Few other nations are mentioned in ancient European literature as much as Ethiopia, and even fewer as highly esteemed. Ethiopians are first mentioned in the oldest of Greek texts, Homer’s Iliad (circa 800 BC), as a place frequented by the Greek gods. Homer states, “…twelve for Jupiter’s stay with the Ethiopians, at whose return Thetis prefers her petition” and “Zeus is at Ocean’s river with Ethiopians, feasting, he and all the heaven-dwellers.” In Homer’s Odyssey (c. 800 BC), Poseiden also spends time in Ethiopia: “But Poseidon, the earthquake lord, making his return from Ethiopia where he had visited for a celebration in his honor…” Homer also tells us that an Ethiopian ruled Troy and Arabia: “Tithonus was the son of Laomedon, king of Troy and the Nymph Strymo. He was an extremely handsome youth, and when Eos (Dawn) first saw him, she fell in love with him and brought him to her palace by the stream of Ocean in Ethiopia. They had two children, Memnon and Emathion. Emathion became a king of Arabia…
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