Skin Color

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Ancient Egyptian Sources

An ancient egyptian love poem from Papyrus Chester Beatty I from the Chester Beatty Library, physically describes the ideal beauty of egyptian females.

There are seven papyrus love poems from the Chester Beatty Library, they date from the 12th century BC; and they were collected and housed by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty in the 1930-40’s.

Of concern here, is the first poem of the seven, which in some detail physically describes the ideal beauty of egyptians females. There have been two or three translations of the poem, all of which are literally the same, but here is the original [1]:

”Look, she is like a star goddess arising
at the beginning of a happy new year;
brilliantly white, bright skinned;
with beautiful eyes for looking,
with sweet lips for speaking;
she has not one phrase too many.
With a long neck and white breast,
her hair of genuine lapis lazuli;
her arm more brilliant than gold;
her fingers like lotus flowers,
with heavy buttocks and girt waist.”

This is simple evidence therefore that during the XX Dynasty of Egypt (1186-1069BC) the ancient egyptians were still known to have among them populations with white skin and light eyes, and that they believed these features were the most beautiful amongst egyptian women.

Many ancient egyptian papyrus also attribute red or blonde hair, pale or fair skin, and blue or green eyes to the ancient egyptian Gods. Before i get into these, i wish here, to simply debunk the Afrocentric lie that Osiris was a black skinned God.

In the Papyrus of Ani (made in the XIX Dynasty, 1240BC), better known as the Book of the Dead, Osiris in chapter VIII of the Hymns to Osiris is physically described as the following (translated by E. A Wallis Budge, 1895):

”Homage to thee, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and Prince of Princes…
Thy members are of silver-gold, thy head is of lapis-lazuli,
and the crown of thy head is turquoise…”

This ancient source seems to refute well Afrocentric nonsense about Osiris being a ”black God”, since his head or face is described as ”lapis-lazuli” meaning blue. The skin of his body is described as ”silver-gold”. In a modern translation of the same text, which is very close to the original, ”silver-gold” has been replaced with ”bright and shining copper” [2]. Budge noted the following on the physical appearence of Osiris, commenting on this passage (1895, p. 353):

”[His] body was of the colour of silver-gold, whose face had the
colour of lapis-lazuli (blue) and whose skull was green in colour.”

Osiris was therefore certianly not considered to be a black skinned God, and Budge believed his body skin colour was a silver-goldish, which is not a dark colour. In the same work, it is also well recorded in the Papyrus of Ani, that there are numerous descriptions of red hair and blue eyes. These features are related to several Gods. In the chapter entitled Pylons of The House of Osiris for example, Pylon XV, states ”fiend, red of hair”, perhaps a reference to the God Set.

In the non-Papyrus of Ani edition of the Book of the Dead which predates Budge’s publication, there are far more physical descriptions of ancient egyptian Gods. Edouard Naville published what was to become the first full standard edition in three volumes (1886). In Naville’s edition of the Book of the Dead, spell CXLVIII (148) is dedicated to a redhead egyptian Goddess: “The much beloved, with red hair.” [3]

Spell CLXXVII (177) mentions the ”blue eyes of Horus”.

The blue eyes of Horus are also found mentioned in the Coffin Texts (2100BC) and the Pyramid Texts (2300BC), and the Eye of Horus or Wedjat is described as green:

Pyramid Texts, Utterance 246: 253a: ”He comes against you, Horus with blue eyes.”

Pyramid Texts, Utterance 162: ”Osiris Unas, take the green Eye of Horus!”

Coffin Texts, II. 467: ”I knit on the head of the Blue-eyed Horus, one who acts.”

The egyptian God Re, is also described as blue eyed:

Coffin Texts, II. 586: ”Hail to you, O Re, wearing your circlet! May you proceed to the councel chamber and reckon up your fathers who whatch for him who destroys doubles. O Blue-eyed one who freshens eyes, whose power is severe.” [4]

A fragment from an ancient papyrus found at Thebes also notes on Horus’ eye colour as that of the ”Great Sea”, the ”deepest blue” (Ancient Egyptian Legends, M. A. Murray, 1920, p. 57):

”Meanwhile Ra said to Horus: “Let me gaze into your eyes, and see what is to come of this war.” He gazed into the eyes of Horus and their color was that of the Great Sea when the summer sky turns it to deepest blue.”

Blue eyes are mostly only found amongst Caucasians, especially northern europeans.

Also remember these are quotes from the earliest ancient egyptian texts describing blue eyed Gods (Horus and Ra).

Further physical descriptions of hair colours and skin complexions, are also found in other ancient egyptian papyrus. In the ancient egyptian Papyrus Bremner-Rhind (BM Papyrus No. 10188), which dates to the 4th century BC, the seven Hathors are named, the Hathors were mythological egyptian maidens, number five of the maidens is named ”Red hair”. [5] An egyptian physician is described as the ”fair skinned son” of Osiris in the egyptian Leyden Papyrus (Column II), though this source is far later than the other ancient papyrus cited, and dates to the 3rd century AD. In the much earlier Papyrus Leiden I 344 (1200BC), which preserves the ancient egyptian poem ”The Admonitions of Ipuwer”, chapter I, several ancient egyptian men are described as having white skinned faces:

”Indeed, the face is white [. . .] what the ancestors foretold has arrived at [fruition . . .] the land is full of confederates, and a man goes to plough with his shield. Indeed, the meek say: [“He who is . . . of] face is as a well-born man.” Indeed, [the face] is white; the bowman is ready, wrongdoing is everywhere, and there is no man of yesterday.”

Horus, and Re are always described as having white or fair skin, Hathor having gold, while Set and Isis reddish-white or ruddy. Horus is described and depicted as white skinned in the Book of the Dead of Lady Cheritwebeshet (XXI Dynasty, 1000BC), found in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, location: #129). The maidens who surround Horus, also appear as white skinned.

It would be impossible here to find every other single quote from ancient egyptian papyrus which details the complexions of Gods, but on well known ancient egyptian steles, various descriptions of skin complexions can also be found. A stele inscription from Denderah, describes Isis as red skinned: ”ruddy woman, endowed with life, sweet of love”. [6] In a Third Intermediate Period (XXV Dynasty, 700BC) hymn, recorded on the Louvre stela C100, there is a description of an egyptian priestess of the period called Muturdis [7]:

”Black is her hair more than the blackness of night,
More than the fruit of the sloe;
Red is her cheek more than the pebble of jasper,
More than the crushing of henna”

So here is a physcial description of an egyptian priestess in the 8th century BC, she is described as black haired with red skinned cheeks. The best explanation for ”red skin” here is not that it relates to a sunburnt hue, but to pale skin, since it is talking only of the cheek, only under pale white skin can the blood for red or rosy cheeks appear. The ancient egyptian princess of the IV Dynasty (2500BC), Nefertiabet is described as beautiful and ”fair skinned” on another stele at louvre, stele E15591. On this stele a depiction of the princess also shows her to be pale white skinned, with a slight radiant golden glow.

Two other ancient texts are also worth quoting here, which shall end this section nicely before i progress onto ancient Greek sources. The first of these, is a physical description of Nefertiti (XVIII Dynasty, 1350BC) from El-Amarna (Stela S) which describes her as ”Fair of Face” meaning she was believed to be light skinned. [8]

A similar description can be found of Nitocris, the last pharaoh of the VI Dynasty (2184BC) but with added documentation that she had blonde hair. The single Egyptian Manetho in the 3rd century BC, in his Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt), described Nitocris as the following(Aegyptiaca, Frg. 20-21; Manetho, Frg. 21a; Syncellus quoting Eusebius, FGrH 609 F 3) [9] :

”Nitocris, the noblest and loveliest of woman of her time, of fair complexion,
the builder of the third pyramid, reigned for 12 years.”

Since the Aegyptiaca, has not come down to us complete, all we have is preserved fragments from later historians and chroniclers such as Josephus, Eusebius, Jerome, and George Syncellus. An Armenian translation of Eusebius’ copy of the Aegyptiaca adds that Nitocris was blonde haired, as does the Latin translation by Jerome, though there are two alternative translations here, one excludes the blonde hair but maintains her fair skin, while the revised and most recent translation in 1875 includes the blonde (Aegyptiaca, Frg. 21b, Armenian and Latin version):

”Sexta dynastia. Femina quaedam Nitocris reg-navit, omnium aetatis suae virorum fortissima et mulierum formosissima, flava rubris genis. Ab hac tertia pyramis excitata dicitur, speciem collis prae se ferens”
Old Translation:

”The Sixth Dynasty. There was a queen Nitocris, braver than all the men of her time, the most beautiful of all the women, fair skinned with red cheeks. By her, it is said, the third pyramid was reared, with the aspect of a mountain.”

Revised Translation (Eusebius, Chronicon, XLVII, Schoene-Petermann translation, 1875) :

”A woman by the name of Nitocris ruled next. It is said that she was braver than any man of her day and more beautiful than any contemporary woman, blonde haired and red cheeked. The third pyramid is said to have been built by her.”

This last translation is probably the correct, based on the fact ”Flava” (Latin) having been a reference to blonde/light coloured hair, not fair skin, and ”rubris genis” meaning red/ruddy cheeks (genis = cheeks, rubris = red). Nitocris was therefore blonde haired with red cheeks, certianly this is a physical description only applicable to a white female.

Notes:

[1] The Library of A. Chester Beatty, Description of a Hieratic Papyrus with a Mythological Story, Love-Songs, and Other Miscelleaneous Texts. The Chester Beatty Papyri, No. I, London, 1931 by Alan Gardiner.
[2] http://www.touregypt.net/osirhymn.htm
[3] The Ancient Egyptian book of the Dead, Carol Andrews, 1990, p. 137
[4] The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, Spells 355-788 v. II, Faulkner, 1978.
[5] The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Routledge 2005, p. 67.
[6] De Iside et Osiride, J. G. Griffiths, 1970, p. 451.
[7] A History of Egypt, 6 vols. (1894-1925) by W. M. Flinders Petrie (III, p. 293).
[8] The Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten , William J. Murnane, 1993.
[9] Manetho, Loeb Classical Library, 1940, p. 54-57.
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Ancient Greek Sources

It is most commonly believed that Herodotus was the first Greek to physically describe the ancient egyptians. However he wasn’t, there is in fact an elder source from Hesiod (700BC).

From the Catalogues of Women by Hesiod (Frg. 40a, Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358 fr. 2):

”The Sons of Boreas pursued the Harpies to the lands of the Massagetae and of the proud Half-Dog men, of the Underground-folk and of the feeble Pygmies; and to the tribes of the boundless Black-skins and the Libyans. Huge Earth bare these to Epaphus — soothsaying people, knowing seercraft by the will of Zeus the lord of oracles, but deceivers, to the end that men whose thought passes their utterance might be subject to the gods and suffer harm — Aethiopians and Libyans and mare-milking Scythians. For verily Epaphus was the child of the almighty Son of Cronos, and from him sprang the dark Libyans, and high-souled Aethiopians, and the Underground-folk and feeble Pygmies.”

This is one of the earliest ancient Greek quotes, if not the earliest, on ethnology. Several things are important to learn here:

1. Hesiod distingushed between the different races of Africa. The Libyans were considered to be ”dark” but not ”black skins”, so their complexion was believed to be lighter then the black aethiopians.
2. The Libyans (North Africans) of Hesiod included the Egyptians.
3. Hesiod believed the Libyans (which included Egyptians) were not blacks.

Hesiod clearly distinguished between the North Africans and South Africans, both he knew had different phenotypes, Afrocentrics on the other hand maintain that all of Africa was ”black” in BC times, clearly this was not the case – as the ancient Greeks themselves knew.

Now, on to Herodotus.

A quote very few seem to have noticed from Herodotus, is a quote on ancient egyptian hair (Histories, II, 36. 1) [1]:

”Everywhere else, priests of the gods wear their hair long; in Egypt, they are shaven. For all other men, the rule in mourning for the dead is that those most nearly concerned have their heads shaven; Egyptians are shaven at other times, but after a death they let their hair and beard grow.”

According to Herodotus the ancient egyptians shaved their heads. I will adress the importance of this quote below. Afrocentrics quote also the following passage, typically misunderstanding it’s context (Histories, II. 57. 1-2):

”I expect that these women were called “doves” by the people of Dodona because they spoke a strange language, and the people thought it like the cries of birds; then the woman spoke what they could understand, and that is why they say that the dove uttered human speech; as long as she spoke in a foreign tongue, they thought her voice was like the voice of a bird. For how could a dove utter the speech of men? The tale that the dove was black signifies that the woman was Egyptian”

This passage is not saying the egyptians were black, all that can be read from this passage is that Herodotus used ”black doves” symbolically.

There is no mention of skin here, any Afrocentric using this as evidence the ancient egyptians were black is altering the context.

There is no proof the colour symbolism here relates to black skin.

This final quote from Herodotus, is the quote all Afrocentrics use (Histories, II. 104. 2):

”…the Colchians are Egyptians… on the fact that they are black-skinned and wooly-haired”

Histories, II. 36. 1, however contradicts the above claim, did the ancient egyptians have shaved heads or wooly hair?

Since there is a major contradiction here, Herodotus therefore is not a trustworthy source on the physical appearence of the egyptians.

J. Wells in his A Commentary on Herodotus on book II, came exactly to this conclusion on this passage, remarking:

”As the Egyptians themselves shaved wholly or in part (36. 1 n.), the ‘woolly hair’ is the more inexplicable.”

Herodotus’ identification of the colchians as egyptians because of their black skin, is also contradicted by other ancient greek sources, most notebly Hippocrates.

According to Hippocrates, the 5th century BC Physician, the Colchian Phasians were yellowish skinned, not dark or black, this is detailed in his De aere aquis et locis, chapter XV [2]:

”They are tall in stature, and of a gross habit of body, while neither joint nor vein is visible. Their complexion is yellowish, as though they suffered from jaundice.”

Other revisionists and scholars have also correctly noted the ancient greek term for dark skin melanchrôs is a semi-ambigious word since it can range from meaning a bronze hue, to a sun tan, to swarthy or very dark skin when applied to egyptians (see Aeschylus, Suppliament Women, 720, Lucian and D. L, VII. 1). Herodotus therefore according to this theory, could have just described sunburnt ancient egyptians. I do not personally subscribe to this view, but this could be a possible answer to the problem.

Whatever the case, the Colchians were not considered a black skinned people, that is apart from Herodotus.

Some Afrocentrics, quote Pindar (Pythian Ode, IV. 212) which they say describes the Colchians as ”dark faced”, however scholars have noted the correct translation is ”grim-faced”, which fits the context of the passage (Braswell, 1988). The context does not relate to skin colour. [3]

I will now cite some ancient sources describing the Colchians as white skinned and blonde haired, Apollonius of Rhodes in his Argonautica described Medea, the daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis as blonde (Argonautica, III. 829):

”Now soon as ever the maiden saw the light of dawn, with her hands she gathered up her long blonde locks which were floating round her shoulders in careless disarray”

However, better physical descriptions of Medea, can be found in Euripide’s tragedy play Medea (431BC). Remember Medea was a native Colchian and the daughter of the King of Colchis.In verse 30 of Euripides’ Medea, Medea is described as having a white skinned neck: ”she is silent unless perchance to turn her snow-white neck and weep to herself for her dear father and her country and her ancestral house”, in verse 920 also when Jason adresses Medea she is described as white cheeked: ”You there, why do you dampen your eyes with pale tears and turn your white cheek away, and why are you not pleased to hear these words from me?”

The Colchians were therefore not black skinned, since this is easily provable with ancient literature, now i will move on and cite some other ancient Greek sources which physically describe the egyptians or their Gods.

The ancient Greek geographer Strabo of the 1st century BC, described the egyptians as resembling northern Indians, who were lighter then the darker skinned Indians of the south (Geographica, XV. 1. 13):

”As for the people of India, those in the south are like the
Aethiopians in color, although they are like the rest in respect
to countenance and hair (for on account of the humidity of the
air their hair does not curl), whereas those in the north are like
the Egyptians.”

A later Greek source then Strabo, describes some egyptian females as snow-white skinned. This dates to the 3rd century AD, and is apart of the Alexander Romance collection, and is ascribed to Pseudo-Callisthenes. It notes some egyptians as being of ”snow-white complexion” (colore niveo), apparently Alexander’s troops encountered these woman from their return from India.

Diodorus Siculus noted on the blue eyes of the egyptian Goddess Neith (Bibliotheca Historica, I. 12. 6-8), as well as recorded a tradition of a ”rosy-cheeked” fair skinned woman who ordered the construction of the third pyramid.

This tradition obviously derived from the egyptian Nitocris, it however seems to have become altered, as Rhodopis was given a Thracian origin (Bibliotheca Historica, I. 64. 14; XVII, 1. 33, Herodotus, II. 134. 3, Strabo also wrote on Rhodopis). These ancient Greek sources seem to reflect then a continuation of the red cheeked, white female pharoah Nitocris (2184BC).

A final quote from Philostratus II (2nd century AD) can end this section nicely, according to Philostratus, the skin of the egyptians of his period was lighter then the aethiopians and nubians (Life of Apollonius, VI. 2) [4]:

”Those who live at the border in the interior are not quite black, but all of the same colour, less black than the Aithiopians but blacker than the Egyptians.”

Notes
[1] Translation by A. D. Godley, 1920.
[2] Hippocrates Collected Works I, W. H. S. Jones, Harvard University Press, 1868.
[3] A commentary on the fourth Pythian ode of Pindar, Bruce Karl Braswell, 1988.
[4] Translated by Tomas Hagg, Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III, p. 962-964.

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Ancient Roman Sources

Finally some ancient Roman sources which physically describe the ancient egyptians, first starting with Pliny the Elder, the natural philosopher who wrote Naturalis Historia in 77AD.

Afrocentrics repeatedly claim the face of the Great Sphinx at Giza, has black features.

These claims have already been debunked on numerous sites i have already seen, but relevant here is a quote from Pliny on the skin colour of the face of the Great Sphinx (Naturalis Historia, 36. 17):

”In front of these pyramids is the Sphinx… the truth is, however, that it was hewn from the solid rock; and, from a feeling of veneration, the face of the monster is coloured red.”

According to Pliny the face of the Sphinx was painted red, not black.

Pliny also knew the skin of the Egyptians during his time, 1st century AD, was closest to northern Indians (VI. 70).

Manilius and Arrian also wrote something very similar, comparing the egyptians to northern Indians and not the blackness of the aethiopians:

”The Ethiopians stain the world and depict a race of men steeped in darkness; less sun-burnt are the natives of India; the land of Egypt, flooded by the Nile, darkens bodies more mildly owing to the inundation of its fields: it is a country nearer to us and its moderate climate imparts a medium tone.”

– Manilius, Astronomica, IV. 724

”The appearance of the inhabitants is also not very different in India and Ethiopia: the southern Indians are rather more like Ethiopians as they are black to look on, and their hair is black; only they are not so snub-nosed or woolly-haired as the Ethiopians; the northern Indians are most like the Egyptians physically.”

– Arrian, Indica, VI. 9

From Plutarch in the 1st century AD (the Romanised Greek neo-Platonist), we are provided several physical descriptions of the egyptian Gods (Isis and Osiris, 359e, XXII):

”The Egyptians, in fact, have a tradition that Hermes had thin arms and big elbows, that Typhon was red in complexion, Horus white, and Osiris dark.”

364b, XXXIII of the same work adds:

”Therefore, because they believe Typhon was personally of a reddish sallow colour, they are not eager to meet men of such complexion, nor do they like to associate with them. Osiris, on the other hand, according to their legendary tradition, was dark, because water darkens everything, earth and clothes and clouds, when it comes into contact with them.”
363e, XXXI states:

”The Egyptians, because of their belief that Typhon was of a red complexion, also dedicate to sacrifice such of their neat cattle as are of a red colour, but they conduct the examination of these so scrupulously that, if an animal has but one hair black or white, they think it wrong to sacrifice it”

362f, XXX also notes that Typhon had red hair:

”Typhon had red hair and in colour resembled an ass.”

Typhon’s egyptian equivilant was the God Set (who has already been noted briefly, and was considered to be red-haired also by the egyptians themselves).

Set was therefore a red haired and ruddy skinned God.

Horus according to Plutarch was white skinned, while Osiris ”dark”.

The dark here, is certianly not black since Plutarch states Osiris was called dark because of the colour of water, which is blue. This seems to relate well to the description of Osiris, in the already cited Papyrus of Ani as Lapis lazuli (blue) faced.

None of the ancient egyptians Gods were then considered to be black or dark brown skinned by the ancient greeks.

The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (XXII. 16. 23) described the skin of the egyptians during his time as ”somewhat swarthy” (subfusucli), meaning they were probably considered to be somewhat brownish, certianly though not so dark or black skinned. Marcellinus also added that blood showed under their skin, which meant their skin must have been fairly light, as hemoglobin does not appear under dark skin.

The Roman physician Galen of the 2nd century AD, described the hair of the egyptians as (De Temperamentis, II. 5):

‘‘The hair of Egyptians, Arabs, Indians, and of general all peoples who inhabit hot, dry places, has poor growth and is black, dry, curly and brittle.”

This translation here, certianly means curly and NOT wooly. The black aethiopians here were diliberately excluded by Galen, as they were known to have wooly hair, not curly hair during his period of time. Galen then knew the egyptians were not black.