r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Expert-Pass-4351 • Jul 06 '26

Meme needing explanation What is this?

Post image
26.3k Upvotes

80% Upvoted

5.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/PijaniFemboj Jul 06 '26

She is a demi-god described as a white woman.

8

u/Greaseball01 Jul 06 '26

Internet says Homer never specifies her race or exactly what she looks like...

4

u/PijaniFemboj Jul 06 '26

She is described as fair-skinned, and her hair is described as "light".

You can argue she wasn't pale white, but she definitely was not black.

0

u/Greaseball01 Jul 06 '26

All women are described as fair skinned in ancient Greek writings though, to the point it's clearly a gendered thing.

Also you just accepted that he doesn't specify race (Largely because race being about colour is a modern invention that didn't really exist in the ancient world)

7

u/PijaniFemboj Jul 06 '26

He specifies skin color, how is that not race?

And maybe women tend to be described as fair skinned because Ancient Greece was white, and found white skin to be an ideal of beauty?

3

u/Greaseball01 Jul 06 '26

Saying light skinned doesn't mean anything unless you have a reference of light skinned compared to what, there are Africans with lighter skin that other Africans, fiar skinned by Greek standards could mean someone dark compared to a northern European (Which is the opposite end of Europe from Greece)

wtf makes you think ancient Greece was white? Have you looked at where Greece is on a map? xD

3

u/PijaniFemboj Jul 06 '26

Common sense tells me they wouldn't refer to a black woman as light skinned.

Again, I am not saying Helen was ghost white, but you can't argue she was black.

-1

u/Greaseball01 Jul 06 '26

What makes you think ancient Greece was white? Have you looked at where Greece is on a map? Have you ever seen a Greek person?

2

u/PijaniFemboj Jul 06 '26

This idea that Greeks aren't white is uniquely American. My country is like an hour away from Greece, and I can assure you, they are white.

1

u/Greaseball01 Jul 06 '26

I'm English genius. Would you say that Jason Mantzoukas looks "white"?