CHAPTER 4

OCULI

The strange eyes we saw in chapter 3 must have had a profound effect on people in ancient times. Miniatures were created which many archaeologists think were objects of worship. If this was so, it would be similar to the actions of some Christians today who carry or keep in their homes a small cross or crucifix as a symbol of their religion. There are so many of these ancient miniatures that scholars call them 'oculi,' That's just the Latin (Roman) name for 'eyes.' In English they're called 'eye idols.' They are said to be as old or even older than the statuettes we saw in the last chapter, and that's close to 5000 years old. Here's one example:

There are many more, such as:

and:

also:

Here's another, apparently a female with two offspring:

These are not just isolated cases in Mesopotamia. Here's an example of 'goggle eyes' unearthed at Copan in Honduras, Central America, in 1990. It's said to be from the Mayan civilization. Just the central figure has the 'goggle eyes':

Here's an example from Spain, in south west Europe:

Where you see two circles close together it looks very like the wheel eyes. I say wheel eyes because that's what Homer called the Cyclops, who were Immortals. Homer never did say they were one-eyed. And here's another example, from Scandinavia, north western Europe:

Here's one with a full face, from Teotihuacán, Mexico:

And just to show how widespread the phenomenon of 'goggle eyes' was in ancient times, here's one found carved into a cave wall, said to be of the creator god, on Easter Island, one of the remotest in the world, in the Pacific Ocean:

Then there's this example from Ireland, in western Europe:

How about one from Nazca in the western part of South America?:

And finally one of the so-called winged god of the Chimu, in ancient Peru, South America:

I suggest this widespread recognition of the power and strange eyes of the Immortals developed later into what is the so-called archaic Ionic capital or cap on pillars in ancient Greece. Here's one from the temple of the goddess Artemis:

Our question was: why were the Immortals represented by the ancient Egyptians with creature heads, and we might add, why did the Bible tell us in Exodus that Moses could not see Yhwh's face, and why did Hagar in Genesis express amazement that she lived after seeing an Immortal? I suggest it was because the eyes of the Immortals were strangely different and inhuman. They may have even been harmful to humans. A possible alternative is that the Immortals wanted humans to think this, to keep humans away with their unwashed state and diseases, yet have them working as farmers providing the Immortals with the best of the human produce (first fruits and first borns). Only a very few chosen humans became the personal servants (the priests) of the Immortals. Whatever the reason, I think we have seen good evidence almost worldwide to show that the beings which Homer called the Immortals, and some call the ancient gods and goddesses, had eyes that were so different as to cause a long-lasting impression on the human race. In the next chapter we'll begin considering the strange implements these beings carried with them.

HOME PAGE