So I've been on Iliad nostalgia trip, rereading my copy of the book as well as searching the internet for more interesting anecdotes and facts about the story. Some things that have interested me lately have been the other lost books about the Trojan War, like the Aethiopis and the Little Iliad, one character in particular that has interested me would be the Aethiopian King Memnon, who multiple sources have sighted to be a warrior second only to Achilles.
Memnon was said to be the King of the Aethiopians, who were said to have inhabited the upper Nile region, unlike modern day Ethiopia. I'm unaware if these same Aethiopians eventually did migrate to Ethiopia as well. Memnon is also depicted as black on most vase paintings and I don't think it would be offensive to presume his bust has a decidedly African look to it (though I'm not sure of this is his actual bust). Most artwork of him also depicts him as very African, often with an animal hide shield and loose covering armour, which I believe to be inaccurate as it was said he had armour crafted by Hephaestus.
What confuses me though, is the fact that Memnon apparently has no Ethiopian heritage, as his father was a Prince of Troy and his mother a Greek Goddess. I'm also wondering what gods he would have worshipped, I'm aware polytheism is quite flexible but I'd imagine the Aethiopians would have had sparse contact with the Hellenistic world as they would have had Egypt and many other polytheistic kingdoms between them.
Memnon is a fascinating figure, and it is a horrible tragedy that his story was lost to history, but something as simple as his culture is shrouded in mystery, at least to me.
I haven't even finished the Iliad yet but re. contact with the Hellenic* world, remember that Zeus dines with the Ethiopians in the Iliad. I think (but don't know) that most cultures in the ancient Mediterenean more or less worshipped the Olympian pantheon with local variations and also local gods (the Jews and Egyptians being oddballs).
