Chariots of the Gods

«It took courage to write this book, and it will take courage to read it.» — apertura de la Introducción.

«The past teemed with unknown gods who visited the primeval earth in manned spaceships.» — la tesis, enunciada como hecho del pasado.

«There is something inconsistent about our religion. A feature common to every religion is that it promises help and salvation to mankind. The primitive gods gave such promises, too. Why didn't they keep them?» — el argumento religioso, en forma de pregunta.

«Knowledge that was hidden in the libraries of secret societies is being rediscovered.» — sitúa el saber de las sociedades secretas como algo que la época recupera, no como magisterio vigente.

«Modern laboratories must take over the work of archaeological research.» — adjudica la competencia al laboratorio y no a la hermenéutica.

«scholars will call it nonsense and put it on the index» — anticipa el rechazo académico y lo atribuye al prejuicio institucional.

«I claim that our forefathers received visits from the universe in the remote past, even though I do not yet know who these extraterrestrial intelligences were or from which planet they came.» — reclama la visita y se abstiene sobre la identidad del visitante.

«I nevertheless proclaim that these ‘strangers’ annihilated part of mankind existing at the time and produced a new, perhaps the first, homo sapiens.» — la intervención sobre la especie, enunciada con verbo de proclamación.

«This assertion is revolutionary. It shatters the base on which a mental edifice that seemed to be so perfect was constructed. It is my aim to try to provide proof of this assertion.» — el «try» es del propio autor y acota lo que promete.

«a theory that is not proved any more than the other interpretations are» — así presenta su explicación del abandono de las ciudades mayas.

«Why does God speak in the plural? Why does he say ‘us,’ not ‘me,’ why ‘our,’ and not ‘my’?» — sobre Génesis 1:26.

«Once again we have the sons of God, who interbreed with human beings. Here, too, we have the first mention of giants.» — sobre Génesis 6.

«‘Giants’ haunt the pages of almost all ancient books. So they must have existed.» — el argumento por difusión, tal cual lo formula.

«Had the countdown already begun and did the ‘angels’ know about it?» — sobre el aviso a Lot en Sodoma.

«Let us imagine for a moment that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed according to plan, i.e., deliberately, by a nuclear explosion.» — lo introduce como ejercicio de imaginación, no como dato.

«Ezekiel gives precise details of the landing of this vehicle.» — tras citar Ezequiel 1 entero.

«Then why does this almighty God have to come hurtling up from a particular direction? Cannot he be anywhere he wants without all this noise and fuss?» — el argumento contra la lectura teológica del pasaje.

«Ezekiel says that each wheel was in the middle of another one. An optical illusion!»

«Undoubtedly the Ark was electrically charged! If we reconstruct it today according to the instructions handed down by Moses, an electric conductor of several hundred volts is produced.» — sobre el Arca de la Alianza.

«the loudspeaker—perhaps even a kind of set for communication between Moses and the spaceship—was perfect.» — De ahí lee la muerte de Uzá: «He fell dead on the spot, as if struck by lightning.»

«No mortal comes to the mountain where the gods dwell. He who looks the gods in the face must die.» — cita la tabla V de Gilgamesh junto a Éxodo 33:20-23.

«Or does the whole account in Exodus come from the Epic of» — la frase cruza el corte de página y cierra en la siguiente: «Gilgamesh? Even that is possible. After all, Moses is supposed to have been brought up in the Egyptian royal household.»

«Once again several hitherto unknown texts mention heavenly chariots, sons of heaven, wheels, and the smoke which the flying apparitions emitted.» — sobre los textos de Qumrán.

«Eve looked up to heaven and saw a chariot of light traveling there; it was drawn by four shining eagles.» — cita el Apocalipsis de Moisés, cap. 33.

«Does not this seriously pose the question whether the human race is not an act of deliberate ‘breeding’ by unknown beings from outer space?» — la tesis central del libro, formulada como pregunta.

«Behind the being I saw a chariot which had wheels of fire» — cita del Enoc, contrastado con los Libros de Abraham y de Moisés.

«Seen from the air, the clear-cut impression that the 37-mile-long plain of Nazca made on me was that of an airfield!» — lo presenta como impresión propia, en primera persona.

«It tells of a golden spaceship that came from the stars; in it came a woman, whose name was Oryana, to fulfill the task of becoming the Great Mother of the earth. Oryana had only four fingers» — la leyenda de Tiahuanaco tal como la refiere.

«Some 2,000 years before our era the Sumerians began to record the glorious past of their people. Today we still do not know where this people came from.»

«Thus the ten original kings ruled for a total of 456,000 years.» — la lista real sumeria, leída al pie de la letra.

«Vimanas, i.e., flying machines, navigated at great heights with the aid of quicksilver and a great propulsive wind.» — sobre el Ramayana.

«in what is perhaps the first account of the dropping of an H-bomb, it says that Gurkha loosed a single projectile on the triple city from a mighty Vimana.» — sobre el Mahabharata.

«Agrest considers it possible that the terrace is the remains of a gigantic airfield.» — la lectura de Baalbek la adjudica al profesor Agrest, no a sí mismo.

«the old god of creation, Viracocha, was an ancient and elemental divinity» — así presenta la divinidad preincaica.

«Never before had they heard of gigantic white men who came from somewhere in the sky.» — lo que, según refiere, oyeron los conquistadores en las sagas de Viracocha.

«In 1935 a stone relief that very probably represents the god Kukumatz (in Yucatán, Kukulkán) was found in Palenque (Old Kingdom).» — grafía «Kukumatz» tal cual: ver Notas de carga.

«What does the stone relief of the rocket-driving god at Palenque mean?»

«It is not our fault that the stone relief from Palenque exists. It is not our fault that Admiral Piri Reis did not burn his ancient maps.» — cierre del libro, en serie de anáforas.

«Occultists can put out their lamps, alchemists destroy their crucibles, secret brotherhoods take off their cowls. It will no longer be possible to offer man the nonsense that» — la frase sigue «has been purveyed to him so brilliantly for thousands of years»: declara caduca a la familia ocultista y alquímica, no se inscribe en ella.

«It is depressing what many people—and sometimes whole occult societies—make out of their ostensible observations. They only blur our view of reality.» — objeción interna a las agrupaciones ufológicas de corte ocultista.

«This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.» — boilerplate de Berkley en la página legal, no declaración del autor ni caracterización de la obra. Se consigna como dato de la edición.

Cadena editorial impresa en la página legal: «Copyright © 1999 by Erich von Däniken. Copyright © 1968 by Econ-Verlag GMBH. English translation © 1969 by Michael Heron and Souvenir Press.» El pie de imprenta enumera Putnam (feb. 1970), Putnam/Berkley Medallion (abr. 1977), Berkley mass market (sept. 1980) y Berkley trade paperback (enero 1999), que es la nuestra.

«I have in front of me a young Swiss who wrote a totally mad book. But—the guy is not mad.» — voz de Thomas von Randow, editor de ciencia de *Die Zeit*, al teléfono con Econ; la reproduce el prólogo.

El prólogo nombra a Erwin Barth von Wehrenalp, jefe de Econ, como quien acepta el manuscrito ya rechazado por su propia casa.

El prólogo va firmado, localizado y fechado: «Erich von Däniken Beatenberg, Switzerland June 1995».

«Were the Gods Astronauts?» — libro del profesor Ernst von Khuon que reúne artículos de diecisiete científicos, «Some of the articles were strongly critical, some favorable», según lo refiere el prólogo.

Herbert Wilhelmy, geógrafo formado en Kiel, Stuttgart y «Tuebingen», autor de *The World of the Maya*, es el objetor nombrado del prólogo; el reproche es de bibliografía: citar en 1981 y en la revisión de 1989 solo obras de 1968 y 1969.

Johannes Fiebag es quien compila las réplicas en *Ancient Skies* nº 6/1991, y de su interpolación sale el argumento del cráter de Chicxulub.

«The Ancient Astronaut Society (AAS) was founded in the United States in 1973 by Chicago attorney Gene M. Phillips as a non-profit organization to deal with my themes.» — dato institucional dado por el propio prólogo; añade «There are now 10,000 members worldwide».

El prólogo cita en apoyo a Dr. Luis Navia (New York Institute of Technology) y a Dr. Dileep Kumar Kanjilal (Sanskrit College, Calcuta). Son voces de terceros citados por el autor, no del autor.

«Above: A view of the plain showing that the markings (Inca roads, say the archaeologists) lead nowhere.» — pie de foto del inserto fotográfico: texto de la edición, no del cuerpo.

«Heindel, M., Die Weltanschaung der Rosenkreuzer» — único vínculo bibliográfico de la obra con el corpus rosacruz, y está solo en la lista: no lo cita en el cuerpo. Grafía «Weltanschaung» tal cual.

Invoca a Velikovsky, *Worlds in Collision*, para la formación de Venus — coexiste con él sin suscribir el catastrofismo como marco.

Invoca a Edgar Cayce como caso de transmisión mental — coexiste con él sin suscribir la clarividencia como marco.

«‘Memories of the Future is an impossible title. One can’t remember the future,’ the editor argued.» — voz del editor de Econ, reproducida por el prólogo: la objeción al título que el autor rechazó.

«He leafed through the neatly typed manuscript, examined some of the peculiar pictures, and decided, ‘This is not for us. You have to publish it as a book.’» — la primera decisión de Thomas von Randow sobre el manuscrito, antes de la llamada a Econ.

«Wilhelmy studied geography, geology, political economy and ethnology and has been a professor in Kiel, Stuttgart and Tuebingen. His world renown as a scientist is certainly well-founded, and his book, The World of the Maya, is counted among the standard works of Mayan studies.» — así presenta el prólogo las credenciales de su objetor principal, antes de replicarle. La grafía *Tuebingen* es la del facsímil.

«Wilhelmy, however, presents his own version (pertaining to the corn deity Yum Kax) as the proven interpretation.» — la lectura de la losa de Palenque que el objetor sostiene, referida por el prólogo: el dios del maíz Yum Kax.

«The cenotes are not caused by meteor impacts but by a breakthrough of the tops of karst caverns which are widely spread through northern Yucatan ...» — objeción de Herbert Wilhelmy sobre el origen de los cenotes, citada dentro del prólogo.

«Hans Schoenfeld wrote, for instance, in the Berliner Zeitung (12/13/89):» — el prólogo introduce así la réplica periodística que reproduce a continuación.

«Such is the interpolation of Dr. Johannes Fiebag.» — con esta línea el prólogo cierra —y solo entonces adjudica— el tramo sobre el cráter de Chicxulub: no es voz del autor, aunque dentro de él la primera persona parezca del autor.

«The Chicxulub crater (named after the little village near Mérida in the center of the structure) is now considered the number-one candidate in the search for the cause of the extinction of the saurians.» — dentro de esa interpolación de Fiebag, el argumento geológico con que se contesta a Wilhelmy.

«If you examine the hypothesis with an unprejudiced and open attitude, you will soon find that nothing in this hypothesis contravenes the strictest rules of science and our present understanding of the universe.» — voz de Luis Navia, citada en apoyo por el prólogo.

«The great merit of Erich von Däniken consists in his bringing to attention innumerable archaeological, cultural, historical and religious phenomena, which suddenly make sense if one takes into consideration the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors.» — segunda mitad de la cita de Navia, que elogia el señalamiento y no la demostración.

«It can be doubtlessly proven from old Indic texts that the earth had been visited and influenced by extraterrestrials in remotest antiquity.» — voz del sanscritista Dileep Kumar Kanjilal, citada en apoyo por el prólogo.

«Antarctica, mapped at the bottom, conforms very closely to the land mass under the ice, as revealed by echo-sounding gear.» — pie de foto del inserto sobre el mapa de Piri Reis: texto de la edición, no del cuerpo.

«It then appeared virtually identical with this United States Air Force map of the world on an equidistant projection based on Cairo.» — pie de foto que enuncia la comparación con la proyección equidistante centrada en El Cairo.

«Photo of the earth taken from Apollo 8 shows close similarity to the Piri Reis map.» — pie de foto que pone la fotografía del Apolo 8 junto al mapa.

«This is very reminiscent of the aircraft parking areas in a modern airport.» — pie de foto de las líneas de Nazca; la comparación con el aeropuerto va aquí y no en el cuerpo.

«Rock vitrification requires very high temperatures.» — pie de foto sobre las piedras vitrificadas de Sacsahuamán.

«The 91 steps on each side add up to 364, and the final platform gives 365.» — pie de foto de El Castillo en Chichén Itzá, con la cuenta calendárica de los escalones.

«The strange markings at the foot of the drawing can only be an indication of the flames and gases coming from the propulsion unit.» — pie de foto del relieve de Palenque, más asertivo que el cuerpo del libro sobre la misma pieza.

«American astronauts today take up the same position, their hands on controls, their eyes checking instruments.» — pie de foto que compara la postura del relieve con la de un astronauta.

«There is no recorded history of Tiahuanaco. On the Gate of the Sun, above, carved out of a single to-ton block, is the representation of a flying god flanked by forty-eight mysterious figures.» — pie de foto del Portón del Sol; la forma *to-ton* es corrupción de la capa de texto y se consigna tal cual.

«Legend tells of a golden spaceship which came from the stars.» — pie de foto que repite, abreviada, la leyenda de Oryana que el cuerpo da en la p. 27.

«It could just as reasonably be interpreted as a symbolic representation of the construction of an atom, with an astronaut in a fiery chario above.» — pie de foto sobre un relieve; la forma *chario* es corrupción de la capa de texto.

«An Assyrian crystal lens from the seventh century B.C. To grind such a lens requires a highly sophisticated mathematical formula.» — pie de foto de la lente asiria, fechada en el siglo VII a. C.

«Finally, these very ancient fragments, now in the Baghdad Museum, have been identified as the remains of an electric battery.» — pie de foto de la pila de Bagdad.

«This ancient iron pillar does not rust. It cannot be accurately dated, but it is hundreds of years old.» — pie de foto de la columna de Delhi; da siglos donde el cuerpo del libro da más de cuatro mil años.

«This Babylonian tablet records past and future eclipses.» — pie de foto de la tablilla babilónica de eclipses.