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cool-thing-thatscool · 1 year

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Modern Media vs Ancient Depictions of Andromeda

Looking at depictions of Andromeda and Perseus in modern media depictions illustrates the explicit bias that exists. At her lightest, Andromeda would still be considered a POC instead of the picture-perfect Aryan depiction of her that is usually shown in movies and books. When observing the ancient depictions of Andromeda on Greek pottery, you can see how she is pictured as looking similar to Perseus, who, being from the Mediterranean, would have been “olive” or “light to moderate brown” and tanning easily. This would indicate that she is not white. This is, of course, all to assume that ‘Aethiopia” is the same as the modern-day Ethiopia, which means that at her darkest she would be “dark brown” to “deeply pigmented dark brown.” There are other potential locations for ‘Aethiopia” offered by different ancient authors, but the general consensus is it is either in Ethiopia or somewhere in the Middle East.

The basic outline of the Perseus story that everyone typically agrees with is that he is the son of Zeus and Danae, her father finds out she was impregnated although she was locked in a tower a la Rapunzel, and he tossed her and a baby Perseus into the sea in punishment. They landed on Seriphos, a Greek island, and were taken in by Dictys. Polydectes falls in love with Danae once Perseus is grown, and sends him to kill Medusa. After a quick detour to save Andromeda, he returns to kill Polydectes and his men to save his mother. Eventually he becomes the king of Argos after killing his grandfather, and eventually Mycenae due to the guilt of killing his grandfather and trading roles with another king.

Concerning the mentioned ethnicity of Andromeda, she is either called “Aethiopian” or “Ioppan” (also known as Joppan, the predecessor to Phoenicia). In the Greek myths, it’s typically agreed that her mother offended Poseidon and he demanded that Andromeda be tied up and offered to ‘Cetus’ (the sea monster) in retribution. Perseus heard her screams, slew the monster and her suitors, and married her in return. Then there are the Roman myths that claim her to be ‘kidnapped’ by one of her suitors Phoinix and taken aboard his ship ‘The Sea Monster’ (or the “Cetos”). It is of use to note that this was a kidnapping sanctioned by her father to avoid in fighting between the suitors. Perseus comes across this, kills the ‘co-conspirators,’ and shocks the rest into petrification.

With the question of location up in the air, there are many arguments for both locations. Most modern readers associate the region of “Aethiopia” with the modern Ethipoia (some articles here and here), but there are others yet (Greeks and art historians on this exact site) who believe her to be from the Middle East with some pretty solid proof. I tend to lean towards the side that Andromeda was Middle Eastern, and cringe as a history major at the thought that Herodotus (the Father of Lies) is the basis for the thought that she’s Ethiopian. If you look at the myths, you can see that one of Perseus and Andromeda’s sons (Perses) was left with Cepheus to become the new ruler of the Aethiopians, later becoming the forefather of the Persian kings. There’s also the fact that the Romans took the myth and assumed that ‘Aethiopia’ meant it to be in Ioppa/Joppa (located in modern day Palestine). In addition, once you look at the facts of the assumed locations of Perseus’ journey, you can see that it would make more sense for Andromeda to be from Ioppa considering Sarpedon (where Medusa’s lair was) is traditionally believed to be in Turkey. Only Herodotus places it in Libya, roughly 300 years after Hesiod places it in Turkey. Why would someone from the Argives go from Turkey, to Ethiopia, back to the Argives when it would make sense for the pit stop to be a relatively short hop to modern day Palestine and then home?

Looking at ancient depictions, you must first understand that the Ancient Greeks believed that paleness is the epitome of beauty. In these terms, paleness would be associated with the lightest olive tone; not porcelain white. With this in mind, look at how she was depicted on vases and amphora compared to modern movies (the Clash of the Titans series). Please understand, my ‘deep thoughts’ won’t be delving too deep; just deep enough to make comparisons between Andromeda and others depicted on the medium. I am not an art historian, merely a regular history major.

In this amphora, you can tell that Perseus is actually darker than Andromeda; leaning in to the idea that paleness is beauty, but also meaning that Perseus is darker because he's recently spent a lot of time out in the sun.

In this amphora, we can see that Andromeda is once again more pale than her surrounding maids (depicted in white) for beauty reasons, but also because they were likely out working in the sun all day, or were just naturally a bit darker than her.

Granted the first one is in black and white, the second one shows what it would look like in color. All characters on these vases are shown to be the same color, likely leaning more Mediterranean due to legends and myths stating that Cepheus is of Argive descent through the line of Io. Myths also state that her mother, Cassiopeia, is a nymph.

All three of these depictions of Andromeda come from the movie series Clash of the Titans. Notice that none of these women are Greek or Middle Eastern (at the very least). The first one is played by Alexa Davalos (2010) an actress of Lithuanian, Spanish, and Finnish descent, meaning that she might have a hint of an olive skin tone that is overwhelmed by the extreme paleness of her primary skin tone. She is still overwhelmingly white. The second one is Rosamund Pike (2012), who is overwhelmingly British and white. This depiction was very Aryan-esque. The last image is of Judi Bowker (1981), a British actress who started the depictions of an Aryan Andromeda in the Clash of the Titans franchise.

This last Aryan depiction appears in the D'Aulaire's mythology book. A book that claims Andromeda to be Ethiopian, whilst showing this blonde haired, blue eyed, white-as-paper princess.

Overall, no matter where you believe Andromeda is actually from modern media has butchered her depiction by leaning into the idea of catering to the Western ideals of beauty. This is a problem considering the myths clearly place her in the Middle East at the very least, and--considering the point in time of the myths originating--there would have been little to no (emphasis on the no) travel from the northernmost part of Europe and the genetic anomaly of blonde or red hair in the Mediterranean would have been just as rare.

#andromeda #ancient greece #ancient history #ancient culture #perseus and andromeda #history

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