The Mahdi Times The Mahdi Times July 2014 | Page 87

The Greek Hercules Was a Black Man and the
African Influence on Greek Aesthetics
by Samuel David Ewing

It has occurred to me lately as I
pondered about the lineage, pedigree, or
family tree of the Greek Hercules must
be clarified once and for all. Diodorus
Siculus and Herodotus recorded that it
was the Egyptian Hercules who was the
hero who performed the legendary 12
Labors, subdued the animals of the wild
that had threatened the people, ushered
in the building of cities, water systems,
fortifications, and laws.
Walter Burkert has estimated that this
original Hercules was renowned as far
back as 20,000 years ago. The Greek
Hercules ended up receiving honours for
the accomplishments of his predecessor,
having the title of "Hercules",
furthermore by the Bronze Age of
Greece in which the Greek Hercules was
said to have lived the taming of the
wilderness had already been

accomplished. The Greek Hercules was
not likely to be wearing lion skin
armour, wielding a club, with spear as
weapons, and the danger of lions
running amok was remote. The
Egyptian Hercules did wear lion's skin
and or leopard skin (leopards were
considered to be lions without manes),
he used the spear and club as his
weapons, he travelled on foot because
there were no chariots during the early
history of Egypt, and the black rulers of
Egypt were the persons who fit the
description of the Egyptian Hercules.
Richard Poe, author of “Black Spark
White Fire, Did African Explorers
Civilize Ancient Europe?” pg. 316 quotes
Diodorus on the differences between the
Egyptian Hercules and the Greek
Hercules; "By the time the Greek
Heracles lived, said Diodorus, "most
parts of the inhabited world had already