ABSTRACT
The tradition concerning Noah and his sons throws a startling light on the history of Mediterranean civilisation. It is necessary to delete what the Hebrews added to the story out of hatred. Their interpretation does not agree with the tradition itself. This is quite obvious, since they impute a fault to Ham and make a curse fall upon one of his sons named Canaan. The Hebrews boasted of having utterly exterminated a number of cities and tribes in the land of Canaan when Joshua was leading them. Give a dog a bad name and you can hang him. After he has been hanged you can accuse him more than ever. We do not listen to a murderer's evidence against his victim.
