BLACK HERCULES

By John R. Moore
John Moore - Barbados, W.I. (2005)Revised July 2007 . All rights reserved.
BLACK HERCULES
The name Hercules can be traced back to the Black African people of ancient Ethiopia and Egypt who
had conceived of a mighty saviour named Heru. Consequently, this title was also conferred upon
Egyptian Pharaohs who were famous for their courage and pursuit of justice. The ancient Greeks who
were taught and civilized by African teachers adopted the words Horus, Hero, and Heracles as
derivatives.
During ancient times the African concept of Heru spread from Waset (Thebes) in Egypt to the British
Isles, Scythis, the Indies, Ireland, Germany and beyond, encompassing other parts of the world. Heru
(Heracles) as a title was bestowed on those African men and women who displayed qualities of
behaviour that promoted truth and nobility. The criteria and process for electing an individual as a
living Heru or Hercules was later copied by Europeans. The Greek Heracleses were Black men, as
were the ancestors of Greek culture.
The training of the Hercules and the Amazon Queens consisted of extensive education to prepare them
for arduous tasks. Hercules and the Amazon Queens were not only mighty because of their physical
power and beauty; they also held skilled occupations as lawyers, engineers, lawgivers, professors and
so on. It was the desire of these pioneers of African civilization to push culture to the European
territory.
What is known today is that body building, power lifting, weight training, physical fitness, mental
training and spiritual development originated in Africa before 3400 B. C., in other words, African
people had set the standards for moral, physical and spiritual perfection.
The twelve labours of Hercules were difficult and arduous tests for kingship or to become a champion
of the African people. Thousands of years later in Africa, those same tests were used to determine the
African youth's rights to receive the privileges of manhood and marriage. The mystery schools of the
Greeks received these standards of tests from Ethiopia and African Culture.
The Greek historians Herodotus, Diodoros, and others, clearly stated that Hercules was an Egyptian
god from "time immemorial", according to Herodotus' submission in the 5th century B.C., whereas
Diodoros, in the 1st century B.C. wrote that originally "Herakles" was a man.
Despite contradictory beliefs, those Greek historians had to have known about Hercules, since they had
the advantage of talking directly to the Egyptian priests. His laborious and tireless activities used in
clearing the earth of wild beasts caused Hercules to be seen by the grateful Egyptians as a
representative of the sun-god Ra. It is very unlikely therefore that Hercules was Germanic, because
20,000 years ago Northern Europe was covered with sheets of ice, so the conditions of the Ice Age
would not have been in keeping with Hercules wearing only a lion skin and clearing the earth of any
wild beasts. Thus, we can dismiss the comic books, movies, and animated Disney television series
depicting Hercules as anything other than a Black African.
Hercules then, from conception to realization in historical figures, was started in Africa by Black
African people, therefore those of the African Diaspora need to reclaim this heroic and uplifting
archetype and symbol of Divine Strength which was stolen from them by the Eurocentric
supremacists, and which we have unfortunately forgotten.
The Egyptians had conceived of the original Heracles as representing a variety of Natures' forces and
not as an actual human incarnation. The Greeks, upon seeing the more ancient Hercules Archetypes in
ancient Egyptian temples, acknowledged them as Heracles (Hercules).
The Egyptian Heracles was said to have various manifestations which are spiritual as well as natural
forces like Khonsu (Lunar Deity), the multiple forms of Heru and or Harpokrates (Solar and Martian
Deities), Khnum (also called Herishef), Shu (Air, Mars, and Sun Deity), and Gom (Lion-Headed Deity
of the Sun and Strength) to identify a few.
Herodotus confirms that Heracles (Hercules) was originally known as Shu, the Egyptian god who
helped Re to defeat the adversaries who had threatened the cosmic order. Shu (Onuris) was a member
of the Ennead that consisted of the 12 Egyptian deities, from which the Greeks fashioned their idea of
the 12 Olympian gods.
Shu is the air god who separated the sky (Nut) from the earth (Geb), and who lifts and holds the
heavens over his head like a cosmic weight lifter. Shu was represented by the Egyptians in their own
likeness as a black man, a powerful warrior, and member of the Heliopolitan Ennead.
The chronological history of the well known versions of Heracles (Hercules) during ancient history is
highlighted on page 201 by the writer of Herodotus Book II Alan B. Lloyd as follows.
1. The Egyptian Herakles is the most ancient.
2. The Tyrian Herakles is next, having a temple that existed in 2700 B.C.
3. The Thasian Herakles' temple which existed 5 generations before the Greek Herakles, son of
Alcmene and Amphitryon. Note that the Greek Herakles was a black man.
Thebes in Egypt is the original Thebes where the Egyptian Heracles was born and raised. The ancient
Greeks named this city Thebes, Thebai , Thisbe and Thespai but the black people called their city
Waset, which was the home of Heracles for many hundreds of years the centre of religious and political
power in the Egyptian Empire, and was also the capital of this nation throughout most of its ancient
history. Now the Greeks, seeking to establish a place for their Greek Heracles took the name they
assigned for Waset, the original 'Thebes, and named one of their own Greek cities 'Thebes'.
Thoth (Tehuti) was known in ancient Egypt as the Canopic Hercules of which the historical and
legendary figure Imhotep was said to be a living incarnation, and whom the Greeks worshipped as
Ascepulapius. The Greek Heracles is strongly patterned after this ancient Egyptian and his black
predecessors.
Homer wrote this verse, "Black he stood as night, His bow uncased, his arrow strung for flight," to
describe the legendary first world hero known as Hercules, the African world teacher who left a
legacy of goodwill that was emulated by his successors.
Herodotus wrote about Hercules in name and in concept as being Ethiopian and Egyptian in origin.
Hercules was called Hr k3 during the 2nd century B.C. which means that he is: the human incarnation
of human creative energies, dynamic human potential at work, as heavenly productive powers, and as
the power of positive miracles.
Hercules' origins in Africa came forth as inspiration in the development of schools, where in Ethiopia
for example, such schools were established for the training of the mind, body and will. This concept
eventually spread to Egypt, the Middle East, India, Ireland, and other places in Europe.
In every era and in various countries, men and women trained and educated themselves to help
humanity, and stories of their great deeds have come to our present age as legends. However, myths
behind the stories contain elements of historical events.
The Greek Hercules was developed by stories about the Egyptian Hercules who was a composite of the
Old & Middle Kingdom Pharaohs (c.-2100 - 1800 B.C.).
Hollywood as usual has been erroneously portraying Hercules exclusively as a hero of European
ancestry, and without any emphasis on his function as a teacher.
John Moore - Barbados, W.I. (2005)Revised July 2007 . All rights reserved.
http://members.tripod.com/jrmoore1958/