We just look at all the tribes & groups that exist right now in the ME, most of these people haven't much of any direct knowledge of America but they know all about us. This would have been the case for those ancient tribes in the Arabian penninsula where the Herbews probably started out, all kinds of rumors of the great Pharoahs, their mighty structures (World Trade Centers) and would have similarly been cast as the great satan.
What else are you going to compare & match yourself up against, for the Greeks early on it was Troy who they defeat finally thru Odysseus' cleverness. Later the Persians & Spartans and so on. But since you're a pretty tiny tribe with really not even 1/100th the powers, culture & prowess of the Greeks, sky's the limit, just invent the ultimate deus ex machina, a god that can part seas, flood the world, turn men into pillars of salt.
Mythology, everyone was doing it and those tales incoporated the personality & psyches of the tribe, the human primate starts flooding the world literally with their fantasies & fears. From the floods, fires of hell, evil kings, damsels in distress, dragons & bellies of giant fish. And of course the major spirits from sky, woods, desert sands & seas...the tricksters, imps , spirits, jinns, angels & demons fill up their new imagined world cosmology.
* They know more about the USA now, from McDonalds, Colonel Sanders, Coca Cola & internet, cell phones & pc's plus several invasions & 9/11 and many wars since mid 20th century. We are the Egypt super power or Roman invader and we have the eagle drones! |
