the wagon flew through the air and all the people and animals who were on the wagon were lifted up…and all sped along on the flying wagon like a ship on the sea, like an eagle as it effortlessly flies on the wind….50
Solomon and his warriors pursued the flying wagon but did not stand a chance:
And the inhabitants of the land of Egypt told them: the people from Ethiopia came past here, driving on a wagon like the angels, and they were faster than an eagle in the heavens. The inhabitants of the cities bore witness…that those from Ethiopia flew, and that the statues of the gods fell over and smashed, and the obelisks were also destroyed….51
An extraordinary flying machine which even made statutes of the gods and obelisks fall over? And why were Solomon’s fast riders unable to catch up with Baina-lehkem? The Kebra Negest provides the answer: They flew on the wagon without sickness and suffering, without hunger and thirst, without sweat and exhaustion, covering a distance of three months in one day.52
That is no mean feat. If we assume that a distance of 40 kilometers can be covered in a day, then this corresponds to 3,600 kilometers in three months. This distance was covered by the flying wagon in one day. Perplexing. As I already described, the Kebra Negest also mentions visits of King Solomon to the Queen of Sheba in what is Yemen today, whereby the boundaries between the Queen of Ethiopia and the Queen of Sheba are fluid. Possibly the same lover was meant.
There is literary proof of prehistoric air travel, but no remains of these flying craft have ever been found. That is not surprising. By comparison, the end of last World War is only just 65 years in the past and all the nations involved must have deployed thousands of aircraft in total. Where are their remains today? Other than in museums, there is nothing left. Nature does not just turn temples into ruins—it also makes the technology of antiquity crumble to dust.
I have demonstrated the geometric grid that covered the whole of ancient Greece. I suggested that flying craft are responsible for the recurring equal distances because their restricted technology simply did not allow any longer flights. The gods and their descendants were forced to make “pit stops.” There is another possible solution for the geometric grid which covers Greece.
I will assume that my general hypothesis is familiar: many thousands of years ago, aliens visited the earth. But they did not just push off without as much as a by-your-leave without leaving some evidence of their existence. Let us assume that evidence was a kind of “time capsule,” indestructible for millennia. Inside, it would have to say, “We were here… from that galaxy…using this or that technology…we found intelligent life here…we instructed them…we continued on our travels…we will return in x-thousand years…” Wherever they hid this capsule, the space travelers of thousands of years ago would additionally have had to ensure that it would even occur to the human beings in the far distant future to look for it. How do you get people thousands of years in the future to do something of which they have no idea?
You leave such obvious hints that the human beings of the future cannot but notice them. The Stone Age types in ancient Greece considered the extraterrestrials to be gods. We know today that there are no gods—but our far distant ancestors did not have that understanding. Those people wished to worship the gods, build monuments to them, so that their descendants would also always remember the gods. Okay, said the “gods,” but you will build your holy places precisely where we tell you to. In this way the geometric pattern over Greece was created with always identical distances between one place and another and the recurring angles. What was the point of that for the “gods”? They knew that the human beings of the future would themselves fly one day, that they would survey and catalogue their planet. Sooner or later it had to come to the attention of the people of the future that there was something odd about the sacred sites in ancient Greece. They would invariably come across the geometric pattern and notice that it could never have been planned by Stone Age people. They lacked the surveying instruments for that. After all, Greece is a mountainous country with a broken coastline. Many distances, such as from Delphi to Crete, for example, were not visible to the naked eye. There had to be planning behind it. But by whom?
As a consequence, all kinds of questions would be asked. Including the question: did our ancestors have visitors from space? Were extraterrestrials the teachers of the young Greeks? There would be the usual counter arguments which at some point would culminate in the question: if there were ETs—where’s the evidence? The extraterrestrials did not, after all, just push off without leaving some objective evidence.
At that point the geometric grid over Greece would have fulfilled its purpose. And that is precisely the point at which humanity stands today. Now the following question should be considered with cool scientific reason: by what pattern should we proceed to find the millennia-old time capsule of those “gods”?
We are in the third millennium. Gods went a long time ago. But their legacy still exists. The time has come to look for these precious messages.
Chapter 4
The Trojan Tangle
If the sun rises in the West, put your compass to the test!
—Folk saying
At the end of the 8th century BC in Greece, there lived a poet whose name is now known all over the world, yet about whom no one knows anything for certain: Homer (Homeros in Greek), author of the fantastic epics the Iliad and the Odyssey. Research has shown that Homer was a native of Asia Minor, and was probably a wandering singer or minstrel. He is also said to have been blind. What remains a mystery is where this blind minstrel got the framework for his stories, the “inside information” for his ambitious tales. The Iliad and Odyssey consist of 28,000 verses—not bad for a blind poet. Greek poetry is considered to have begun with Homer; he stands “at the beginning of Greek literature, and with him begins the history of the European mind.”1
Even Homer did not simply fabricate his tales out of nothing. Experts believe that the written versions of his epics followed a long oral tradition, and that at its core a “very ancient folktale tradition” is hidden.2
And what is the subject of this “very ancient folktale”?
In the Iliad are described battles, curious weapons and the deeds of heroes, in which both gods and men participate. We read in the eighth canto of “flying horses” which fly back and forth “between the earth and the star-strewn heavens.” These divine beasts remain invisible, thanks to a mist or fog. The ruler of the sea, Poseidon, is transported over the water by a team of flying horses, so that not even the axle of his chariot touches the waves. I’m rather partial to such fairy tales. Of course the whole thing has to do with love, offended honor, and—to a lesser extent—with the Trojan War itself.
Things are different in the Odyssey. Here we read of the hair-raising adventures of Odysseus. With his fellow warriors, he finally conquers Troy and, after 20 years, eventually returns to his homeland of Ithaca. The whole epic revolves around Odysseus himself: he tells the story in the first person, of the blows of fate which the gods have seen fit to aim at him, but also of his own heroic deeds and tricks which enable him to survive. Philologists regard Odysseus as an “ancient figure of legend.”3And the whole story is of course “in the nature of a fable.”4 For a long time, no one thought that it could be based on actual events—until Heinrich Schliemann (1822–90), with Homer in his hand, discovered the city of Troy. But we will return to that.
I don’t wish to analyze the Odyssey as I did the Argonautica. There is enough written about it already. But I must give a few points of reference for understanding this earth-shaking story.
Odysseus (in Latin Ulysses or Ulixes) is the king of Ithaca. He and his companions set off to conquer Troy, because the beautiful Helen of Sparta had been “abducted” and taken there. On the way home, Odysseus’ fleet, which starts out as 12 ships, meets one adventure after another. First the heroes are blown onto Cape Malea, then they land on the island of the one-eyed Cyclops. One of these, Polyphemus, impriso
ns Odysseus and his companions in his cave, and eats two of them each day. Finally, Odysseus manages to blind the Cyclops’ eye with a red-hot stake and to escape with the rest of his crew. (It should be mentioned in passing that the Cyclops asks Odysseus his name, and that he lies, saying his name is “No one.” After he is blinded, Polyphemus calls his fellow Cyclops to help him, and cries out “No one has done this to me.”)
Odysseus and his crew then have to deal with the allure of the Sirens and with the lady magician Circe, who turns the whole crew into pigs. After this Odysseus visits the realm of Hades—the underworld of the dead—where he may speak not only with his dead mother but also with other famous figures who have long since departed this life. Finally the ship has to pass between two female terrors, Scylla and Charybdis. Charybdis is said to have once been hurled into the sea by a bolt of Zeus’ lightning, and since then, three times a day, she sucks down huge amounts of water and spits it out again. Her sister Scylla is no less daunting. She is described as a doglike monster who grabs passing sailors and slowly eats them. She snatches six of Odysseus’ men straight away.
The remaining crew reach the island of Trinacria, and, because they are hungry, slaughter some cows. Unfortunately, though, the beasts belong to the Sun-Titan Hyperion, who complains furiously to Odysseus and then blasts both ship and crew to smithereens with a single lightning bolt. Only Odysseus survives. He grasps hold of a few planks and is washed up some days later on the island of Ogygia, which belongs to Calypso, who, in spite of her beauty, dwells in a cave. She pampers and spoils Odysseus and begs him to remain with her, offering him immortality in return.
For seven years Odysseus enjoys the good life, but finally has enough of being endlessly kissed and feted. Sadly he sits on the shore and dreams of his homeland. Then Hermes flies by and orders Calypso to release Odysseus. He is given the tools necessary to build a raft, and sails away on it from Calypso’s love-nest. But the sea-god Poseidon, whose son, the Cyclops, had been tricked by Odysseus, tears over the waters on his winged chariot and knocks Odysseus overboard. If he hadn’t managed to pull off his heavy clothes under water he would have drowned.
Two days later he is thrown up, exhausted, on the shores of the island of Drepane. After a short stay with a swineherd, and with the help of divine intervention, he finally reaches Ithaca after an absence of 20 years.
This is the broad outline of the epic. Because there are many geographical details in the Odyssey and the Iliad, just as there were in the Argonautica, scholars asked themselves where Odysseus had journeyed.
In which sea did his adventures take place? Where are the islands that are mentioned? Where are the dreadful dangers of Scylla and Charybdis located? More than 100 different opinions were expressed, and about 70 maps drawn, and each researcher was sure that he had traced Odysseus’ journey correctly. Depending on which version you choose, Odysseus circumnavigated Asia Minor, sailed round the British Isles, or even went as far as South America. It has also been suggested that the Odyssey and the Argonautica were one and the same journey, or that Odysseus’ wanderings took place somewhere other than on Earth.
The most sensible suggestion comes from the German brothers Hans-Helmut and Armin Wolf. They succeed in reconstructing a route in which the time taken on the journey corresponds to places along the way. The authors, however, do not claim that “the Odysseus of legend visited this or that place,”5 but only that the sea journey which Homer describes can be clearly related to a route through the Mediterranean. Although the result of their long years of research is certainly consistent and convincing, I wonder how the blind Homer could have known the route with such accuracy.
In the Odyssey, the island of Crete is also mentioned by name, though without any reference to the robot Talos. Did Homer know the Talos from the Argonautica or not? Or did the robot seem too far-fetched to him? I can hardly believe that, given the other “fantasies” which appear in the Odyssey. Homer attributes all imaginable kinds of magic arts to the gods, including Poseidon’s flying chariot, but there is no mention of the Golden Fleece. In spite of all the hocus pocus which the gods indulge in, the Odyssey does not contain any science fiction in Argonautica style.
Troy is at the center of the war described in the Iliad, and the one place which does not form part of the geometrical network of ancient Greece. Was it not included in the ancient routes of the gods? However, the fate of Troy is described by all ancient Greek historians, and the siege is meant to have occurred between 1194 and 1184 BC. Troy must be very ancient, for the city’s name is derived from that of the mythical hero “Tros” (father of Ilos, grandfather of Laomedon, great grandfather of Priam of Troy). Originally the city had other names: Ilium, Ilion, and Troas. Apollo was also said to have helped in building its Cyclopic defenses. Troy therefore has just as “mythic” an origin as the many other sacred centers in Greece that we have already mentioned. So why did the geographical position of the excavation site which is nowadays thought to be Troy not correspond with the geometrical network of the gods? Is the Troy which Heinrich Schliemann discovered not the same as the Troy of mythology?
Agamemnon also figures in the Odyssey, and is said to be buried with several of his companions in Mycenae which, unlike “Troy,” is part of the geometrical network. This gives me some pause for thought.
According to legend, the region around Troy was once ruled by a Cretan king called Teucros. His people were the Teucrians. But then the lonely king’s son Dardanos arrived and founded a small settlement.
The region was soon called Dardania (the Dardanelles) after him, and because his son was called Tros, the settlement was also named Troas or Troy. Because Tros’ eldest son bore the name Ilos, the citadel on the hill was also called Ilion or Ilios, which gave rise to the name of Homer’s poem the Iliad.
Modern legend has it that Heinrich Schliemann came with the Iliad in his hand to rediscover this ancient city. Of course, I’m fond of tales like that: someone claims, against all expert opinion, that Homer’s battle of Troy really took place, and that its heroes were real. And then he actually finds Troy too. Great! Unfortunately this story is not quite correct.
Heinrich Schliemann was born on January 6, 1822, in Neu-Bukov (Mecklenburg), the son of a poor minister. By the age of 10, he is said to have written an essay in Latin about the Trojan War. In 1836, he began a business apprenticeship, and five years later he sailed for South America as a cabin-boy on the small brig Dorothma. The ship was wrecked and the survivors were taken by lifeboat to the coast of Holland.
In Amsterdam, Heinrich Schliemann became a clerk, on an annual salary of 15 dollars. He was regarded as being very careful with money, extremely hard-working, and with an outstanding memory. Once he had mastered Dutch, he turned his attention to English and French. Later he learned other languages, including Russian and Greek. By the age of 25, Schliemann had become a financially independent business agent, and in 1847 founded his own firm in St. Petersburg. In Russia, he achieved great success with the sale of indigo, sulphur, lead, and saltpeter, assuring himself a secure income after only a few years. By chance he was on a business trip to California on July 4, 1850, and thus “automatically” became an American citizen (for on this date of its founding, the new United States gave citizenship to all who happened to be on its territory).
From 1858 onward, Schliemann made regular trips around the globe. Enamored of his Homer and absolutely convinced that the Troy described in the Iliad and the Odyssey must once really have existed, he made Athens his home in 1868.
Because he didn’t want to bring his Russian wife to Greece, he got divorced and advertised in the paper for a native partner, finding one in the shape of a lovely 19-year-old girl. Faithful to Homer, he christened his first child Agamemnon. Schliemann, who by now had more than 10 million marks in capital, continued his travels until…well, until he found Troy. But this discovery was by no means as straightforward as we are led to believe by popular biographies.
Just over 2 miles (4 km) fr
om the Dardanelles, on territory which today belongs to Turkey, stands the hill of Hissarlik, no more than 4 miles (7 km) from the Aegean coast. The hill has strategic importance, for every ship that wishes to enter the Dardanelles region must pass it first. The ancient Greeks called this place the “Hellespont,” because it was the spot where the daughter of King Athamas, Helle, plunged from the Golden Fleece into the sea. Both the Greeks and later the Romans suspected that Homer’s Troy was somewhere near here, and perhaps under the hill of Hissarlik. Just over 2 miles (4 km) south of this hill lies the village of Bunarbaschi, and this is where experts of the last century searched for Troy. The inhabitants, however, claimed before Schliemann arrived that these experts were on the wrong track, and that Troy lay beneath the hill of Hissarlik. It was this very controversy that caused the Anglo-American Frank Calvet, who worked as a consular agent both in Athens and Istanbul, to buy the rights to Hissarlik. Frank Calvet was there before Schliemann, and also started excavating before him, in an amateur kind of way. He hoped to persuade the directors of the British Museum in London to back a bigger excavation, but they refused.
In Athens, Schliemann heard of Calvet’s intentions, and set off to buy the hill of Hissarlik. The millionaire Schliemann met up with the globetrotter Calvet, and the latter was quite happy to give up Hissarlik, together with all the bother it had caused him. When news of the discovery of gold treasure in Troy emerged later, Calvet no doubt kicked himself. Schliemann was certainly a sharp operator, and this was proved in the following years. He was his own best public relations man.
After making the deal with Frank Calvet, several months passed before Schliemann got permission from the Turkish government to start digging at Hissarlik. Finally on October 11, 1871, with a team of 80 workers, the excavations began. Schliemann worked incredibly hard, and even the increasingly cold weather didn’t hold him back. He lived in a block-hut with his wife, who tolerated all the discomfort, even though she found the icy wind very hard to bear.
Odyssey of the Gods Page 12
