This NYC Professor is a COMPLETE JOKE!

On this video we are reacting to the video posted on the channel Vanity Fair called: Mythology Expert Reviews Greek & Roman Mythology in Movies (Part 1) | Vanity Fair. Unfortunately I cannot recommend this video. If you want to watch it here is the link

Link to my video where on the second half I tell the truth about the Kandake of Africa

Without dismissing the issues inherent to Spartan culture that have been listed, such a statement clashes with everything we know: in 404 BC, Sparta emerged victorious from the Peloponnesian War that had pitted it against Athens, inaugurating what historians define as the Spartan hegemony in Greece, which lasted throughout the first quarter of the 4th century BC and beyond, only shattering in 371 BC with the defeat at Leuctra against the Thebans.

2:59
Defining the Spartan army as "the greatest gay army that's ever been on the planet" is a provocation to the alt-right, amusing if we want, but essentially nonsense (we have already talked hundreds of times about how the sexuality of the ancients is not superimposable on modern sexuality. The most correct definition (if one really wanted to give one) would be "pansexual army", given that at the time everyone could have been defined more or less in a certain way as "pansexual", but also remembering that sexuality followed specific norms and rules (e.g. after puberty, passive homosexuality tended to be stigmatized). Subsequently, however, he recovers and presents a more or less FAIRLY correct picture. The point is that the masculinity expressed by Spartan culture, a mixture of frankness, roughness, simplicity, frugality, remains evident (just read the various Apophthegmata Laconica by Plutarch), and this is because in antiquity someone could quietly be perceived as virile and at the same time have (active) homosexual relationships, e.g. Philip II of Macedonia said "If I enter Laconia I will raze it to the ground!" The Spartans replied: "If" (hence the adjective "laconic") [A Spartan responds, during an initiation rite, to a priest who asks him the most nefarious action he had ever committed]. (Spartan): To whom should I confess it: to you or to God? (Priest): To God. (Spartan): Then you go away. A Spartan is asked if the roads leading to Sparta are safe, the answer given by the Spartan is the following: "It depends on what you are; while the lions with us roam wherever they want, the hares end up in the pot. An orator makes a speech with very long sentences and a Spartan comments: "Wow, what courage this man possesses! How skilled he is in wrapping his tongue around emptiness!"
“The Spartans were strange catalysts of democracy: They were utter fascists. They had the best land in Greece, and it was tilled by slaves and the citizens were all soldiers to defend the territory.
The Athenians were the ones who gave birth to democracy, but the Spartans made it all possible.”

Relativamente alla rappresentazione della mollezza persiana in contrapposizione con la virilità dei guerrieri greci, invece, sono le stesse fonti classiche a parlarcene:
“Since the sight of the Persians inspired terror in Agesilaus' troops, he ordered his Persian prisoners to be stripped and their white soft bodies, contemptuous to Greeks, to be displayed to his men”
- Frontino, Stratagemata, 1.11.17

Certainly, 300 represents the Persians in a caricatured way, emphasizing the "oriental softness" (I wouldn't say "racism"). The film is based on the Graphic Novel by Frank Miller, who, as in his other works (e.g., "The Dark Knight Returns"), employs a very particular form of social satire, and if read in-depth, he is an author who loves to put forth great contradictions. In fact, Miller does not describe the Spartans in a positive way, but plays with the narrative according to which, at a given moment, their contribution was incisive in defending Greece, and therefore also Athenian democracy, from the aims of an autocratic state such as the Persian empire. "The Spartans were strange catalysts of democracy: They were utter fascists. They had the best land in Greece, and it was tilled by slaves and the citizens were all soldiers to defend the territory. The Athenians were the ones who gave birth to democracy, but the Spartans made it all possible."

Regarding the representation of Persian softness in contrast to the virility of the Greek warriors, however, the classical sources themselves tell us about it:
"Since the sight of the Persians inspired terror in Agesilaus' troops, he ordered his Persian prisoners to be stripped and their white soft bodies, contemptuous to Greeks, to be displayed to his men" - Frontinus, Stratagemata, 1.11.17

#ancientgreece #ancientrome #propaganda

[psarri]

any professor who compares Greek mythology to a comic book should be fired. Wakanda isnt African mythology, it was created by two jewish guys in 1966 ffs

[johngriffon]

I genuinely wonder how African people feel that he would rather use Wakanda, a fictional culture and country from western comic books, to discuss African history rather then actually discuss real African Cultures.

[JP-vjfp]

Sparta being exclusionary and isolationist = bad.

Wakanda being exclusionary and isolationist = YAAASSSS

[KiazaKadaj]

Black Athena is 100% the furthest book away from academic consensus it’s almost insulting to be used as a source for anything.

[spazzypengin]

So he's supposed to be talking about history and proceeds to fawn over Black Panther? Yup, he's one of *those* professors.

[DoctaJay]

Professor condemns European whitewashing of African history, then complains about Europeans teaching African history...

[Staszk]

It's hillarious that this guy was constantly talking about African culture, African mythology and African influence on the Greek mythology and then decided to talk about a marvel movie instead of actual African mythologies lol.

[livmashupmansen]

The guy saying the mask being behind glass is limiting access, but he forgets that this mask is so old that it needs to be protected so that people can have access visually to the art and history of that artifact. The museums are preserving the mask for people to admire and learn about. A lot of old artifacts are fragile which requires white glove treatments and specialized cases for them to last a long time.

[pyramidheadrocks]

“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”
― George Orwell

[James-brv]

The professor forgot, if he ever knew, that the movie 300 was based on a comic book. It was never intended to be an accurate depiction of Spartan/Persian culture or of history, but rather a fantasy for plain fun.

[wrongthinker]

I think we can all agree on one historic fact: there is no shortage of revisionists who want to butcher facts in service to their agenda.

[TheMiniArmyShow]

I'm Irish but I don't know everything about Irish history/mythology/culture. If I was at a museum and a black person was presenting information about Irish history. If I was to say how dare a black person lecture me about Irish person about my culture it would look absolutely disgusting and bigoted. How do these so called intellectuals not get that if you reverse the races it's exactly as ignorant. My god.

[officerbucktuddrussel]

13:38 Because as a white man I can just walk into any museum, take any european artifact off the wall and play with it because it's from "my culture", and as a white man I just inherently know everything about "my culture" and history so there is no purpose for historians, teachers and the like.

[GothPaoki]

I'm tired of our history and mythology getting pillaged by some politically motivated bozos. Thank you metatron for exposing them.

[Nobodyatall]

300 should never be used to make a statement about Ancient Greece. It's a Zack Snyder movie based on a comic book written by Frank Miller during the most troubled years of his life.

Treating it like a historical movie is like watching Bridgerton to study the Victorian Era.

[ebriadhlaceratus]

"There would be no Greek mythology without ancient African stories". This guy needs to be fired. He is the epitome of propaganda over academic integrity.

[lynngreen]

Killmonger is not Culturally Wakandan. He is American. He speaks like an American, he has an American accent, and he ACTS like an American.

[Ayoosi]

"Half of the Mediterranean is Africa and we forget that." No, just people like this professor who forget that N. Africa, the Mediterranean portion, is not black.

[crozanegovult]

Anybody who uses Marvel films as a reference for academic discussion isn't to be taken seriously.

[jaythom]

I had professors like this. No, I did not pass any of their classes. They’re the reason I dropped out of college. I’ll finish my degree when the world calms down