Alien Space Gods Of Ancient Greece and Rome (21 page)

In 1870 all
Europe
smiled when Heinrich Schliemann, a wealthy German businessman, whose success from poverty to riches accelerated by mastery of a dozen languages, was already a romance, announced his intention of fulfilling his boyhood dream by finding
Troy
. With the topography of the 'Iliad' as guide, he excavated the hill at Hissarlik dominating the plain two and a half miles from the
Dardanelles
. In 1873 after unearthing nine cities below each other, Schliemann saw one day, twenty-eight feet down near the walls of what he wrongly considered to be Priam's palace, a glint of gold, which held him spellbound. Calling to Sophia, his young Greek wife, to send all the workmen home at once, he attacked the masonry with Teutonic vigor and dug out a wonderful, glittering hoard of golden treasures, diadems and brooches, worn, he imagined, by Helen herself. It was not until near his death that Schliemann realised he had dug down past Homer's
Troy
and had found treasures belonging to a
Troy
destroyed a thousand years earlier. However Schliemann had discovered
Troy
, other archaeologists found evidence of destruction about 1200 BC. The Trojan War emerged from myth to history.

As the victorious Greek fleet sailed from burning Troy Athene in anger at the wicked treatment of the ill-starred prophetess, Cassandra, persuaded Poseidon to raise a great storm, many ships were sunk, the others scattered. The hero, Odysseus, better known as Ulysses, eagerly returning after ten years absence to his faithful wife, Penelope, was blown off course almost in sight of
Ithaca
, for ten long years the wanderer would suffer most fantastic adventures before the Gods relented and finally permitted his return home.

The fabulous adventures of Ulysses anticipate, indeed surpass, our cheerless Science-Fiction. For nearly three thousand years these wonderful tales have inspired the greatest poets, dramatists and artists of the civilised world. Driven by the storm Ulysses came to the Land of the Lotus Eaters, where his men dallied in sunnied ease until forced to set sail to the island of the Cyclops; captured with his companions by the giant, Polyphemus, he made the monster drunk and with a burning pole blinded him in his one eye. On the Aeolian Island King Aeolus gave Ulysses a bag containing contrary winds which when opened swept them to the shores of the Laestrygonians, cannibals who stoned and sank all the ships except the vessel of Ulysses.

On the
island
of
Circe
the crew were changed by the enchantress into swine. Hermes helped him overcome her and restore his men, then Ulysses arrived at the mysterious country of the Cimmerians and descended to Hades where he conversed with the shades of departed heroes. When their ship skirted the rocks of the1 Sirens to escape their alluring songs the wily Ulysses stopped the ears of his companions with wax and fastened himself to the mast, then sailing between Scylla and Charybdis the former monster devoured six of the crew.

On the island of the Sun they killed some of the God's cattle, in revenge Zeus destroyed the ship with a lightning-blast. Ulysses, sole survivor, drifted on a plank to Oygia, isle of the nymph, Calypso. For eight years he languished in her charms until Zeus ordered her to let him go. Ulysses built a raft, wrecked by Poseidon, battered and naked he was cast on Scheria, Land of the Phaecians, to be found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous, whose marvellous palace evokes Plato's description of Atlantis. The Phaecians apparently devised robot slaves and animals of gold and bronze in fabulous automation; they grew luxuriant fruit in artificial currents of warm air. The tender love of Nausicaa, the return of the Wanderer to Ithaca, the greeting by his son, Telemachus, his slaying of the suitors of his wife, Penelope, form a dramatic climax to the most immortal epic in all literature abounding with wondrous thrilling adventures destined by the Gods.

In his fascinating
'Odissca Stellare'
, brilliant Peter Kolosimo retraces the steps of Ulysses collecting cosmic traditions and relating his wonderful adventures to archeological enigmas from humanity's prehistory world-wide. He concludes that the 'Odyssey' is not a fable, nor is Ulysses a person of legend; the parallels existing between Homer's poem and the most ancient traditions of the whole world, the memories buried in our remote past, the cosmic references are countless. 'The Odyssey must only be from the stars.'

The 'Helen of Troy' theme is worldwide. The 'Ramayana' describes in wonderful imagery how Ravan abducted Sita, wife of Prince Rama, who launched aerial invasion of
Lanka
,
Ceylon
, and aided by Immortals fought duels in flying-cars with fantastic weapons. Rama finally slew the giant Ravan, rescued Sita and flew home with her in a sumptuously furnished aerial-machine high across
India
to Ayodha near the
Himalayas
. Inscribed tablets found at Ras Shamra in
Syria
, identified with old
Ugarit
, dating from about 1400 BC, tell the fascinating Epic of Kret, King of Ugarit, whose betrothed, Hurrai, was stolen by the Son of Pebel, King of Udum. Counselled by the God, El, Kret marshalled a great army, confronted Pebel, rescued Hurrai and married her. Spacemen haunted our Earth throughout the Second Millennium BC, the old traditions prove this period to have been one of the most wonderful ages in all history.

'Was this the face that launched a thousand ships

And burnt the topless towers of Llium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.'

Beauteous Helen had allured the imagination of men for three thousand years, the most seductive sex-symbol in all history. Faust magically restored to youth conjured Helen from the shades, in poetic rapture they produced a son.

'Das Ewig-Weiblichc zieht uns hinan.' The Eternal-Feminine draws us on.'

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, that idealist of the eighteenth century, poured forth his fascination for the fair sex in plays, poems and love-affairs culminating in his great masterpiece 'Faust'. He saw classical Helen as the quintessence of Woman and in matchless verse extolled her charms far surpassing our own synthetic film-stars.

With shrewd insight Homer avoided portrayal of Helen's loveliness, he hinted at elusive beauty beyond description.

‘They cried, "No wonder such celestial charms

For nine long years have set the world in arms.

What winning grace! What majestic mein!

She moves a Goddess, and she looks a Queen!”’

Today sex-equality is still a myth, sought but undesired. Has any Poet ever penned sonnets to a post-wench? Love springs from illusion, woman's elusive mystery, the femme fatale. The Ancients believed that the Gods winged down to Earth and mated with mortal women, their divine offspring dominated history. Zeus, enamored of Leda, Queen of Sparta, visited her as a swan; she brought forth two eggs, from one issued Castor and Pollux, from the other, Helen. Pausanias, that Compiler of guide-books to Antiquity, alleged he had seen the actual shell on show in
Sparta
. Apollodorus, even sillier, swore that lusty Zeus had seduced his own daughter, Nemesis, who laid an egg for Leda to hatch: Hesiod believed that Zeus impregnated a daughter of Ocean, like Aphrodite Helen sprang from the foam. All over the ancient world the Cosmic Egg signified the sudden appearance of Extraterrestrials, the first Peruvians were said to have been born from a gold, silver and bronze egg which fell from the sky, the Egyptians symbolised the 'Egg' as the 'Eye of Horns', the Sumerians believed that their great Teacher, Oanncs or Enki emanated from an Egg, the aborigines of Tasmania tell of their 'Man from an Egg’, who taught their ancestors, the famous Tassili frescoes show figures like Spacemen emerging from Eggs, which roughly do resemble Spaceships.

The famous beauties of history owed more to their wit and intelligence than to their good looks; true charm means the marriage of twin minds far transcending physical attraction. Helen captivated the greatest heroes in an Age of dominant women; all down the centuries her phantom loveliness had seduced the souls of men. The few facts known of her still tantalise imagination with idyllic dreams. When Helen was an alluring wench, Theseus carried her off to
Athens
, where she gave birth to ill-fated Iphigeuia, and was later rescued by her brothers, Castor and Pollux. On her return to
Sparta
the noblest Chiefs in
Greece
sought Helen's hand in marriage; she chose Menelaus and became mother of Hermione.

Life with a petty King probably a bandit-chief, disputing for the Peloponnese soon palled for cultured Helen, she eagerly eloped with dashing young Paris and provoked the Trojan War, although those Greek soldiers of fortune would be more tempted by the plunder of Troy than Helen's fabled charms on those topless towers of Ilium. Helen treated Greeks and Trojans with spirited disdain; Homer mentions her romps with lusty Paris, after he was killed she lost no time in marrying his brother, Deiphobus; shrewdly realising the fortunes of war she soon betrayed him to the conquerors and calmly escaped to Menelaus without remorse for her celebrated, costly escapade. While the Trojan Women, innocent of war, were exiled as slaves, Helen lived in surprising happiness with Menelaus; when he died some say she fled to
Rhodes
and was strangled, tied to a tree; the poets swear she ascended to a star like her Space-brothers, Castor and Pollux.

Euripides in his drama
‘Helen'
alleges that the real Helen never went to Troy; actually Paris kidnapped her phantom double; Helen herself sought refuge on the Island of Pharos at the mouth of the Nile with Proteus, an astonishingly honourable Pharaoh, who in ten long years made no attempt to seduce his alluring guest. If Euripides believed this tall tale, few Greeks did.
Paris
seemed well satisfied with his lovely bride. Had this strange story been really true, surely someone should have told those heroes besieging that Helen-less
Troy
. Four hundred years later during Homer's own life-time,
Babylon
was ruled by Semiramis, believed to be the daughter of the God, Oannes, and the Goddess, Ataryatis, symbolising Space Beings. This fabulous Queen invaded
Egypt
,
Ethiopia
and
Libya
, then led the greatest army in Antiquity to storm
India
; the Assyrians said she ascended to the skies and worshipped her as a Goddess. During the same century, Elijah was translated to heaven on a whirlwind, possibly a Spaceship. From the hills of Ionia Homer would sometimes see the 'Power and Glory' of the 'Lord' speeding to the prophets in Israel and those Winged Counsellors visiting Shalmaneser II and Assurnazirpal
III
in Babylon. For four centuries minstrels had sung of the Gods intervening at
Troy
; all traditions told of those wondrous Strangers from the skies. Homer believed in the Gods and Goddesses, Spacemen and Spacewomen, above all in Helen, the Space Queen, whom he immortalised in the 'Iliad'.

The decipherment of Linear B script astounded historians by proving that Greek was a written language throughout two thousand years of the Ancient World; Homer's wonderful '
Iliad
', Hesiod's profound ‘
Theogony
', reveal that by 700 BC Greek literature had attained a sublimity unsurpassed, suggesting long, development, yet from many centuries of literacy of this period only a few works remain. Spacemen would probably restrict their 'Contacts' to selected individuals like they apparently do today, such disciples would confide their revelations under secrecy to a few trusted friends. Pythagoras, a likely 'Contact' sternly distrusted the written word, his teaching were transmitted orally down generations of Initiates. Secrets of the Gods would be guarded in the Mysteries. Aeschylus was once condemned to be stoned to death for allegedly disclosing the Mysteries in his great tragedies. All the great civilisations of the past suffered immense destruction, only a tiny fraction of the ancient records are left to enlighten or mislead us.