How well-versed were you in classic(al) science fiction?

1. Which classical author went all high-tech with golden robots?

c. Homer. In the Iliad, Book 18, Thetis wants to buy her boy Achilles some high-end armour. She purchases from Hephaestus, the god whose workshop features robots helpers. They look like pretty girls, of course. Scifi writers are all alike.

2. What was the title of Lucian of Samosata's 2nd-century novel about space travel?

d. A True Story. (He was heavily into irony.) The space travellers get to the moon by waterspout and witness a war between the King of the Sun and the King of the Moon. An island of cheese features in there, somewhere, and the historian Herodotus gets sent to a Bad Place for telling lies.

3. According to Antonius Diogenes The incredible wonders beyond Thule, which direction did you have to head in to get to the Moon from Greece?

a. North. Oddly, the reasoning had something to do with the incredible science-fiction idea that somewhere far up north, the days and nights were six months long. Who ever heard of such an implausible plot device? Unfortunately, this novel was lost, and we have to get the story from a reviewer named Photius.

4. What is the main character's problem in The Golden Ass?

b. He has accidentally turned himself into a donkey. Apuleius' hero was trying for a bird. We think he has a lot in common with Rincewind the Wizzard.

5. A number of ancient Greek tales, including the Argonautika, include a bronze cyberguard by the name of Talos. Who is said to have built him?

b. Daedalus. The master craftsman left only one flaw: Talos' circulatory system was rather simple. When Medea pulled out the nail, all his ichor ran out, and he died. Sad story.

6. What book describing star wars and aliens on Earth made its way into some versions of the Bible?

a. The Book of Enoch. Composed between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE, the Book of Enoch is part of the Ethiopian canon. In addition to some aliens worrying about the genetic effects of intermarriage with humans, there's a description of the antediluvian world that is almost, but not quite, the Discworld. We suspect the smallest unit of energy is the thaum here, too.

7. Speaking of science fiction and the Bible, which of these Old Testament prophets qualifies as an alien abductee?

d. Ezekiel. (Fooled you, if you said Elisha. He didn't go up to the mother ship, that was Elijah.) Ezekiel is the fellow who has Erik von Däniken all excited. Ezekiel 5 is the chapter you want for the UFO description.

8. What work of classical Hindu literature features time travel as a plot device?

c. The Mahabharata. King Revaita travels through space to visit Brahma. When he returns, he finds out more than he wanted to know about time dilation. Who'd have thought?

9. What classical 2012-like event is to be found in Plato's Timaeus?

b. The sinking of Atlantis. Nobody took Plato seriously. They said it was all tinfoil-hat stuff. Modern scholars are more interested in the idea of a sinking island.

10. What is science fiction writer Zhang Heng's other claim to fame?

d. He invented a device for measuring earthquakes. (Think how useful this was.) This was 1600 years before anybody did it in Europe. This was in addition to writing A Tour of the Universe in the Second Century CE.

We hope you have enjoyed this brief journey through ancient science fiction. You may now go back to your Star Wars re-runs.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

23.04.12 Front Page

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