By Maunfu 9

The Western Academic establishment traces the history of Western Civilization back to the Ancient Greeks. For them, the "Greek Miracle" represented an unprecedented blooming of intellectual prowess which laid down the foundations of the major scientific, artistic and cultural ideas which form modern civilization. The Greeks, we are told, were the originators of philosophy, complex mathematics, theoretical, analytical thinking and so on. This view persists to this day.

A Short History of Greece

Greek history begins not on the mainland proper, but on the island of Crete, to the south and in the Mediterranean sea. Contrary to popular belief, the people of Crete were not an Indo-European people. The island was a maritime power which maintained ties particularly with the powers to the south in Africa and to the east in Asia. There are significant connections between Cretan civilization and Egyptian civilization.

The Greek language dates back to a period around 1600 BC. It is fundamentally an Indo-European language, but contains numerous words of other origin.

From its earliest inception, Ancient Greek tradition had acknowledged the influence of foreign peoples in the creation of its culture. The Greek legends attest to the coming - from Egypt - of a number of great kings to the area and particularly to the island of Crete. Martin Bernal, in Black Athena links these developments to the rise of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and the exploits of the Kimetic 11th dynasty of the Mentuhoteps and the 12th dynasty Pharoahs of the Amenhoteps and Senwosrets ( Sesostrises ). The traditions illustrate clearly that Crete and mainland Greece were Egyptian colonies.

Along with Egypt, the influence of the Phoenicians on Greece is profound. Greek legends emphatically state that it was the legendary Phoenician Kadmos who introduced the alphabet and writing to the Greeks and created the oracle at Dodona. This oracle is Greek culture's most ancient artifact. Again, mainstream historians continue to mislead the world about the facts concerning the origin and race of the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were the people of the land of Canaan. They were Blacks, and an offshoot of Egyptian/Kushitic culture which dominated the Middle East.

Greek legend also tells of an Egyptian king named Kekrops who introduces agriculture and the concepts of marriage and matriarchy to their people. Kekrops is said to have been the founder of the city of Athens.

The civilization of mainland Greece begins after the end of the civilization of Crete. It comes with a northern Indo-European people called the Achaeans who invade the Aegean basin around this time. The Achaeans possesed no indiginous civilization of significance, but upon capturing the island of Crete, they took back with them the learned people and culture they found and the civilizations of Mycenae and Tiryns were born.

The Black influence on Greece as a nascent civilization is thus evident. But what of the Greece which -we are told - created Western Civilization? What of the relatively short period in which major personages emerge and the great names of modern Classics spring forth ? This age can be devided into 3 stages :

Pre Socratic

Socratic

Post Socratic

The periodization is centered around Socrates, who ushers in the "Greek Golden Age" along with his student Plato and Plato's student Aristotle.

The entire intellectual period however begins in the Pre-Socratic period with Thales of Miletus. He is considered the first of the world's great thinker/philosophers.

Here then is an examination of the truth of these men's sources and influences.

THALES of Miletus (Circa 600 BC)

Thales is the earliest of the Greek Masters. He is credited with the earliest conception of mathematics, astronomy and philosophy.

What is left unsaid is that Thales studied under the Egyptian priesthood for an extended period of time.

Thales' philosophical outlook begins with the concept of a primordial, unorganized 'water' which was the begining of all things. For him, it is God that organizes this water and realises creation. The similarity of this basic concept and the action of the Egyptian god-concept of Ra on Nun, the Kimetic "primordial waters" is evident. Thales' meditations on the human soul are also directly derived from Egyptian concepts. In examining the characteristics of the soul, Thales described it as an ever changing entity akin to the Egyptian concept of the ba.

In mathematics, the so-called Thales Theorem for which he is credited is -in fact- not a Greek creation at all. The theorem deals with the mathematical concept of 'perspective' whereby imaginary straight lines along the edges of two bodies intersect at some point beyond the 2 bodies in relation to the distance between the two objects. It is found in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus 1700 years before Thales. The Greek writer Proclus explicitly states that Thales was the first of the Greeks to study in Egypt and later introduced the concepts he had learned to Greece. Diogenes Laertius states :" He [Thales] did not take any lessons from any master except in Egypt where he frequently kept company with the country's priests."

Thales was also a teacher of Pythagoras and advised him to go into Egypt to study.

Solon of Athens (640 558 BC)

An influential political reformer and historian, Solon studied in Sais in Egypt under the priest Sanchis. He leaves written documentation of this in his work

PYTHAGORAS of Samos

All students of geometry have been taught the famous Pythagoras' theorem which equates the square of the hypotenus of a triangle with the sum of the squares of the other two sides. He is also credited with being the discoverer of irrational numbers and the inventor of the diatonic scale. Pythagoras was the founder of an entire school of philosophy in Ancient Greece. He is also one of the foremost of the Greek plagiarists.

The customs and rites of the pythagorean schools were similar to those of the Egyptians. Herodotus details these similarities in book 2 of his Histories. Pythagoras studied in Egypt under the priest Onuphis. He studied astronomy and geometry. This is confirmed by his biographer Iambilicus, who writes that Pythagoras studied in Egypt for twenty-two years and was initiated into the Kimetic priesthood. He studied all three forms of Egyptian script : Hieratic, Hieroglyphic and Demotic. Pythagoras was fascinated by the symbology and arcane aspects of Egyptian script. He brought this knowledge back to Greece and attempted to incorporate it into Greek ideas. Pythagorean philosophy is credited with the inception of the idea that 'number' is at the heart of creation. But this idea too is a fundamental aspect of Kimetic philosophy and religion. The connection between numerical concepts and the religious lore underpinning the Ancient Egyptian outlook is fundamental to the principle of Maat.

There is also a long paper trail of evidence detailing Pythagoras' debt to Egypt from such reknowned Greek writers as Herodotus, Isocrates, Plutarch and Porphyry. In fact, Herodotus explicitly denounces Pythagoras's plagiarizing of Egyptian thought.

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae

Anaxagoras expounds the concept of an original universal state of chaos which is then ordered by a sentient force "nous" through order to create the Universe. This again, is identical of the Kimetic concept of Nun; the primeval waters which are ordered by the benevolent action of Ra to create this Universe.

Democritus of Abdera (460 - 360 BC)

Studied philosophy, geometry and astronomy in Egypt for five years. Democritus was also a philosopher of the materialist school.

He is credited with being first to understand the function of the human brain.

This is absurd, as Egyptians had understood this at least a millenium before ( see Medicine: at Egyptian Civilization ). As a philosopher, Democritus work was criticized by Aristotle for its allegiance to the Egyptian Hermopolitan cosmogony. Interestingly, Democritus himself - like many of the other Greek thinkers - gives no credit to his Egyptian masters.

Socrates of Athens

A giant figure of medern Academe, Socrates left very few written documents. We have further knowledge of him from the work of his pupil Plato. In Phaedrus ( 274 C ), Plato has Socrates explicitly stating that the Egyptian deity Toth was the father of writing, numbers, arithmetic and geometry. Socrates was intimately familiar with Egypt and used its ideas as the basis for his famous public lectures.

Plato of Athens

The father of European philosophy has left a legacy which cannot be overestimated on European culture and thinking. His academies of the early third century BC are described as the world's first universities.

Plato's sojourn in Egypt was at the cities of Heliopolis and Memphis. He spent a total of thirteen years there studying. The impact of Heliopolis on Plato's thinking is evident in the ideas expressed in his Timaeus which extensively borrows from the Heliopolitan Cosmogony. The Demiurge of Plato - the guiding principle which creates the Universe - is identical to the Egyptian Ra.

Plato's esteem of Egypt is consistently found in his writing. For him, Egypt is the oldest country known with the most ancient store of knowledge ( see Timaeus ).

In The Laws, Plato effectively characterizes the Egyptian state as utopian. Everything from the country's laws, culture; the relationship between the two ; to the manner in which the Egyptian people introduced their children to mathematical concepts is highly praised.

Later, it would be Plutarch who would document vast similarities between Plato's concepts and those of the Egyptians before him. In fact, Plato's contemporaries often accused him of Plagiarizing his Republic from Egypt. This can be seen from a number of passages in Timaeus, where Plato directly copies the texts from the respective Egyptian documents without giving credit. Plato himself, in analyzing the history of his people, confirmed the tales of legend supporting the idea that Greece had been colonized and civilized early in its history by Kimet.

Eudoxos of Knidos

The Mathematician/astronomer and teacher (along with Plato ) of Aristotle spent thirteen years in Egypt - also in Heliopolis - studying with the priests. He was the first to translate Egyptian astronomical literature into Greek. Strabo documents the sojourn of Eudoxos and Plato in Egypt and notes that the Egyptians taught the two only a part of their vast knowledge leaving other matters secret.

Aristotle of Athens

Aristotle is generally considered to be the world's first scientist. This is a result of his examination into the "nature" of things. We are also told that he is the inventor of formal logic. Aristotle's sojourn in Egypt has been the most difficult to confirm, but although direct confirmation has been hard to come by, there is much incriminating evidence, not only from his ideas themselves, but from his many descriptions of the Land of Kimet itself. Theophile Obenga writes in Ancient Egypt and Black Africa (p 64):

It seems that Aristotle visited Egypt, according to a technical passage from Meteorology (352 b 20) where it is a question of an explanation for the emergence oif the delta of the Nile: the Egyptians' country is manifestly the work of the river, "This is clear (kai touto delon esti) to one who sees (horonti) as he descends along (kata) this country (ten choran auten)".

The verb horao employed by Aristotle is specifically a verb of perception. It means "to see, to perceive with the sight organ". In its absolute sense, this verb means " to have the use of sight". This verb horao is very concrete. Hence its other meanings: "to look", "to visit someone". The preposition kata, constructed here with the accusative, concerns space and means: "descending along". To the one who can see, that is, who can examine with attention, descending the valley of the Nile from the Delta towards Upper Egypt (delon esti), it is clear that the Egyptian country is well and truly the work of the Nile. This is what Aristotle says, using precise, concrete greek terms, using beautiful syntax. The conclusion is that Aristotle truly saw for himself the work of the Nile in the making of the fertile strip of the Nile Valley.

Archimedes

Another of the iconic Greek mathematicians, Archimedes, like Pythagoras is particularly guilty of failing to acknowledge his debt to the Egyptians who came before him. Cheikh Anta Diop, in Civilization or Barbarism examines a number of Archimedes' supposed accomplishments. In expressing the formulas for the calculating of the area of a sphere (S = 4 pi r-squared), the volume of the cylinder ( V = pi R-squared x H ), Archimedes fails to note the primacy of his Egyptian tutors. This is also the case with the properties he notes for the cylinder tangential to the inscribed sphere, and his calculations of the value of pi.

Archimedes work, On the Equilibrium of Planes or of Their Center of Gravity duplicates work done by the Egyptians two thousand years before on the use of the lever. Egyptians had applied this principle in the invention of the scale and the shadoof.

Similarly, the Egyptians created the screw (spiral) which Archimedes is credited with inventing.