Homer is the writer that affected me the most. Can any work ever written be more clear, more realistic, more honest in describing the human nature with its strong sides and weaknesses? I have no doubt in my mind that he was telling things he believed strongly to be true, whether the story was composed by himself or others before him. And yet… Yet there are supernatural things in the story.

Yes, I can understand exaggeration. It seems to be a common element in story telling as far as I can remember from the stories left by the ancients that reach today in an oral tradition in South East Turkey where I come from. It's an attempt to impress the listener further by adding some awesome aspects to the story. But to be able to exaggerate something, you need that thing to exist first; you do not invent a whole family of supernatural beings with great details in their relationships and affairs to impress the listener. So, how could that be explained?

As I had the chance to listen to a great deal of ancient stories told by what is called a Cherokbeige (story teller) in South Eastern Turkey who inherited the stories from those before him, so that the stories may date back quite far in time, I may be able to guess better as to the real nature of things described in the story.

For instance, how would you describe Achilles ? As a hero and a noble warrior? Well, if you ask me, you can forget about that. Think of him as a bandit, a pirate, an ultimate mercenary whose words could not be trusted (apparently common things in those times). And whose every achievement in killing and plundering had been overly prized so that he had turned into a champion in the trade.

Again he would have been someone with moods; because it's the moods that give a man courage in fighting. Think of a chicken with chicks that can attack a cat, a dog or a human being because it is in a mood to protect its chicks. A mood that can override fear.

Again, to play Achilles you would need the right constitution, a winning balance between bulk and agility; not just a large torso. We are talking about great output. To achieve that, you would have to be able to store a great amount of fuel and be agile enough to dodge death during a fight. To be a warrior, you would have to be able to fight non-stop from dawn do dusk and run like hell when push came to shove (running from death would not be held in contempt by the professionals of the time, it might even have been the reason for the praise 'fleet of foot').

Homer as someone who represents the men of that era, although in a habit of praising everyone, seems to have made sure that there were enough clues available to the listener (reader) about the real nature of things; he was honest enough to stay faithful to the truth (probably one of the reasons he is the most read writer ever). So, how can the supernatural things in the story be explained ?

Well, I found an explanation to satisfy my curiosity, by giving him the benefit of the doubt. What if it was all true? Could it be explained in a down to earth way? The only explanation I could come up with, in this line of thought, was that the so called gods were visitors from another planet, with a highly sophisticated technology. The best clue is perhaps the childish logic in Odysseus' trick with the cyclops where Odysseus tells the cyclops that his name is Noman, and thus avoids having an encounter with other cyclops later when he blinds it.

Let's not judge this in human terms , but rather in terms of Artificial Intelligence. What if the cyclops were advanced self sufficient robots built for difficult tasks? Let's try to explain the situation from this point of view: other cyclops would be making a decision against the simple statement "Help, Noman's blinded me (damaged my bio-camera, or was it even bio?)." Now if it was not a man who had damaged it, then it would have to be a God (say, one of the inhabitants of an imaginary planet Godevia who were visiting Earth). And to question the doings of a God would not be a cyclops' task.

It does not really matter whether Odysseus encountered a cyclops or not. What is important here is what men of that era thought of cyclops: strong but not very bright.*

Among other clues that might support this view is the appearance of a god out of nowhere which might have been of a holographic nature. And could one of the reasons (among others) that the settlement was built on a high mountain (Olympus) be for better signal reception? In the story, were they not watching the Trojan war from Olympus which might indicate telecasting? Some were believed to be living under the sea, reminding of submarines or advanced scuba diving techniques. It's likely that Poseidon, god of the sea, was perhaps captain of a submarine or a surfer, riding sea waves.

Once we make such a guess, it will be easier to distinguish exaggerations, like calling a river itself a god and giving it a personality. In fact once having witnessed miracles of such alien technology, man would try to attribute everything that he could not explain to such supernatural beings.

So, who were they? Could they have something to do with the origins of man and his speedy evolution; because there is a big gap in intelligence between man and other species that evolved on Earth. Were they a genetically treated human race? Is the word godlike coming from the fact that they used their own genes in the process. (It would be difficult to call an ape 'godlike'.)

Now, I am not trying to give support to a view that has already been written by writers like Erich Von Daniken and Giovanni Scognamillo, nor am I keen on to look into an ancient tale and try to make up something interesting. But rather I would like to raise the following question: suppose contact with alien intelligence had been made in the past, would there not be traces of it engraved in our culture and beliefs? As we have done in our discussion of superstition we want to rule out the idea that ancient people were being merely foolish, and ask whether religion and mythology could not be reflections of 'contact' in the far past.

After all, even in our modern society there is a an expectation of the return of a saviour from heavens. Could this not be the reflection of an older and stronger belief that roots back to the times of 'Gods'? Likewise, could the idea of resurrection and immortality not be linked with our far ancestors who might have witnessed advanced medical techniques?

Does logic and evidence not suggest that mankind has been tamed and helped in the past? There are indisputable references to good and bad, rewarding and punishment in religion.

So, should we fear aliens? True, we must be prepared just in case, for there should be good ones and bad ones everywhere. But should we turn this into a paranoia? It would be very hard to imagine that such sophisticated beings would need or want anything from man and his planet, when there ought to be a myriad of planets available to them. Perhaps that's the very reason they are staying away (if they are out there) now that we have powerful weapons and such paranoia.

Again, I am not saying that this is the real explanation behind the birth of religion and mythology, but it seems likely to be, and it would be wise to prepare ourselves mentally for such further encounters just in case, and be ready perhaps to show hospitality and kindness towards such guests who would like to visit our Earth. For man would be the one who would benefit the most from such a friendship.

Mesut Peynirci

A Cyclopia - A birth defect characterised by the merging of the two eye orbits into a single cavity that contains one eye. The anomaly is sometimes a part of a pattern that includes cylencephaly. It occurs with chromasom-13 trisomy, monosomy G and 18p syndromes. The term is based on the Greek myth of a race of humans with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads.  The photo on the right is a one-eyed kitten named Cy drew more than a little scepticism when it turned up on various websites, but medical authorities have a name for the bizarre condition."Holoprosencephaly" causes facial deformities, according to the US National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In the worst cases, a single eye is located where the nose should be, according to the institute's Web site. Traci Allen says the kitten she named Cy, short for Cyclops, was born on December 28 with the single eye and no nose."You don't expect to see something like that," the 35-year-old Allen said from her home in Redmond, Oregon. Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald