Ganymedean Outlaws worship Jupiter:
"...at the full now, sprawling tremendously across heaven, the Red Spot like a single watching eye." (p. 73)
They say:
"'God is in Jupe and Jupe is in God...'" (ibid.)
How many gods have been in the sky?
I think that the seven "planets" (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) and their corresponding deities were originally identical;
in Anderson's World Without Stars, an extragalactic race regards our galaxy as God;
Niven's and Pournelle's Church of Him is founded when light suddenly appearing in a dark nebula looks like God opening an eye.
In Anderson's Genesis, Jupiter's "...Red Spot faded away ages ago." (Part Two, III, p. 124)
How did gods come down to Earth?
"Christian recalled myths of men who were the lovers of goddesses or who tramped the roads and sat at humble meat with God Incarnate." (Genesis, Part Two, X, 5, pp. 226-227)
A goddess having intercourse with a man and the one God incarnate as a man: two very different divine-human interactions. Another two kinds were miraculous interventions and poetic/prophetic/scriptural inspiration. Christian looks back from a very remote future.
An Outlaw says that an Engineer's spacesuit is:
"'Not Ganny make...'Mebbe they be really from Earth.' He spoke as a man at home might have spoken of Avalon." (Ganymede, p. 76)
"Avalon," an evocative name, is doubly so for Anderson fans. See here.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Now that's interesting, that outlaw Ganymedeans worship the planet Jupiter as a god! Another reason to soon reread THE SNOWS OF GANYMEDE.
And I far prefer the orthodox Christian belief in God becoming incarnate as man for our salvation to crude pagan myths of "gods/goddesses" having sexual intercourse with men/women. The latter is so tawdry, debasing, and unworthy of any alleged gods.
Sean
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