I LOVE a good alien movie!
Strange and eerie otherworldly beings from distant worlds.
But where does this come from and how has the way we depict ‘Extraterrestrials’ changed throughout history?
So join me for tour, all the way from Angels to Xenomorph queens!
(A THREAD)
Aliens are beings, that come from a world other than our own. Whilst spirit worlds, other realms and mythical lands have been popular in all human cultures, beings didn’t come from ‘space’ as the very concept of other planets and solar systems did not yet exist.
Still, in many ways the first aliens were the monsters at the edge of maps; The sea's horizon in the 15th Century would be very much like the dark night sky to us. Both were impossible to navigate and full of strange life. Mermaids and ‘Here Be Dragons’ are the original ETs.
That being said the sun, moon and stars have long been the source of stories, as these are celestial bodies that are easily visible to all cultures.
Examples include the moon rabbit of Chinese mythology, or the moon god Khonsu in egyptian theology. Both lived in or on the moon.
As early as 200CE we see the sun and moon as homes for people.
The work ‘A True Story’ by Lucien of Samosata, arguably the oldest science fiction, has the protagonist travel to the moon, where moon people and sun people are at war over the morning star (Venus).
