Metamorphoses

Copyright 2017, InterAmerica, Inc.

No, not Ovid’s masterpiece (although that does factor in)….

Surely many of you know the story from Book VIII of Metamorphoses in which the tale is told of Icarus who flies too close to the heavens (the sun), with his concocted winged feathers held together by wax, that melt, bringing him to his untimely death.

And you know about Perseus, in Book IV who killed the dragon that guarded Andromeda who was unjustly chained to a rock by Ammon because her foolish mother talked too much.

In Book XIV Circe, rebuked by young, beautiful King Picus, running from her, is changed into a bird:

“He saw himself in the air, wings at his sides;

And mad with hate at what he had become,

He tore at heavy oaks with bill and claw,

And in his anger drilled through trunk and branches.

His wings shone red as the red cloak he wore;

His golden brooch ringed around his throat in feathers –

Nothing of Picus but his awkward name.”

[Tanslation by Horace Gregory, Viking Press, 1958]

Such “alterations” in mythology are numerous, but then so are they in the history (recounting) of odd things seen in the skies: flying saucers/disks and UFOs.

Flying saucers once abounded in descriptive words and phrases that seemed to indicate the queer flying things were metallic or solid in structure flying with intelligent behavior.

Gradually, however, the solid flying disks morphed into ephemeral lights that are seen or reported as flying willy-nilly without seeming purpose of agenda.

Today, humans only see amorphous spots of light, generating nothing more than mild interest and diffuse photo images.

Like the wickedly changed humans in Ovid’s listing of misbehaving gods and goddesses, UFOs have metamorphosed from solidity into transitory phenomena, but phenomena unworthy of interest or study by those usually attuned, by curiosity, to determine what the essence of a mystery or enigma is.

This is where ufology is.

N.B. My copy cost me 75 cents, a bit cheaper than the 95 cent copy offered by Amazon, pictured above)

RR

Statistics for this blog

As you can see, I get a nice compliment of readers but not a nice compliment of comments. That bothers me.

(Book authors also get no comments from their readers, unless they have a web-site or blog, maybe a review somewhere.)

Part of the dearth of commentary here derives from my practice of not including comments from persons using a nom de plume rather than their real name.

(There are exceptions as when a pseudonym represents a person who has established himself or herself as the pseudonymic character they've established, like Zoam Chomsky for example.)

RR