Come Fly with Me on Mythological Wings: Part Three

Mythology is full of strange winged creatures, some of them humanoid. If these creatures are not native to Earth, that is they are really real, not mythological, but extraterrestrial, is there anything really implausible at work here? There’s nothing implausible about wings – obviously – even when extrapolated to beings our size or larger. There are just three variables at work here, sheer oomph muscle power; the density of what you’re flying in; and gravity. With the right combination, all sort of flying creatures not native to Earth might be possible.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

ARTIFICIALLY WINGED HUMANS: Some reports of winged humans have wings that aren’t biological but technological.

*Daedalus and his son Icarus in Greek mythology both donned self-manufactured wax-wings in order to escape imprisonment in Crete. Things ended badly for Icarus. Because this is relatively low-tech, just wax and feathers (the prototype of the hang-glider-parachute) and there’s nothing else to suggest that these figures are anything but purely human beings in every sense of the term, I personally dismiss them from any further consideration in the context of this essay.

*Hermes (Mercury to the Romans) was among other duties, a messenger deity with winged helmet and winged sandals to facilitate his duties.

*Perseus, son of Zeus and the mortal woman Danae (and therefore a demigod), the heroic Greek slayer of the Gorgon Medusa, also had a pair of winged shoes with which to fly upon. Unlike Hermes, he didn’t have a winged helmet, rather, like Hades, an invisibility helmet, though it was probably on loan from Hades to Perseus. 

MODERN WINGED HUMANOIDS: In modern cryptozoology, there’s no shortage of sightings of large unknown species of birds or bird-like creatures. Humanoids with wings are cited rather less frequently. One exception however was Mothman.

*Mothman: When talking real modern winged humanoids, one would be remiss not to mention Mothman, a winged hominoid with glowing red eyes, associated with the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia around the period of November 1966 through December 1967. Mothman’s been the subject of several books, dozens of articles, and at least one motion picture (“The Mothman Prophecies” – 2002). However, there have been no sightings since. Perhaps Mothman’s a purely imaginary half-breed, one never before or after seen. Well, maybe yes and maybe no.

DISCUSSION: If the ancients thought there was anything unusual, anomalous, out of place, or out of the ordinary with the presence of winged creatures or winged humanoids in their midst, I’ve found no reference to it. Despite having wings though, it isn’t obvious that all these beasties from ancient history could actually fly. Images from ancient times clearly show Pegasus and dragons in flight, but not griffins, despite Apollo’s gold chariot, by some accounts being pulled by griffins (other accounts suggest swans). Also those Lamassu (or Shedu) aren’t actually depicted in flight. Ditto that of the Greek version of the Sphinx.

One interesting facet that emerges from this brief examination is that the Harpies, Gorgons, Furies and Sirens all seem to be kissing cousins; all nasty predatory examples on the feminine side of the coin. They all come in a trilogy. All are ultimately descended from the Titans branch of the Greek pantheon. All are shown in flight mode. All were dangerous to mortals. That may have nothing to do with the subject at hand of course, but it’s a connection I haven’t seen mentioned in the literature, not that I’ve digested every morsal on the subject which would be a very forbidding task indeed. 

Slightly off topic, related to the Gorgons (sisters in fact) but un-winged though swan-like, are yet another trio of grey-haired crones, the Graeae (Enyo, Pemphredo and Deino) whose mythological claim to fame, apart from unwillingly assisting Perseus, was that they had to share their single tooth and lone eye between them. 

Also those who can trace their ancestry in part or in full back to the Titans are Nike and Eros.

None of the original six Olympian gods and goddesses, Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Hades (Pluto), Hestia (Vesta) and Demeter (Ceres) was winged. The latter eight, Ares (Mars), Athena (Minerva), Apollo (Apollo), Artemis (Diana), Aphrodite (Venus), Hermes (Mercury), Hephaestus (Vulcan) and latecomer Dionysus (Bacchus) weren’t winged either, apart from Hermes and that wasn’t natural wings but technological ones.

The question is, could some, most, even all of the above be aliens? What entities are the most likely of the candidates? I personally would expect intelligent aliens to resemble something humanoid but not human and thus most of these winged beasties fit that bill although perhaps the winged gods and goddesses are illustrated as a tad too human to come across convincingly as extraterrestrial, with perhaps the exception of Hermes and Perseus.

Hermes and Perseus are obvious candidates being a god and demigod respectively who employ high technology to get around, the sort of high technology not yet to hand here in the 21^st Century.

Mothman is a candidate since that beastie was associated with a UFO flap in the local area at the time.

Fairies could be extraterrestrial. They abduct people (like the UFO ‘Greys’); they have control over space and time, another trait UFOs seem to exhibit; and they inhabit rather exotic home worlds (extra-solar planets perhaps).

But the best candidates IMHO are the Cherubim. They are larger than humans by a wide margin; they are exotic looking; they are multi-winged; they are associated with UFOs (that ‘Wheel of Ezekiel’); they have an extraterrestrial home base even if it is Heaven. They have the added advantage from a cultural perspective of being Biblical. Greek mythology is still widely read and part of our culture, but way more people are willing to accept Biblical mythology as reality. The logic IMHO doesn’t follow, but that’s the way it is.