From: kck+@cs.cmu.edu (Karl Kluge)
Subject: Velikovsky FAQ addition
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 20:02:12 GMT

Needing a break from trying to get my system to fail (outliers never show
up in your data when you want them), I've been browsing WORLDS IN COLLISION
again. For those with copies of the FAQ, insert the following at the start
of section V, PROBLEMS WITH VELIKOVSKY'S INTERPRETATION OF MYTHS AS HISTORY:

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Velikovsky's use of his sources when discussing legends and myths is every
bit as tendentious as his use of historical sources. Looking at chapter 3 of
part II, in the section "When was the Illiad created?", V. says: 

	   "I find in Lucian a statement which corroborates my interpret-
	ation of the cosmic drama in the ILLIAD. This author of the
	second century of the present era writes in his work ON ASTROLOGY
	this most significant and most neglected commentary on the
	Homeric epics:
	   'All that he [Homer] hath said of Venus and of Mars his passion,
	is also manifestly composed from no other source than this science
	[astrology]. Indeed, it is the conjunction of Venus and Mars that
	creates the poetry of Homer.' [8]
	   "Lucian is unaware that Athene is the goddess of the planet
	Venus [9], and yet he knows the real meaning of the cosmic plot
	of the Homeric epic...
	[8] Lucian, ON ASTROLOGY (transl. A. M. Harmon, 1936), Sec. 22
	[9] In the same sentence Lucian identifies Venus with Aphrodite
	of the ILLIAD."

Note again that Velikovsky incredibly judges his sources in light of his
theory rather than his theory in light of his sources, claiming that Lucian
is in error equating Venus with Aphrodite, when it is his equation of Venus
with Athene which is totally unsupported by ancient authors.  Having said
that, what is Lucian talking about here? It is not, as V.  claims, the
conflicts between Athene and Ares in the ILLIAD. Lucian speaks of "Venus and
of Mars his passion". The episode referred to is undoubtedly the section of
the ODYSSEY which recounts Vulcan's trapping of Mars and Venus in bed
together.

In the section "Yuddha" of the same chapter, V. says, "Like the author of
the Book of Job, who wrote that the earth "hangs upon nothing" (26:7), the
SURYA knew that 'above' and 'beneath' are only relative: 'And everywhere
upon the globe of the earth, men think their own place to be the uppermost
-- but since it is a globe in the ether, where should there be an upper, or
an under side of it?'" To interpret that passage in Job as evidence that the
author believed the Earth to float unsupported in space requires that one
ignore context and narrative voice. It is Job speaking in chapter 26 who says

	{Job 26:7}
	He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the
	earth upon nothing.

Yet when Yahweh rebukes Job, he asks:

	{Job 38:4} Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
	declare, if thou hast understanding.
	{Job 38:5} Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or 
	who hath stretched the line upon it?
	{Job 38:6} Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who 
	laid the corner stone thereof;
	{Job 38:7} When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons
	of God shouted for joy?

As the point of God's rebuke is to bring out Job's ignorance of matters
cosmic, it would be odd for Him to ask Job if he knows where the foundations
of the Earth are fastened if, indeed, Job knew the correct answer (and had
given it in 26:7). 

At the start of chapter 9 of part I, "Pallas Athene", V. says, "The
mythologies of all peoples concern themselves with the birth only of Venus,
not with that of Jupiter, Mars, or Saturn. Jupiter is described as heir to
Saturn, but his birth is not a mythological subject." This is nonsense, as a
quick glance at BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY will confirm. Greek myths do tell of
the birth of Zeus (Chronos devoured all his children until Ops substituted a
stone for Zeus). They also tell of the birth of other gods such as Aphrodite
(sea foam mixed with blood from the castration of Uranus), and Dionysus
(carried by Zeus in his thigh after his mortal mother was destroyed by the
sight of Zeus in divine splendor). I imagine Velikovsky would explain the
birth of Dionysus by claiming that radiation from the planet Jupiter made
Semele pregnant during a close approach, and sucked the fetus up into the
sky where it mutated into a comet, in keeping with his usual style of
mythical interpretation.