The African Encounter With Greece: The Case of Kush

Abstract

Interaction between Greeks and non-Greek peoples is a central theme of contemporary Greek historiography. Most such studies, however, involve the peoples of the successor states of Alexander’s empire. Less well known were the encounters between Greeks and the independent peoples living beyond the frontiers of the Greek world. A noteworthy example of such an encounter is that between Ptolemaic Egypt and the kingdom of Kush in Nubia. Early interpretations of this encounter relied on the concept of Hellenization, arguing that objects of Mediterranean origin found in Nubia and examples of Greek influence observed in Kushite art were evidence of Hellenization. My purpose in this paper is to offer a new interpretation of the encounter of Kush with Ptolemaic Egypt, one that emphasizes the function of Greek culture in Kush and does not rely on the concept of Hellenization but highlights instead the agency of the Kushites in determining the extent and character of that influence.