frank Snowden explains in Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco- Roman Experience, the “legend has both Asiatic and African settings,” including present- day Israel and Syria. And in Book VII of his History(4. B. C. E., translated by George Rawlinson), the Greek historian Herodotus located Cepheus’ kingdom in Persia, so named for one of the sons Perseus and Andromeda had.

The reason Ethiopia might have made sense, however, is that Perseus discovers Andromeda on his way home to Greece after killing Medusa and using her head to turn Atlas to stone. To the writers of ancient Greece, Ethiopia (which meant “burnt face” to them) did not mean the country that exists today, but was the term they used to describe any black person from Africa. As Timothy Kendall explains on the PBS website for my documentary series, Wonders of the African World: “Greek traditions told of Memnon, a legendary Nubian king who had fought in the Trojan War; they spoke of Nubia’s people, who were the . They also knew that historical Nubian kings had once conquered Egypt and ruled it for sixty years and that their dynasty was counted as Egypt's Twenty- fifth. The Greeks, however, did not call these people . Ovid is famous for his 1. The Metamorphoses, but in recounting the Perseus legend in Book IV, he gives us a hint of Andromeda’s appearance: “As soon as Perseus, great- grandson of Abas, saw her .

Kline, Ovid’s Perseus associates Andromeda with her country, the Ethiopians, and is stunned by her beauty. Yet left open is whether she resembles a column of “white” marble, something Perseus had seen before, or “black” marble, something he is beholding for the first time. It is impossible to tell in isolation, Mc. Grath writes, which is why we need to read The Metamorphoses alongside Ovid’s other writings.

In his first work, the Epistolae Heroidum (Epistles of the Heroines), Ovid uses the Latin word “fusca” to describe Andromeda, and “fusca” means “black or brown,” writes Mc. Grath. 2. In the same epistle, Ovid has Sapho explain to Phaon: “though I’m not pure white, Cepheus’s dark/Andromeda/charmed Perseus with her native colour./White doves often choose mates of different hue/and the parrot loves the black turtle dove.”3.

And in Ars Amatoria(The Art of Love), Ovid makes the following references to the daughter of the Ethiopian king: a. That Perseus found her among “the black Indians” (i, 5. That in terms of attraction, “Nor was Andromeda’s colour any problem/to her wing- footed aerial lover” (ii, 6.

And when it came to fashion, “White suits dark girls; you looked so attractive in/white/Andromeda” (iii, 1. While Mc. Grath is quick to point out Ovid could have imagined Andromeda as black or brown, as an African or Indian princess (given her flowing hair), one thing is clear: In Ovid’s world, she wasn’t white but dazzled wearing it. Pacheco Uncovers the Lie. In her article, Mc. Grath refers us to another intriguing artist, Francisco Pacheco, a 1.

Spanish painter, who consulted the scholar Francisco de Rioja before picking up his brush to paint Andromeda. As Pacheco tells us in Arte De La Pintura (1. Andromeda” in Petrarch’s Triumph of Love and “wanted to know/how it was that in Ethiopia the dark- skinned/maiden Andromeda/attracted him . Recounting the argument, Pacheco himself concluded: “Now we see this story, explained most learnedly, goes contrary to the common practice of painting, which makes Andromeda pure white and most beautiful, although she was a native of Ethiopia. Still, the lies that painters multiply need not cause great wonder, even if they show their lack of knowledge; where they cannot be tolerated is in the stories and mysteries of our faith.” Wiser but not necessarily glad, Pacheco decided to write a sonnet about Andromeda instead of painting her, Mc. Grath writes—a reflection of the greater transformation that had occurred between the Septuangit (Greek Bible), which had equated “black” with “beautiful,” to the Vulgate (Latin Bible), which in the fourth century had begun inserting the word “but” between them. If black was the color of sin, the assumption ran, it could not be beautiful, and thus Perseus would have to have overlooked Andromeda’s outward appearance to fall in love.“Whatever the case,” Mc.

Grath argues, “it seems clear that throughout the history of western art figures of female beauty, whether virginal or provocative, sacred or secular, are regularly assimilated to an ideal of European whiteness, even where ethnic origin might suggest they should be represented otherwise.”There were other exceptions, however, including the Flemish painter Abraham van Diepenbeek, who rendered his Andromeda as black in 1. Tableaux du Temple des Muses. Yet even then, Mc. Grath notes, the artist was scolded by his editor, Michel de Marolles (Abbe de Villeloin), who couldn’t understood why Diepenbeek would have wanted to fill her in with a “Moorish colour” when she was supposed to have been the most beautiful woman in the world.

Mc. Grath attributes the confusion to Ovid’s spare “marble” metaphor. Among them was a peculiar Greek romance that has bedeviled literary scholars to this day. Aethiopica. The story of Queen Persinna, also of Ethiopia but later, comes to us from the Greek writer Heliodorus, born in Syria around 2. B. C. E. In 1. 58.

The List Thus Far . T (1. 95. 3) – A mad doctor enslaves 5. Dr. Seuss. Adaptation.

Sorrow and his gang of gay fascist cowboys. Doggiewogiez! Poochiewoochiez! Thompson’s cult novel about two burnouts taking insane quantities of drugs in the City of Sin. Fellini Satyricon (1. Bizarre androgynous costuming and mythological leaps of logic gird a great director’s decadent extravaganza.

Female Trouble (1. Juvenile delinquent Dawn Davenport (Divine) proves that “crime is beauty” on her way to the electric chair. Final Flesh (2. 00. Four separate porn- troupes- for- hire enact an absurdist prank script about the apocalypse. The Forbidden Room (2.

Guy Maddin’s collection of reimagined lost films, with tales curled inside each other like Russian nesting dolls. Forbidden Zone (1. Frenchie is lost in the 6th Dimension and her family and friends must save her from the king and queen in this surreal musical that often looks like a Fleischer Brothers cartoon.

Funky Forest: The First Contact (2. Selection of surreal, interwoven sketches from three Japanese directors is uneven, as you would expect, but contains some of the weirdest sequences you’re likely to come across. Glen or Glenda (1.

Ed Wood’s pro- transvestite documentary, with Bela Lugosi as an omniscient one- man Greek chorus and a dream sequence featuring bondage. Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1. Survivors of an airline crash squabble among each other while psychedelic space vampires pick them off. Gothic (1. 98. 6) – Hallucinatory excess from Ken Russell, about the night Mary Shelley conceived “Frankenstein”Gozu (2.

Erotically charged, hallucinatory Takashi Miike horror/yakuza mashup. La Grande Bouffe (1. Four successful men lock themselves inside a chateau and eat themselves to death. Greaser’s Palace (1. A zoot- suited Jesus visits a Western town to enact a series of absurd parables. The Greasy Strangler (2. Lard- loving Big Ronnie (who doubles as the Greasy Strangler) and his son live together and conduct scam walking tours, until a “disco cutie” comes between them.

Gummo (1. 99. 7) – Indisputably weird but ceaselessly unpleasant portrait of hopeless white trash. H! The Globolinks ! Die Globolinks. Oscar” drives around Paris taking on “assignments” that require him to become a hit man, accordionist, and a fashion- model abducting leprechaun. The Holy Mountain (1. An extravagant, psychedelic tour of world mysticism has a guru lead a Christ- figure and companions on a quest to storm the Holy Mountain.

The Horrors of Spider Island ? Nobody (2. 00. 9) – The last mortal man in the world remembers dozens of parallel reality variations of his life. Mulholland Drive (2. Radical identity shifts and surrealistic nightclub acts ignite this dreamlike noir fable about love, guilt and Hollywood. My Winnipeg (2. 00. In Guy Maddin’s Winnipeg, sleepwalkers roam the streets at night, horses freeze in the river, and mother is everywhere. Naked Lunch (1. 99.

David Cronenberg’s adaptation of the unadaptable William S. Burroughs novel features film’s scariest typewriters. Natural Born Killers (1. A pair of serial killers become celebrities as they slay their way across a hallucinogenic America. Night of the Hunter (1. A homicidal Preacher with “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on his hands hunts children carrying treasure in this Southern Gothic Expressionist fable. Night Train to Terror (1.

God and Satan watch badly edited horror films on a train while a New Wave band practices one compartment down. Ninja Champion (1. Rose seeks revenge against her diamond- smuggling rapist, while in another movie clumsily pasted on to that one, an Interpol ninja assassinates evil ninjas while they practice circus tricks. The Ninth Configuration (1. A psychiatrist argues for the existence of God in an experimental military mental hospital, but is he as crazy as his patients? The Full The Stranger (2015) Movie.

Nosferatu (1. 92. F. W. Murnau’s unauthorized Expressionist adaptation of “Dracula” is a melange of sex and disease. No Smoking (2. 00. Quit smoking, the Bollywood way, in one of India’s few intentionally weird films. Nostalghia (1. 98.

Andrei Tarkovsky’s slow, beautiful, dreamlike spiritual parable about a homesick Russian poet in Italy. Nothing but Trouble (1. Dan Akroyd’s grotesque Hollywood misfire about a weird old “reeve” ruling from a junkyard in a backwoods New Jersey “shire”Nuit Noire ! Dick novel. Schizopolis (1. Fletcher Munson struggles to write a speech for a Scientology- like leader while his doppelg.

Turner. Taxidermia (2. A penis ejaculating fire is the take- home image from this surreal and twisted Hungarian generational epic; barf bags recommended. Tekkonkinkreet (2. Orphans White and Black scrape out an existence on the surreal streets of Treasure Town. The Telephone Book (1. A nymphomaniac falls in love with the world’s greatest obscene phone caller in this arty underground sexploitationer that climaxes with a surreally obscene animation. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1.

A man inexplicably transforms into metal, set to an industrial soundtrack in grainy 1. Thundercrack! Lao (1. A shapeshifting “Chinaman fakir” brings his allegorical circus to a Western town. Pinocchio (1. 99. A cybernetic male sex- slave is cast adrift in a weird world in this underground Japanese cyberpunk film. Watch The Hole Movie Concussion (2015) more.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1. 97. 1) – Art- deco b- movie has fascinating production design and campy acting from star Vincent Price, but is it weird enough? The Acid House (1.

A trio of tawdry, disturbing fantasies penned by Irvine (“Trainspotting”) Welsh. The Adventures of Mark Twain (1. Claymation selection of Twain stories, with a wraparound story about the author flying a homemade blimp to catch Haley’s comet. Aegri Somnia (2. 00. The sick dreams of a disturbed man.

Alice in Wonderland (1. This “star- studded” (W. C. Fields, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant) version of Lewis Carrol flopped on release—could it be because it was too weird for 1. Am. Ballard anthology. The Attic Expeditions (2. Mindbending psychological horror that loses its mind, mixing occultism, medical experimentation and general weirdness into a confusing B- movie blend. Bad Girls Go to Hell (1.

A housewife descends into a dreamlike sexual hell in this roughie with lots of random shots of feet and furniture. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2. Nic Cage unloosed, iguanas, and an ambiguous ending give this crazy thriller some weird cred.

La Belle Captive (1. A man seeks a mysterious woman who may be a ghost, a vampiress or a dream in this film that visually references the paintings of Rene Magritte. Blind Woman’s Curse (1.

A feminist yakuza ghost story. Blue Sunshine (1. People who took a particular brand of LSD in the Sixties find themselves transformed into bald killers ten years later. Borgman (2. 01. 3) – A criminal insinuates himself into a Dutch family’s home. The Bothersome Man (2. A freethinker seeks escape from a bland paradise. Brain Damage (1. 98.

The Aylmer attaches himself to Brian’s brainstem, feeding him an addictive drug in return for grisly murders. The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1. A mad scientist searches for a hot new body for the recently decapitated fianc. Seldom- seen abstract stop- motion animation from Francecollective: unconscious – Experimental anthology wherein six underground directors film each others’ dreams“The Comb” (1. Quay Brothers animation about a man trying to reach a sleeping woman in her dream. Come and See (1. 98.

Unremittingly bleak Soviet WWII film with dreamlike passages. The Company of Wolves (1. Impressionistic retelling of Little Red Riding Hood as the werewolf sex dream of an adolescent girl. The Congress (2. 01. An aging actress (Robin Wright, playing a version of herself) allows her image to be digitized for virtual reality use in the future in this partly animated mindbender.

Cube (1. 99. 7) – Seven strangers awake to find themselves imprisoned in a cubical maze filled with deadly traps. The Cult of the Damned . Frankenstein (1. 97. A cauliflower- faced Frankenstein’s monster squares off against Dracula with an afro in a very bad (but weird) movie. Dr. Caligari (1. 98.