Alien Space Gods Of Ancient Greece and Rome (5 page)

The face of the creature was "coarsely formed." It had only bulges and cavities where the eyes, the nose, the ears and other facial characteristics should be. The witness said the humanoid's whole appearance was like that of a "coarse computer graphic."

"The witness had the impression," Vembos goes on, "that the apparition was masculine. It was moving in 'slow motion' with large strides showing great flexibility, 'like that of a dancer not touching the floor.' It came out of the kitchen and went right to the bathroom (the bathroom door was open). Its movement reminded the witness of a hurdler in action. In spite of his shocked astonishment, the witness was curious enough to run after the creature. But it disappeared into thin air. Before the witness realized what he had just seen, the humanoid appeared for a second time. Now it came out of his daughter's bedroom and ran into the kitchen, where it again disappeared. After that, it made its appearance for a third time, coming out from the bathroom and disappearing again - for good - in the living room. The whole 'chase' had lasted approximately 30 seconds."

It was at that point that the professor felt the sheer magnitude of what had just happened, and he nearly collapsed from the shock. During the incident he had not had time to realize how weird, how out of the ordinary the experience was.

"The high strangeness of the incident," writes Vembos, "was intensified by the complete lack of any sound. He had the impression that the apparition was 'running away from something, trying desperately to avoid contact with something that was chasing it.'"

Could it have been Hermes, on the run from his fellow gods after some new form of godlike mischief? Or was Hermes there to deliver some message to the professor, a message that the gods deemed him worthy of? If that was the case, one must assume the message was lost in a haze of mystery.

An Earlier Visit From The Unknown

The anonymous professor has by no means been a stranger to the unexplainable, offering up another earlier experience to the Greek investigator/author Thanassis Vembos.

"In 1974, the professor was at home, in another Greek city," Vembos writes, "where he was residing with his family. The doorbell rang and he went to open it. There was a woman standing on the doorstep, apparently dressed like a 'nun.' Her face was 'indescribably beautiful,' 'radiating dazzling splendor.' (Maybe it is useful to clarify that the professor is not a religious person.) The 'nun' seemed to be 'self-illuminated,' even though the outdoor light was off. The woman asked him for some money. He turned and reached out to get some from a small box. But when he turned again to the door to give her the money after a few seconds, the woman had vanished.

"He was shocked, realizing that there was not enough time for the woman to vanish. He went out, pressed the elevator button and saw that the elevator was somewhere on the upper floors. He came down the stairs and went into the street but he could not find any trace of her. The experience was not as subjective or illusionary as it seems at first glance, since his family also heard the doorbell ringing."

We wonder if this might have been a materialization of the Oracle of Delphi, disguised in more modern garb. She has often been depicted wearing a head cloth or covering like a religious figure such as a nun. Perhaps she comes back from time to time, and has done so down through the ages, taking on human form in an attempt to provide us with contemporary revelations and prophecies.

The professor also told Vembos about a third experience that took place in 1986 in which he saw an apparition of his mother-in-law as he rode a city bus full of people. His mother-in-law had died six months prior to the bus incident.

"He was so stunned that he could not believe his eyes and could not even try to speak to her," Vembos writes.

Seeing an apparition of a deceased relative is also sometimes part of an abduction experience, according to researcher Dr. David Jacobs. For instance, one may be undergoing a typical bedroom abduction and see one's late grandmother at the foot of the bed. Experiencer Whitley Strieber has frequently commented that the border between the worlds of the living and the dead is something the aliens can cross over like we would cross a street.

What The Firemen Saw

Vembos also learned of another incident there in
Greece
that took place a couple of months after the professor's visit from the humanoid in his home. The site of the incident was Perati, near Vravona, which is the location of the beautiful ancient
temple
of
Artemis
, also called Diana. The temple is still standing and in rather good condition.

"Perati is a hill that John Keel would have classified as a 'window,"' Vembos writes. "Lots of strange happenings, apparitions, UFOs and other unorthodox phenomena are reported there."

The witness to the Perati event was a 45-year old fireman who was doing a nightshift with two other colleagues, watching for forest fires. It was the end of August 2001. From their vantage point atop a peninsula in the area, which had a panoramic view, there was a deserted heliport - a landing platform about 15 meters in diameter - and a small wooden kiosk. It was a hot but peaceful night and the firemen were talking idly right beside a fire engine.

"It was about
10 P.M.
when they noticed a disc shaped light-colored object flying low and noiselessly above the sea, coming towards them from the northeast. As the UFO was approaching, their mobile phones, the CB and their portable radio ceased to function."

The fireman had a slight impression of hearing a faint noise, "like a small electric motor."

"Astounded, the three men saw the UFO coming down and landing softly on its belly upon the old cement heliport platform. It was just three meters in diameter, seemed like 'two deep plates glued together,' and its color was whitish or gray metal. It did not have any discernible characteristics or features. It was half- hidden from their sight by shrubbery. All three of them were flabbergasted and a little afraid. 'What are we supposed to do now?' they wondered. The fireman felt strange that he was witnessing something that he had read about or watched on TV programs."

After a while, a door seemed to open on the UFO. From inside, a dim light was coming out. Three small humanoids emerged from the open door and came down a stairway, one after the other. It was too dark to see details, but the humanoids seemed to wear tight- fitting, apparently metallic "scuba diver suits." A hood covered their heads but not their faces. The witness could not make out any perceptible complexion or details on the humanoids' limbs or bodies. The three aliens walked in line for six or seven meters and then disappeared into the night but the door on the ship remained open.

The three men, still reeling from the shock of what they were seeing, started to discuss what they should do. One of them started to walk towards the landed UFO, but when he was halfway there he came back, saying that "something" had prevented him from going any further.

A few minutes later, the creatures appeared again, coming up the same path they had earlier disappeared on. Walking in line, they entered the UFO. The door was closed and the UFO took off noiselessly. It flew until it vanished, to the south, behind Perati Hill. After it was gone, the electronic devices began to function again. The witnesses searched the landing area for traces, but found nothing.

They did not report their experience to the authorities for fear of ridicule. A couple of days later, they were doing the same nightshift duties when they saw another UFO, this time a much larger 30 meters in diameter. The ship passed right over their heads at a height of about 100 to 200 meters, had a whitish- metallic color and emitted a sound like "an electrical motor." The UFO vanished into the distance, flying above Perati, and presumably over the nearby
temple
of
Artemis/Diana
. 

"Detailed research," writes Vembos, "can unearth even stranger tales from the rich lode of Greek Forteana - usually disguised as 'folklore' or 'religious miracles.'"

UFOs In Ancient
Rome

Ancient
Rome
had its share of UFO sightings as well. From the Roman writer Julius Obsequens, who was believed to have lived in the middle of the fourth century C.E., came a great historical work called "Liber de Prodigiis," or "The Book of Prodigies." The book was an account of the wonders and portents that occurred in
Rome
between 249 and 12 B.C.E.

Obsequens clearly is reporting on a UFO sighting when he writes of an event that took place in 100 B.C.E.:

"When C. Murius and L. Valerius were consuls, in Tarquinia towards sunset, a round object, like a globe or a round circular shield, took its path in the sky from west to east."

Of the year 91 B.C.E., he says that, "At Aenariae, while Livius Troso was promulgating the laws at the beginning of the Italian war, at sunrise, there came a terrific noise in the sky, and a globe of fire appeared, burning in the north. In the
territory
of
Spoletum
, a globe of fire, of golden color, fell to the Earth gyrating. It then seemed to increase in size, rose from the Earth and ascended into the sky, where it obscured the sun with its brilliance. It revolved toward the eastern quadrant of the sky."

There is finally a third report from Obsequens, for the year 42 B.C.E., that states, "Something like a sort of weapon, or missile, rose with a great noise from the Earth and soared into the sky."

Since Obsequens was writing in the fourth century C.E., after
Rome
had converted to Christianity, he makes no reference to the ancient gods of his forefathers. Nevertheless, it was no doubt this sort of observable UFO activity that kept both the Greeks and Romans of the pre-Christian era further enthralled by the legends of their gods from the skies.

The Story of Bruno Facchini

One may recall the mega-hit HBO television series, "The Sopranos," about a crime boss named Tony Soprano and his nuclear, extended and crime families. In one episode, Tony says to his henchmen, all of Italian descent, that as sons of
Italy
they are also descendants of ancient
Rome
, born of a kind of superior breeding stock that they should feel proud of.

And so it was that
Rome
became
Italy
over the intervening centuries, and the sightings recorded from antiquity became the UFO and alien encounters of the present time.