Niger's Daughters
Niger's daughters are twelve beautiful young women, as described in Niger's impassioned narrative. The criticisms spread by European poets, however, have convinced his daughters that they are not beautiful anymore. Of course, Niger knows that his daughters are still beautiful, just not in the fashion of early modern Europe.
The Moon Goddess
The moon goddess appears to Niger and his daughters, giving them instructions about how to wash their blackness away. Ironically, the moon goddess points Niger and his daughters away from the East (where she is celebrated and worshiped) to the kingdom of Britain, suggesting that the "sun" of Britain is more powerful and deserving of praise.
Niger's Supplication
Niger travels all the way to the Atlantic Ocean in order to seek counsel from Oceanus about his problem, but Oceanus can barely begin to make a response before Aethiopia appears from nowhere and answers his question. In many ways, Oceanus is rendered ironically ineffective as a divine figure, with Aethiopia holding the solution to Niger's problem.
-Tania
The moon goddess tells Niger's daughters to search for the land ending in "-tania" in order to lighten their skin to the paleness ideal for beauty. They search all three countries whose names end in "-tania" (Mauritania, Lusitania, and Aquitania) with no success. This exchange creates dramatic irony between the characters and the audience, as the audience of British royalty and aristocrats would have known immediately that Britannia was the land Aethiopia was referring to.
The King's Power
Aethiopia tells the daughters of Niger that the king of Britain will have mercy on them and purge them of their blackness. Ironically, his mercy comes in the form of the daughters' own action: they must bathe in the sea beneath the British sun once a month for a year. Aethiopia therefore presents the daughters' transformation as a "natural" effect of being in proximity to the king (the sun).
