Alien Space Gods Of Ancient Greece and Rome (26 page)

Did Hipparchus too see a UFO proving the presence of Spaceships over Ancient Greece?

The development of astronomy in Greece was paralleled by speculations into the nature of atoms by Democritus, the great engineering devices by Archimedes, who calculated the number of grains of sand required to make a universe of the size proposed by Aristarchus as 10 to the power of 63, a guess as valid as the contradictions of our cosmologists. Archytas about 580 BC studied the principles of flight and made a model glider in the pattern of a dove; he was said to have invented the screw. Hiero of Alexandria about AD 100 utilized the power of steam anticipating the steam-engine of James Walt which promoted the Industrial Revolution. It is a melancholy reflection that had the Greek spirit of enquiry not been crushed by bigoted Christians, mankind might now be basking in the wondrous technology postponed until AD 3500.

Alexander the Great, whose death in 323 BC at thirty-three left the world and himself unconquered, in masterly campaigns led the Greeks to
India
; as Napoleon's ill-starred venture to the
Nile
resurrected the buried glories of
Egypt
, so scholars accompanying the expedition fertilised the genius of
Hellas
with the age-old wisdom of the East. A marvelling posterity adulated the hero with prodigies, he actually thought himself to be a God; his dazzling meteoric career certainly suggests powerful inspiration from some inner 'daemon' or other celestial source. Arrian, Ptolemy and Megesthenes depict Alexander's life and death in prosaic detail, later historians embellished him with wonders of doubtful authenticity omitted in the classical histories.

Frank Edwards, the noted American UFO reporter, quoting some source unfortunately not disclosed, states 'Intelligent beings from outer Space may already be looking us over.' He exasperates us by claiming, 'Alexander the Great was not the first to see them nor was he the first to find them troublesome. He tells of two strange craft that dived repeatedly at his army until the war elephants, the men and the horses all panicked and refused to cross the river where the incident occurred. What did the things look like? His historian describes them as great shining silvery shields, spitting fire around the rims ... things that came from the skies and returned to the skies.’

This remarkable incident was apparently paralleled by an equally fantastic visitation during the Siege of Tyre by Alexander in 332 BC. Quoting Giovanni Gustavo Droyscn's 'Storia di Alessandro il Grande', the erudite Italian Alberto Fenoglio, writes in '
Clypeus
' Anno 111, No. 2, a startling revelation which we now translate:

‘The fortress would not yield, its walls were fifty feet high and constructed so solidly that no siege-engine was able to damage it. The Tyrians disposed of the greatest technicians and builders of war-machines of the rime and they intercepted in the air the incendiary arrows and projectiles hurled by the catapults on the city.  One day suddenly there appeared over the Macedonian camp these "flying shields", as they had been called, which flew in triangular formation led by an exceedingly large one, the others were smaller by almost a half. In all, there were five. The unknown chronicler narrates that they circled slowly over
Tyre
while thousands of warriors on both sides stood and watched them in astonishment. Suddenly from the largest "shield" came a lightning-flash that struck the walls, these crumbled, other flashes followed and walls and towers dissolved, as if they had been built of mud, leaving the way open for the besiegers who poured like an avalanche through the breeches. The "flying shields" hovered over the city until it was completely stormed then they very swiftly disappeared aloft, soon melting into the blue sky.'

The intervention of 'flying shields' from heaven during a siege was chronicled again about eleven hundred years later. In his curious mediaeval Latin Monk Lawrence in
'Annales Laurissenses'
wrote how a few years earlier in AD 776 the heathen Saxons rebelled against Charlemagne and having destroyed the castle at Aeresburg marched down the River Lippy to besiege Sigiburg. As the Saxons pounded the castle with great stones from their catapults and prepared final assault against the outnumbered Christians, ‘... The Glory of God appeared in manifestation above the church within the fortress. Those watching outside in the place, of whom many- still live to this very day, said they beheld the likeness of two large shields reddish in colour in motion, flaming above the church (et dicuut vidisse ins tar duorum scutorum, colore rubeo flammantes et agitantes super ipsam ecclesiam), and when the pagans who were outside saw this sign, they were at once thrown into confusion, and terrified with great fear they began to flee from the castle …’

The whole multitude of Saxons in panic were driven to headlong flight, later they submitted to Charlemagne. The heathens were so impressed by the power of the Lord conjured down by the Christians, that they begged to be baptised. Monk Lawrence marvelling at this divine prodigy expressly mentions that many eyewitnesses were still alive to confirm its reality.

Such astounding incidents in the times of Alexander the Great and Charlemagne confound our conditioned thought-pattern, though we solemnly worship those Extraterrestrials manifesting in
Israel
. Are these celestial interventions really credible? Suppose if next century our cosmonauts visiting Mars chance on some battle being waged beneath! May they not perhaps swoop down flashing laser-rays to aid one side or the other? The victors will worship their Saviours as Gods, the vanquished curse them as Devils. Is that what happened once here on Earth? An intriguing problem for our theologians!

Whatever discourses the astronomers and philosophers might hold on the existence of the Gods, the people of
Greece
with superstitious awe firmly believed the stars were inhabited by wonderful eccentrics who might be cajoled to aid mortals on Earth. The most fascinating travelogue in all Antiquity was surely penned by Lucian, the greatest of Second Century Sophists born about AD 125 at Samosata in Syria, whose fanciful 'Science Fiction' contrasted strongly with those austere 'Meditations' of his Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Lucian practised for some time as a lawyer in
Antioch
, then went to
Greece
to teach rhetoric, an audacity to make Demosthenes turn in his grave. This 'Voltaire of Antiquity' satirised philosophy, religion and the culture of his times with a gay buffoonery concealing shrewd commonsense in a style of simplicity even grace, his so-called
'A True Story'
anticipating the tales of Jules Verne.

'Once upon a time setting out from the
Pillars of Hercules
and heading for the
Western
Ocean
with a fair wind, I went a-voyaging. The motive and purpose of my journey lay in my intellectual activity and desire for adventure, and in my wish to find out what the end of the ocean was, and who the people were that lived on the other side.’

Had Lucian listened to old Greek sailors yarning of lands beyond the
Western
Sea
? If Lucian's deeds had matched his words he could have landed before
Columbus
and claimed the
New World
for
Athens
. Charlemagne might have rested his weary feet in Ford cars, smoked cigars and watched colour-television; he would have been too busy in New York borrowing money to bother about the Holy Roman Empire, which as Voltaire said was neither Holy, nor Roman nor an Empire. If Lucian had really sailed west progress would have speeded by a thousand years, today we might be basking on Mars.

In his
'A True Story’
Lucian felt obliged to add artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative; he excused his failure to land in the West by blaming a sudden whirlwind, which seized the bellying sails and spun the boat aloft for about three hundred furlongs driving it on for seven days and seven nights becalming them at last in a great country resembling an island, bright and round and shining with a great light. Far below them the travellers saw another land with cities, rivers, seas, mountains and forests. They were on the Moon. Lucian and his friends had no time to analyse the atmosphere or to chip off chunks of rock, as true astronauts should, for they were promptly arrested by Dragoons mounted on giant three-headed vultures and conveyed to their King, Endymion, also a Greek, kidnapped from Earth in his sleep.

The Moonites happened to be at war with the inhabitants of the Sun; their fascinating though ineffective forces included archers who flew in the air simply by allowing the wind to blow through their baggy tunics and carry them along like boats. Phaeton invaded with hordes of winged ants nearly two hundred feet long, Dog-faced men naturally enough from the Dog Star, and Sky Dancers slinging huge radishes coated with mallow poison, however his secret war-winning weapon was the eclipse; the Lord of the Sun suddenly plunged the Moonites in darkness and forced their surrender.

Endymion agreed to pay the Sunites a yearly tribute of ten thousand gallons of dew and to collaborate in their colonisation of the Morning Star. On their way home the travellers visited Venus, then apparently sailed off-course for they skirted the Sun, a green and pleasant land, called at Lamptown, midway between the Pleiades and the Hyades, sighted amid the clouds the city of
Cloud-cuckootown
, and finally touched down in the sea. Happily the sea was calm, so instead of reporting to someone they went for a swim. A good time was had by all!

Lucian swears he had never been known to tell a lie.

Who are we to doubt his True Story? His tale is certainly more diverting than those cheerless reports of our Astronauts.

Unlike the learned Pliny Lucian apparently had not studied the works of Posidonius, who correctly calculated the distance from Earth to Moon as 250,000 miles but underestimated somewhat with 625,000 miles from Moon to Sun. In '
Icaramenippus
' or
'The Sky Man
' Lucian has Menippus say:

'It was three thousand furlongs then from Earth to the Moon, my first step; and from there up to the Sun, perhaps five hundred leagues, and from the Sun to Heaven itself and the Citadel of Zeus would be also a day's ascent for an eagle travelling light.'

Our Astronauts take Space too seriously. Lucian had much more fun!

The lyrical poets of Ancient Rome dreaming of lost Antiquity sang longingly of yon Golden Age when Saturn ruled their sunny land in peace and plenty, under his benign care all men lived in blessed content, attuned in cosmic wisdom from the stars; death was rare, suffering unknown, the fair Earth blossomed in fruitfulness yielding her treasures in prodigality for all to enjoy. Saturnia basked in idyllic splendour, the Gods winged down from the skies to mingle among men inspiring a wondrous culture to teach mankind. Such a prosperous realm tempted aerial invasion by Jupiter, who waged war with fantastic weapons and exiled aged Saturn to
Britain
. Soon a dragon appeared in the heavens causing devastation on Earth, after a titanic duel Jupiter slew the monster, symbol for some Space Visitant, perhaps a wandering asteroid which ravaged our planet. The climate grew suddenly harsh; the few survivors in this Silver Age shuddered in caves sighing for those golden glories of the past. Later cataclysms brought forth Heroes of Bronze fighting fabulous battles to be followed at last by Men of Iron, those invincible Legions following the Eagles of Jupiter to conquer the world.