The Suppliants - A 5th Century BC Problem For Gaslighters

The Suppliants is a tragic play written by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus around 463–459 BC. It is one of the oldest surviving dramas and forms part of a lost trilogy. The play tells the story of the Danaïdes, fifty daughters of Danaus, who flee forced marriages to their Egyptian cousins and seek asylum in Argos. Through vivid language and mythological references, Aeschylus explores themes of kinship, justice, race, and the sacred duties owed to refugees.

In The Suppliants by Aeschylus, several clear elements strongly imply that the ancient Egyptians—or at least populations connected to the Nile Valley—were seen as Black Africans by ancient Greeks. The play tells the story of the Danaïdes, daughters of Danaus, who flee Egypt to avoid forced marriages with their cousins, sons of Aegyptus. Their physical description, geographic origin, and cultural identifiers all point to an African identity unmistakably associated with dark-skinned peoples.

First, the most explicit indicator comes from their self-description and the reaction of the King of Argos. The Danaïdes describe themselves as “sun-smitten” and part of a “dark race” (strophe, strongly associating their appearance with darker skin due to intense sun exposure in Egypt.) This is crucial: Mediterranean Greeks, accustomed to their own lighter but sun-tanned skin, explicitly viewed the newcomers as notably darker. Furthermore, when the King of Argos first sees the women, he immediately remarks that their appearance does not resemble Greeks but is more like Libyans (North Africans), Egyptians along the Nile, or even Aethiopians (a Greek term for Black Africans south of Egypt) . He notes they are not like the fair-skinned Greek women but have an appearance typical of African peoples.

Second, the Danaïdes trace their lineage directly to Io, a figure in Greek mythology who was transformed into a cow and wandered to Egypt, where she bore a child by Zeus. They emphasize their descent from Io’s offspring Epaphus, born in Egypt, solidifying their Afro-Egyptian heritage. Io’s suffering and wandering link Greece to Egypt mythologically, but crucially, the offspring are situated firmly in Egypt, among dark-skinned populations along the Nile. This shows that to the Greek imagination, Egyptians—even royal lineages linked to Greek myth—belonged to a darker, African context.

Third, the musical and cultural references made by the Danaïdes, particularly their “Ionian laments” and wailing songs, were considered exotic and foreign by Greeks. Their customs, dress (“oriental richness”), and behavior set them apart from the Greeks. Their cultural alienness reinforces their identification with Egypt as a place culturally and racially distinct from the Greek world, associated instead with Africa and the broader region of dark-skinned peoples.

Lastly, Aeschylus, writing around 490 BC, reflects a time when Greek geographical knowledge understood Egypt as African without the later racial reclassifications that would come during later centuries of Greek and Roman imperialism. The frequent association of Egypt with Libya and Ethiopia in the play shows that, in this early period, Egypt was not seen as a Near Eastern or Mediterranean offshoot but fundamentally part of the African world.

In sum, through skin color descriptions, geographic ancestry, mythological connections, cultural foreignness, and the historical context of Greek-African relations, The Suppliants portrays Egyptians as Black Africans. Aeschylus’ play thus captures how ancient Greeks naturally categorized Egypt within Africa—not just geographically, but racially and culturally too.

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