[.ca] African Dionysus: The Ancient Egyptian Origins of ... (ISBN 188456447X)

Fascinating and Thought Provoking:
My studies in philosophy and culture have long led me to believe that Ancient Greek and Roman cultures must have been influenced by Ancient Egypt but I never knew how. This book presents an excellent outline of just how much of Greek and Roman culture were based either directly on Egyptian beliefs or influenced by them. A big part of the book is concerned with establishing that ancient Egyptians were black and were part of African culture. This discussion then leads to an all too brief lesson in the history of Ancient Egypt and its religion and philosophy. Here we see Dr. Ashby draw fascinating parallels between the gods of Egypt and of Greece and Rome. A lot of space is also spent on the knowledge that the Greeks had of Egypt with evidence that Thales, Pythagoras, and Plato travelled to and studied in Egypt. We also see great parallels between Egytpian and Greek art. Without going into a long philosophical discussion here, let me say that Dr. Ashby accumulates a great deal of evidence for the tremendous influence of Egyptian thought on Ancient Greece and Rome, and, the Egyptian influence on Christianity as well, though, as we all know, Christianity lost most of historical roots with the founding of the church. From these comments it would appear that I should be giving this book five stars instead of three. But there is too much that is sketchy in this admittedly brief work. And while I found much of the book convincing, a commentatot could easily call much of the evidence circumstantial. More evidence is needed. But for someone interested in this subject, this book would make an excellent introduction.