#Ioppa

[sarafangirlart]

Princess Andromeda

Sources on her appearance and her country of origin are all over the place (to put it mildly) but the one I prefer to use is the on where she is from Ioppa which is in modern day Jaffa Palestine.

First outfit is based on ancient Canaanites

Second outfit is based on Egyptians and Ethiopians, since she is decended from them.

Third outfit is Andromeda as the First Queen of Mycenae.

Final outfit is based on modern Palestinian tradition clothing.

[scriptaed]

YOU'RE LITERALLY MY FAVORITE WRITER LIKE

YOU’RE LITERALLY MAKING ME CRY LIKE 

[giovedi-agricola]

Alternanza

Un po’ per uno. Prosegue l’alternanza di risultati all’Agricola. Questa settimana sorridono i Bianchi. Rossi privi delle colonne difensive Ugo-Riccardo-Franco trovano ottimi rincalzi in Manolo, Bove e Enzo, ma l’inizio è di marca bianca con i colpi di Mario, Stefano e Paolo. Dopo una mezz’ora di gioco siamo 4-0. I Rossi prendono confidenza e ricominciano a tessere trame di gioco interessanti ma Paolo, questa volta rifinitore, e Ciro, finalizzatore, sbattono su difensori e, soprattutto, su un Mauro in gran serata fra i pali. Si riavvicinano, ma non raggiungono mai il pareggio, pur assediando l’area avversaria. I Bianchi colpiscono in contropiede quando si distendono e riallungano. 5-3, 6-4, 7-5 e poi ancora 7-6. La partita è sempre in equilibrio, il colpo di grazia lo assesta Settimo nell’extra time. 8-6 finale.

MIGLIOR BIANCO: Mauro. Strepitoso nel salvare ripetutamente il risultato e mantenere gli avversari sempre a distanza.

MIGLIOR ROSSO: in assenza di capitan Andrea, avvistato ancora in enoteca, ci permettiamo di sostituirlo in qualità di esperto vinicolo segnalando un rosso adatto a regalo per le feste, Colline Novaresi Nebbiolo ’15 di Ioppa, intenso e raffinato con note di gelso, liquirizia e tabacco, fine e armonico al palato.

[sarafangirlart]

Andromeda’s race/ethnicity and why it’s not inaccurate to interpret her as black/African

Now you’ve seen how I draw my babygirl as Afro Palestinian Egyptian so you know where I personally stand on the subject. However, my interpretation isn’t the only one, ancient authors, from mythographers to historians to poets to playwrights, have proposed various different locations for Andromeda’s homeland, often times contradicting each other, what I’m trying to do here is correct some misinformation as well as argue that even if Andromeda isn’t black/ethiopian, she still wouldn’t be considered white or ethnically European.

I would like to reiterate like I did with my Hephaestus/Aphrodite post that I’m not a mythology or history expert, I just read a lot. So do your own research and come up with your own conclusions.

Let’s go.

The etymology of “Aethiopia”

Aethiopia means "of burned face" which yes is pretty racist be modern standards but basically means that its inhabitants are dark skinned, so even if you go by sources that it isn’t in Africa, the inhabitants still wouldn’t be white or Greek.

Location of the Kingdom

You’d hear the statement that the Aethiopia in mythology is not the same as Ethiopia the modern country, which is true. You’d also hear that it’s a completely fictitious location, that’s only partially true, while Aethiopia existed mainly as a mythological location (mentioned as early as the Iliad) that didn’t stop ancient historians, mythographers and poets from placing it in real locations or calling pre-existing nations Aethiopia. It’s hard to pick which one is more “accurate” bc they all contradict each other, not only that, but these writers didn’t actually visit these locations and ancient ppl weren’t as well versed in geography as we are today so they’d be weirdly vague or confusing about these locations, I mean just look at an ancient map and you’d see what I mean.

So personally, I think you can go with any version you personally prefer, the options are quite limitless, she could be from the Arab peninsula, the Levant, North Africa, Persia, hell maybe even India if you are like Ovid.

Andromeda’s genealogy

(I just realized that these are the Waterson kids color palette while writing this lmaooooooooo)

Yes Andromeda is descended from Zeus (no family tree can escape that man lol) and she’s also the great granddaughter of Poseidon, which adds a whole new layer to the fact he tried to kill her.

Now for a bit of history: The Trojan war (which didn’t happen irl obviously) was dated as taking place in the 12th or 13th century BCE by some ancient writers, that war happens a few generations after Perseus’s story, which means that Egypt was in the New Kingdom era, also called the Egyptian Empire, when Nubians (who would be considered black by today’s standards) were a very important part of society, even becoming Pharaohs. Ancient Egypt was a lot more diverse than modern ppl give it credit for, there were multiple ethnic groups living there. Not to mention that you can’t get more Egyptian than being descended from the god of the Nile River lol

Libya is (obviously) the personification of the region of Libya, not the modern country Libya, but the general area in North Africa west of Egypt. The name Libya comes from the Libu, a berber tribe. So once again, even if Andromeda wasn’t black, even if you interpreted that her kingdom is placed in Asia, she’d still be of African decent.

Cassiopeia is a tricky one, her origins are obscure, she’s called a nymph by Nonnus, while Stephanus of Byzantium (a very late source) states she’s from Ioppa and that the city takes its name from her. However, Ioppa/Jaffa was identified as Andromeda’s home much earlier in Periplus attributed to Scylax, which was composed in the late fourth century bc.

Conclusion

You can make Andromeda black it’s ok. Ancient writers couldn’t agree on her country’s location but we can still speculate. Anyways ummm… I think that’s it? Maybe I’ll add to this if I find or remember more interesting information.

Have a great day.

[sarafangirlart]

Andromeda was a worshipper of Aphrodite she even had her own shrine in a small island dedicated to her which is cute. Also the Cepheus in this version is one of the worst ones since he gives his brother a thumbs up to kidnap his daughter just so he wouldn’t upset his other brother. Poor girl I can only imagine what her home life was like if her father treats her this way.

I can also only imagine Andromeda begging Aphrodite to get her a cute boyfriend bc she didn’t wanna marry her uncles lol

[sarafangirlart]

I just realized that May Calamawy would technically be ethically accurate casting depending on what source you go by.

[sarafangirlart]

In Pseudo-Apollodorus Perseus had Perses with Andromeda before he turned back to Seriphos. They then left him with his grandparents before leaving. 💀

Yeah I hate that so much, it would’ve made more sense if they took him with them then sent him back to Ioppa once he’s old enough to take the throne.

[sarafangirlart]

Perseus in Aethiopia/ Ioppa

[sarafangirlart]

Speaking of Perseus’s age: Andromeda is stated to be a “maiden” and “virgin” who was betrothed to her uncle Phineus. It’s unclear what the age of marriage/consent was in ancient Ioppa/Aethiopia, but we can guess (based on both mythology and history) that it was influenced by ancient Egyptian culture, so Andromeda would also be a teenager, around 14-16 years old.

Perseus’s Age

Now I’ve seen a lot of… well I won’t say misinformation but more, perfectly logical personal interpretations of things that are implied in the text being passed around as something explicitly said in the text so let me just clear some stuff up real quick.

Now you might see the claim that Perseus is a teenager (numbers from 12 to 18 being thrown around) and I think the reason for that is this:

Now let’s be real, no way would Polydectes wait until Perseus is in his twenties to get rid of him and he would want to make up a bullshit reason to get him kinda exiled as soon it’s not too socially frowned upon (imagine if he sent a 12 year old on the suicide mission lmao). So the best I could find on what the age of maturity was in Ancient Greece is that Athens considered it to be 18 for boys, like with all things Ancient Greece this would vary from city to city and I can’t really find anything on what Seriphos’s age of maturity is. So it’s not unlikely that Perseus was a teenager.

I actually prefer to think of him as a teenager and his quest to kill Medusa is a metaphor for coming of age, proving himself to be a man by protecting his mother, especially when the other men in her life (like her father and Usually Zeus) either failed her or actively harmed her. So whenever I see art or movie casting that make him this big beefy bearded man I will side eye it.

[sarafangirlart]

Ok something I should talk about in more detail; not only was Jaffa/Ioppa part of the Egyptian empire’s territory, but we have a detailed (tho fragmented) account of how it was conquered:

Now the king an general who conquered the city were real ppl so it’s likely a real tho exaggerated story, obviously mythical figures like Cepheus and Cassiopeia weren’t involved, but what’s interesting is that Cepheus was Egyptian royalty and Cassiopeia supposedly had the city of Ioppa named after her, a very fascinating coincidence.

It’s been theorized that this story is what inspired the tale of the Trojan horse, also did you guys know that Penelope is descended from Perseus and Andromeda? What if she heard that story from her family, told Odysseus about it and that partly inspired him to make the Trojan horse?

Andromeda’s race/ethnicity and why it’s not inaccurate to interpret her as black/African

Now you’ve seen how I draw my babygirl as Afro Palestinian Egyptian so you know where I personally stand on the subject. However, my interpretation isn’t the only one, ancient authors, from mythographers to historians to poets to playwrights, have proposed various different locations for Andromeda’s homeland, often times contradicting each other, what I’m trying to do here is correct some misinformation as well as argue that even if Andromeda isn’t black/ethiopian, she still wouldn’t be considered white or ethnically European.

I would like to reiterate like I did with my Hephaestus/Aphrodite post that I’m not a mythology or history expert, I just read a lot. So do your own research and come up with your own conclusions.

Let’s go.

The etymology of “Aethiopia”

Aethiopia means "of burned face" which yes is pretty racist be modern standards but basically means that its inhabitants are dark skinned, so even if you go by sources that it isn’t in Africa, the inhabitants still wouldn’t be white or Greek.

Location of the Kingdom

You’d hear the statement that the Aethiopia in mythology is not the same as Ethiopia the modern country, which is true. You’d also hear that it’s a completely fictitious location, that’s only partially true, while Aethiopia existed mainly as a mythological location (mentioned as early as the Iliad) that didn’t stop ancient historians, mythographers and poets from placing it in real locations or calling pre-existing nations Aethiopia. It’s hard to pick which one is more “accurate” bc they all contradict each other, not only that, but these writers didn’t actually visit these locations and ancient ppl weren’t as well versed in geography as we are today so they’d be weirdly vague or confusing about these locations, I mean just look at an ancient map and you’d see what I mean.

So personally, I think you can go with any version you personally prefer, the options are quite limitless, she could be from the Arab peninsula, the Levant, North Africa, Persia, hell maybe even India if you are like Ovid.

Andromeda’s genealogy

(I just realized that these are the Waterson kids color palette while writing this lmaooooooooo)

Yes Andromeda is descended from Zeus (no family tree can escape that man lol) and she’s also the great granddaughter of Poseidon, which adds a whole new layer to the fact he tried to kill her.

Now for a bit of history: The Trojan war (which didn’t happen irl obviously) was dated as taking place in the 12th or 13th century BCE by some ancient writers, that war happens a few generations after Perseus’s story, which means that Egypt was in the New Kingdom era, also called the Egyptian Empire, when Nubians (who would be considered black by today’s standards) were a very important part of society, even becoming Pharaohs. Ancient Egypt was a lot more diverse than modern ppl give it credit for, there were multiple ethnic groups living there. Not to mention that you can’t get more Egyptian than being descended from the god of the Nile River lol

Libya is (obviously) the personification of the region of Libya, not the modern country Libya, but the general area in North Africa west of Egypt. The name Libya comes from the Libu, a berber tribe. So once again, even if Andromeda wasn’t black, even if you interpreted that her kingdom is placed in Asia, she’d still be of African decent.

Cassiopeia is a tricky one, her origins are obscure, she’s called a nymph by Nonnus, while Stephanus of Byzantium (a very late source) states she’s from Ioppa and that the city takes its name from her. However, Ioppa/Jaffa was identified as Andromeda’s home much earlier in Periplus attributed to Scylax, which was composed in the late fourth century bc.

Conclusion

You can make Andromeda black it’s ok. Ancient writers couldn’t agree on her country’s location but we can still speculate. Anyways ummm… I think that’s it? Maybe I’ll add to this if I find or remember more interesting information.

Have a great day.

[sarafangirlart]

I was confused over why this “Crown of Serpents” book is a “maritime adventure” with a whole crew and with art depicting the characters on a ship, since in 99% of sources Perseus went on his quest alone wearing Hermes’s flying sandals. Then I remembered that there is an alternative myth where Perseus sails a ship with (most likely) a crew!

…It’s in a rationalization of the rescue of Andromeda, with Perseus shown to love her so deeply he slaughtered an entire enemy ship to rescue her… yet the author of this book would insist she’s not sidelining Andromeda at all.

Andromeda was a worshipper of Aphrodite she even had her own shrine in a small island dedicated to her which is cute. Also the Cepheus in this version is one of the worst ones since he gives his brother a thumbs up to kidnap his daughter just so he wouldn’t upset his other brother. Poor girl I can only imagine what her home life was like if her father treats her this way.

I can also only imagine Andromeda begging Aphrodite to get her a cute boyfriend bc she didn’t wanna marry her uncles lol