abstract
| - Homer (c. 800 BCE) is the first to mention "Aethiopians" (Αἰθίοπας); he mentions that they are to be found at the southern extremities of the world, divided by the sea into "eastern" (at the sunrise) and "western" (at the sunset). The Greek poets Hesiod (c. 700 BCE) and Pindar (c. 450 BCE) speak of Memnon as the "king of Aethiopia", and further state that he founded the city of Susa (in Elam). In 515 BCE, Scylax of Caryanda, on orders from Darius the Great of Persia, sailed along the Indus River, Indian Ocean and Red Sea, circumnavigating the Arabian Peninsula. He mentioned Aethiopians, but his writings on them have not survived. Hecataeus of Miletus (ca. 500 BCE) is also said to have written a book about Aethiopia, but his writing is now known only through quotations from later authors. He stated that Aethiopia was located to the east of the Nile, as far as the Red Sea and Indian Ocean; he is also quoted as relating a myth that the Skiapods ("Shade feet") lived there, whose feet were supposedly large enough to serve as shade. The philosopher Xenophanes, who lived around the same time, noted that "The Thracians make their gods like them, with blue eyes and fair (or red) hair, while Aethiopians make their gods like them, black".
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