Mythologically and fictionally, a god (Gangleri, Odin as the Wanderer) taught men, including Hadding (Njord incarnate) a battle formation: the wedge. Historically and prehistorically, men have learned and taught themselves everything. No god taught mankind language, agriculture, government or poetry. Human hands and brains contrived culture and technology, then brains created myths about anthropomorphic gods.
Although this might seem obvious, CS Lewis presents a culturally sophisticated First Man, an Adam equivalent, on Venus, learning about mathematics and technology by direct divine inspiration. Lewis really did live in a different world from the rest of us.
(I trust that it will not be considered reprehensible to advertise another work with the same title.)
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The illustration you chose intrigued me. SUPERMAN is now a god? That is a new one to me!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I think that the idea was that the Greek gods went to war and that the American superheroes became involved somehow but, other than that, it is indeed a divine or heroic mystery.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Pagan Greeks might have argued, given his powers, that Superman was at least a demigod!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I think that the Greek heroes, who included demigods, resembled modern fictional superheroes.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Achilles and Hercules comes to mind.
Ad astra! Sean
Human beings make their social world, but they don't do it individually, they don't (for the most part) do it consciously, and they don't get to chose the outcomes of their actions because nobody can tell how things will work out in advance.
(Hence the "Law of Unintended Consequences").
It's important to keep this in mind to avoid hubris.
After hubris, nemesis... but madness(*) lets nemesis in.
(*) such as imagining that you can predict, plan and control things in the grand sense.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And that's why Asimovian psychohistory will never work. I also thought of Anderson's Psychotechnic stories, but he shows us how flawed that "predictive science of society" is.
And people who claim they "can predict, plan and control things in the grand sense" will always fail, and almost certainly become cruel, fanatical, and murderous tyrants.
Ad astra! Sean
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