Only Heracles and a few men remained to guard the Argo. The six-armed monsters immediately attacked the ship—unaware, however, of Heracles, who saw them coming and killed a few of them with his arrows before the battle even began. Meanwhile the other Argonauts returned, and thanks to their special talents, butchered the attackers. Apollonius writes of these giants: “Their body has three pairs of sinewy hands, like paws. The first pair hangs on their gnarled shoulders, the second and third pairs nestle at their horrible hips…”22
Giants? Nothing more than the fantasy of a story-teller? In our forefathers’ ancient literature, at least, such beings are not uncommon Any Bible reader will remember the fight between David and Goliath. And in Genesis it says: “There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them….”23
Other passages in the Bible which speak of giants are Deuteronomy 3:3-11; Joshua 12:4; 1 Chronicles 20:4-5; Samuel 2 1:16. And in the book of the prophet Enoch there is an extensive description of giants. In Chapter 14 one can read: “Why have you done as the children of earth and brought forth the Sons of giants?”24
In the Apocrypha of Baruch we even find numbers: “The Highest brought the flood upon the earth, and did away with all flesh and also the 4,090,000 giants.”25 This is confirmed in the Kebra Negest, the story about the Ethiopian kings:
Those daughters of Cain, however, with whom the angels had done indecent acts, became pregnant, but could not give birth, and died. And of those in their wombs, some died and others came out by splitting the bodies of their mothers…as they grew older and grew up these became giants.26
And in the books containing the “tales of the Jews in ancient times”27one can even read about the different races of these giants. There were the “Emites” or “Frightful Ones,” then the “Rephaites” or “Gargantuans”; there were the “Giborim” or the “Mighty Ones,” the “Samsunites” or the “Sly Ones”; and finally the “Avides” or “Wrong Ones” and the “Nefilim” or “Spoilers.” And the book of Eskimos is quite certain on this point: “In those days there lived giants on the earth.”28
I could carry on quoting such passages, but I would prefer not to repeat material from earlier books. Giants’ bones have also been found, although some anthropologists still try to insist that these are the bones of gorillas.29In 1936 the German anthropologist Larson Kohl discovered the bones of giant people on the shores of the Elyasi Lake in Central Africa. The German paleontologists Gustav von Königsberg and Franz Weidenreich were astonished to find several giants’ bones in Hong Kong chemists’ shops in 1941. The discovery was published and scientifically documented in the American Ethnological Society’s annual report of 1944.
About 3.5 miles (6 km) from Safita in Syria archaeologists dug up hand axes which could only have been used by people with giant hands. The stone tools which came to light in Ain Fritissa (East Morocco), measuring 12.5 × 8.5 inches (32 × 22 cm), must also have belonged to some hefty people. If they were able to wield such tools, which weigh up to 9.5 pounds (4.3kg), they must have been over 13 feet (4 m) tall. The discoveries of giants’ skeletons in Java, South China, and Transvaal (South Africa) are well known from specialist literature. Both Professor Weidenreich30 and Professor Saurat31 carefully documented their scientific research into giants. And the former French representative of the Prehistorical Society, Dr. Louis Burkhalter, wrote in the 1950 edition of the Revue du Musee de Beyrouth: “We want to make clear that the existence of giant people [in ancient times]…must be regarded as a scientifically certain fact.”
The Epic of Gilgamesh from Sumeria also tells of giants, as does, at the other end of the world, the Popol Vuh of the Mayans. The Nordic and Germanic myths, too, are peopled by giants. So why would the ancient world have so many stories about beings who never existed?
Image 1: The Gigantia temple on the Mediterranean island of Gozo is of unknown date.
Image 2: Who or what shifted this 69-foot-long stone? Giants? At the Gigantia temple on Gozo.
In the epic world of the Greeks, we hear about giants not only in the Argonautica but also in the later tale of Odysseus, who did battle with them. These powerfully-built figures are supposed to have been the fruit of a sexual union between men and gods. I have good reasons to believe that these same giants were responsible for the huge megalithic constructions which intrigue archaeologists, such as on the small islands of Malta and Gozo. The mighty ruins of a temple there still bear the name “Gigantia” (see Images 1 and 2).
The Argo continued its journey without any more major upsets, except that a sea-god called Glaucos shot up to the surface suddenly like a submarine from the depths. He brought the Argonauts a message from Zeus, for Heracles and his darling Hylas. Then Glaucos dived quickly under and sank down to the depths. Around him the waves frothed in many spiraling circles and poured over the ship.
In Salmydessos, the Argonauts encountered an old king who stank to high heaven, and was also starving. The poor fellow was called Phineus. He possessed the gift of prophecy, and had clearly divulged too many of the gods’ plans. The punishment they meted out to him was of a strange kind: whenever Phineus wanted to eat something, two winged creatures swooped down from the clouds and snatched the food away from him. Whatever they didn’t snatch they covered in filth so that it stank and was inedible. When the Argonauts arrived the old man hardly had the strength to move. He asked the Argonauts for help and promised to reward them by warning them of approaching dangers. Not of all dangers, though, for Phineus suspected that this was precisely what the gods didn’t want. The Argonauts felt sorry for him and prepared for themselves and the stinking king a luxurious feast. Just as the king was about to eat, the flying creatures—Harpies—swooped down from clear skies upon the food. But this time things turned out differently. Two of the Argonauts had the ability to fly, and pursued the fleeing Harpies into the air. The airborne Argonauts soon returned and told the king he now had nothing more to fear from the Harpies. They had been in hot pursuit behind them and would easily have been able to kill them—but the goddess Iris had commanded that they spare them, for they were the “dogs of Zeus.”
Just pure invention and fairy tale, one may be tempted to say. Someone rises up to the surface of the sea and makes the water spin, two Argonauts take off into the air with incredible speed, and Zeus, the father of the gods, possesses flying dogs. But this is only the modest beginning of a baffling science-fiction story from ancient times. Things get much more confusing!
The king, who by now smelled perfectly nice and was finally able to eat in peace, kept his promise and told the Argonauts of a few impending dangers. He described the route to Colchis which now lay before them, and warned particularly of two giant cliff walls which opened and shut like doors and crushed every vessel that did not get through at the right place and the right moment. The old king advised them to take a dove with them, and let it fly before them through the gap in the cliff walls. Apollonius says:
Now they steered into the foaming Bosphorus sound. The waves rose up like hills, threatening to collapse into the ship, often rising higher than the clouds. No one imagined that they would escape with their lives…but however terrible the waves, they become tame when a clever, experienced pilot has the tiller in his hand….32
The word “pilot” is not my invention. It appears in the 1779 translation of Apollonius. The king had described the route to the Argonauts down to the last detail; clearly he knew every bay and mountain, as well as the names of the countries and their rulers. Strangely enough, the king refers twice to the danger of the Amazons:
Further on you will come to the lands of Doan and the towns of the Amazons…. Do not for a moment think of coming ashore at a deserted place, where you will have trouble driving off the most unashamed birds who swoop around the island in great flocks. It is here that the rulers of the Amazons…have built their god a temple….33
The aging ruler even knows
all about the Golden Fleece:
When you pass up-river through the estuary, you will have Aietes’ tower before you, and the shady grove of Mars, where the Fleece is…. It is guarded by a Lindworm, a terrible wonder. Neither day nor night does sleep press down its lids, never does he cease his constant watch….34
This lindworm, or dragon, reminds one of a kind of robot with a multitude of sensors. What kind of animal is it which has no bodily needs, never sleeps, and constantly watches everything around it? Similar creatures are described in other ancient texts, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was found in the hill of Kujundshik, the former Nineveh. The clay tablets on which it was written came from the library of the Assyrian king Assurpanipal. This epic describes how Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu climb up the mountain of the gods, on the top of which stood the shining white tower of the goddess Irnini. Just before they reach it, the fearful being Chumbaba approaches them. Chumbaba had paws like a lion, his body was covered in iron scales, his feet were armed with claws, horns shone upon his head, and his tail ended in a snake’s mouth. He must have been a frightful monster. The two companions shot arrows at him and threw spears, but all their missiles glanced off. From the mountain of the gods, bolts of lightning flared up: “a fire flamed up, it rained death. The brightness passed, the fire went out. All that had been struck by lightning turned to ash.”35
A little later Enkidu dies of an incurable illness. Terribly concerned, Gilgamesh asks: “Were you perhaps poisoned by the breath of the sky creature?” Whatever this “sky creature” was, it seems to have caused Enkidu’s death. During the further course of the story, “a door speaks like a person”! The speaking beam in the Argo does the same thing. And then there is the “Park of the Gods” that is guarded by two ugly mixed beings, gigantic “scorpion people.” Only their chests are visible above the earth, the rest of their bodies being anchored in the ground: “Horrible, frightful they look, and their gaze means death. The dreadful flashing of their eyes makes mountains roll down to the valleys.”36
Nevertheless, the scorpion people in the Epic of Gilgamesh have intelligence, more than can really be said of the lindworm and dragon guardians. Gilgamesh can talk with them, and they warn him of approaching dangers both on land and sea, just as King Phineus did to the Argonauts.
Phineus advises the Argonauts to take Euphemus with them on board. He was the one who let the dove fly between the two cliff walls, and who was also able to speed over water without getting his feet wet.
For 40 days the Argonauts relaxed in Phineus’ kingdom. (In the Epic of Gilgamesh, it takes 40 hours to reach the “Mountain of Cedars.”) A group of Argonauts slept on board the Argo, the others in the king’s palace. They restocked their provisions and set up an altar in honor of Jupiter. On the 41st day, the Argo set off down a winding river or canal. The Argonauts soon caught sight of the “swimming islands” with the dangerous cliff walls, and Euphemus sprang into action:
They steered slowly and with great care. Their ears were already deafened from afar by the crash of the rocks falling shut above. And loudly crashed back the echo of the wave-churning shores. Now Euphemus raised himself to the gable of the ship, holding the dove in his hand…. Yet they were afraid. Euphemus released the dove, they all raised their heads to watch it fly. But the cliff walls crashed together again from both sides, a deafening noise. From the sea great breakers of water sprayed upwards and the air hurtled around and around…the current dragged the ship backwards. The sharp rocks of the cliff just sheared off the dove’s outermost feathers, but she herself came through unharmed. The sailors cried aloud for joy…now the rock-walls tore far open again…since an unexpected wave rose up suddenly…when they saw it they were afraid it would swamp their vessel. But Tiphys eased them with a quick turn, so that the wave burst upon the good ship’s figure-head, then lifted it right up above the rocks, so that it floated gracefully there in the air…. Now the ship hung there like a hanging beam, but Minerva pressed her left hand against the rock and with her right gave the ship a push. Swift as a feathered arrow it flitted past the cliff…. This was meant to be, it was destiny.37
Tiphys, the Argo’s steersman, calmed his overwrought companions. Though they had escaped the terrible danger of the cliff walls, this miracle had only been possible with the help of the gods. Minerva had lent a helping hand, and the goddess Athene had given advice during the building of the ship, so that the Argo was “joined together by strong brackets and made unsinkable.”38
It was clear that the dangers could not have been overcome without divine aid. Now and then the Olympians also showed themselves. Shortly after their adventure with the crashing cliff walls, the Argonauts caught sight of the god Apollo flying over the Argo on his way from Lycia. This happened en route to the land of the Hyperboreans, which lay on the other side of the North Winds. Apollo was visiting “peoples of another race,” and the islands echoed to the sound of his flying boat. This once more shook the Argonauts to their core, so that they were moved to build him an altar. Soon after this Tiphys, the experienced pilot of the Argo, fell ill and died. His fellow voyagers raised a pyramid over his grave—astonishing really, as burial pyramids were not supposed to have appeared until the Egypt of the pharaohs.
During the following days, the Argonauts sailed around the “many bays on the cape of the Amazons.”39 A mighty river is described, unlike any other on earth, for a hundred other rivers are said to flow into it. Yet this river flows only from a single source, which comes down from the “Amazonian mountains.” The river, it is said, flows backward and forward through many provinces and (in Apollonius’ version):
No one knows for sure how many of its tributaries creep away through the land…. If the noble travellers had stayed longer on its banks, they would have had to do battle with the women, and blood would have been spilled, for the Amazons are swift and pay little heed to justice. They love war above all, and take pleasure in using force. They descend from Mars and Harmonia.40
The crew was not that keen on picking a fight with these Amazons, who ran down to the shore in full battle gear the moment they saw the Argo. The Argonauts had not forgotten the old King Phineus’ words, warning them of the Amazons. The old man had also spoken of “disaster in the sky,” and this followed a few days after they had left the bays of the Amazons.
As they landed on a lonely shore, the Argo was suddenly attacked by birds, which shot sharp and deadly arrows down on the Argonauts. The latter defended themselves by raising their shields over their heads, so forming one big protective barrier the length of the Argo. Other members of the crew began to utter a terrible noise which irritated the birds and sent them flying off.
The Argonauts went ashore. The whole region was dried up and there was no real reason for staying. Yet suddenly there appeared four stark-naked, emaciated figures, suffering from hunger and thirst, who only just had the strength to beg Jason for help. They said they were brothers, had been shipwrecked, and had clung on to bits of wreckage until being washed up on this island the night before. The Argonauts realized that these were the four sons of Prixos, who had once flown to Colchis with his sister on the Golden Fleece. They were a wonderful addition to the Argo’s crew, for they knew all about the grove where the Golden Fleece was held, and how to get there. One of the four sons of Prixos was called Argos, and it was he who, in the dead of night, guided the Argo to the Colchis coast, and from there to the mouth of the Phasis River. On its shore lay the town of Aia, with the king’s palace and—some way off—the grove where the Golden Fleece was.
What was the best way to proceed? Jason thought they could try the gentle approach first, and talk to the tyrant King Aietes who ruled the land of Colchis. The Argonauts knew that King Aietes was a violent ruler who did not keep his word, but on the other hand they had saved the lives of Prixos’ four sons, who were his nephews. The Argonauts built an altar and asked the gods for advice.
Some of the gods—the names are confusing and not important here—asked th
e young god of love Eros to arrange for the daughter of the tyrant, pretty Medeia, to fall hopelessly in love with Jason. This would lead her to help the Argonauts even against the will of her evil father. The goddess Hera joined in this “divine conspiracy” and shrouded the men who went to visit the palace in a kind of mist. This made the heroes invisible, so that they suddenly stood before the palace without having been noticed by soldiers and guards. The gods also made sure that Medeia would be the first person to catch sight of Jason. At the same moment Eros shot his arrow into the girl’s heart, so that she could not stop gazing at him.
What else could King Aietes do but welcome his uninvited guests? After all, they were bringing back his lost nephews, and his own daughter was asking him to arrange a meal with them. Jason tried to be diplomatic. He mentioned the fact that they were all related to each other through the race of gods, and that he had come to ask for the Golden Fleece.
King Aietes no doubt thought he had misheard. He had never for a moment dreamed of even putting the Golden Fleece on display, and now here was this young whippersnapper daring to ask for the greatest treasure of his kingdom. Aietes laughed aloud, and said, cunningly, that Jason could have the Golden Fleece if he passed three tests.
Outside the grove where the Golden Fleece was nailed, said sly Aietes, there were also caves where fire-spitting bulls lived. Jason must harness these bulls to a plough and till the field with them. Then he must sow dragon’s teeth in the furrows, which would quickly grow into frightful figures who must be fought and conquered. Jason would also have to deal with the fire-spitting dragon who never slept.
Odyssey of the Gods Page 2