Page 262 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

Finnish Hamlet, there is a poignant scene in which the hero, returning
home after a long absence, meets a maiden in the woods, gathering
berries. They lie together. Only later do they discover that they are
brother and sister. The maiden drowns herself at once. Later, with ‘the
black dog Musti’ padding along at his heels, Kullervo wanders into the
forest and throws himself upon his sword.
40
There are no suicides in the Egyptian myth of Osiris, but there is the
incest of Osiris and his sister Isis. Out of their union is born Horus the
avenger.
So once again it seems reasonable to ask: what is going on? Why are
there all these apparent links and connections? Why do we have these
‘strings’ of myths, ostensibly about different subjects, all of which prove
capable in their own ways of shedding light on the phenomenon of
precession of the equinoxes? And why do all these myths have dogs
running through them, and characters who seem unusually inclined to
incest, fratricide and revenge? It surely drives scepticism beyond its limits
to suggest that so many identical literary devices could keep on turning
up purely by chance in so many different contexts.
If not by chance, however, then who exactly was responsible for
creating this intricate and clever connecting pattern? Who were the
authors and designers of the puzzle and what motives might they have
had?

Scientists with something to say

Whoever it was, they must have been smart—smart enough to have
observed the infinitesimal creep of precessional motion along the ecliptic
and to have calculated its rate at a value uncannily close to that obtained
by today’s advanced technology.
It therefore follows that we are talking about highly civilized people.
Indeed, we are talking about people who deserve to be called scientists.
They must, moreover, have lived in extremely remote antiquity because
we can be certain that the creation and dissemination of the common
heritage of precessional myths on both sides of the Atlantic did not take
place in historic times. On the contrary the evidence suggests that all
these myths were ‘tottering with age’ when what we call history began
about 5000 years ago.
41
The great strength of the ancient stories was this: as well as being for
ever available for use and adaptation free of copyright, like intellectual
chameleons, subtle and ambiguous, they had the capacity to change their
colour according to their surroundings. At different times, in different
continents, the ancient tales could be retold in a variety of ways, but

40 Ibid., p. 33.
41 Ibid., p. 119.

260