Aeneans And The Ancients

The previous post mentioned the tineran shrine, public ceremonies and secret rites. Another aspect of tineran religion is shown when two tinerans pass an Ancient wall and columns, undimmed by age. First, they refer to that ancient star-faring race variously as the Builders, Elders, La-Sarzen or the High Ones. (Another name used on Aeneas is the Old Shen.) Next, the tinerans dismount, kneel, raise arms, chant, rise, cross themselves, spit and hail the ruins while riding away.

They derive the sign of the cross from Christianity although Anderson tells us in his Time Patrol series that it was originally a Mithraic solar symbol. Spitting is a sacrificial act on a dry planet, as in Frank Herbert's Dune. Earlier, one of the tinerans had expressed contempt by making a spitting sound but without wasting water.

Having previously argued that Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization History is more convincing and imaginative and better written than Isaac Asimov's more widely known Foundation Trilogy, I will now make exactly the same comparison with Dune. To mention just one difference, both Asimov and Herbert describe powerful cliques cynically manipulating superstitious populations by constructing religions as instruments of social control whereas Anderson clearly understands the inner appeal of religious hope and belief. In the Roman Empire, Saul of Tarsus preached a message that many wanted to hear and Constantine adopted it as a state religion three centuries later. In the Terran Empire, Ancient ruins inspire awe which Aycharaych can then manipulate.

One Aenean tries to think himself towards Oneness - many meditators would comment that thinking is not the way but maybe he uses the word in a different sense? - whereas another denounces that as heathenish talk and trusts in God but then wonders whether the Aeneans are His chosen instruments to cleanse the Empire... The developing Aenean beliefs become more elaborate as the novel proceeds.