Sarah Derbew brings into brilliant new focus varied portrayals of blackness in ancient Greek literature and art, while critiquing modern classical misappropriations which retroactively project contemporary theories of race and skin color onto archaic settings. This is a compelling contribution to better understanding of representations of blackness in antiquity.

Sarah Derbew is an Assistant Professor of Classics in affiliation with the Center for African Studies and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. She was previously a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.

Introduction: The metatheater of blackness; 1. Masks of blackness: Reading the iconography of black people in ancient Greece; 2. Masks of difference in Aeschylus's suppliants; 3. Beyond blackness: Reorienting Greek geography; 4. From Greek scythians to black Greeks: Spectrum of foreignness in Lucian's satires; 5. Black disguises in an aithiopian novel; Conclusion: (re)placing blackness; Appendix 1; Appendix 2; Bibliography; Recommended translations of primary Greek texts; Index.