To have a view on aliens and whether or not they exist, you have to believe in outer space in general and other planets beyond our own. So, what does this mean for ancient civilizations? How did they view outer space, the stars, and the objects that we today would refer to as unidentified aerial phenomena (unidentified anomalous phenomenon/UAPs)?
It’s all about how they viewed the universe in general, says Marcus Harmes, an associate director of research at the University of Southern Queensland, whose research is focused on the cultural history of education and popular culture.
“If you believe in aliens, then you have to have a belief in the possibilities of other worlds,” says Harmes.
It’s also important to note that we only have the views of the most elite members of society because they were the only individuals at the time who could read and write and, therefore, leave their opinions behind for us to read thousands of years later.
Read More: How Did Our Fascination With Alien Abductions and Flying Saucers Transpire?
The Most Dominant Ancient Thinkers
Harmes says that the most dominant ancient thinkers, Plato and Aristotle, both had views that made it impossible to believe that other planets or worlds could have existed. Aristotle said, for example, that Earth was the center of gravity and that it was the only center.
“These schools of thought made it impossible to imagine other worlds,” says Harmes.
Other Greek thinkers wrote about their perspectives on other worlds as well. Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher who died in A.D. 428, thought that the sun was a “mass of red-hot metal” and that the moon and stars were fiery stones. The moon, he wrote, could have life on it. He was later exiled for his heretical views, which included presumed life in the mountains of the moon.
Anaxagoras wouldn’t have viewed aliens as otherworldly beings that weren’t like humans. Instead, it was a view that “men and beasts,” just like those on Earth, would also live on other planets.
“If there are aliens, they’re going to be aliens, but just like us, so they’re not actually aliens,” says Harmes.
Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher who died in 270 B.C., also theorized that there could be other planets like our own, with humans and beasts like us living on them.
Ancients Looking Up Into the Sky
The Roman historian Livy referred to unidentified objects as a “spectacle of ships gleamed in the sky." It's not clear what Livy saw in the sky when he was speculating, whether it was a meteor or some other unexplained object.
Often, when the ancients looked up and saw unexplained things in the sky, they would have seen them as religious omens, depending on the prevailing religious views of the time. If they were seen just before a major battle, then they were somehow a sign from the skies as to who would prevail.
“These were thought of as celestial signs of fate,” says Harmes.
Thinkers like Anaxagoras and Epicurus looked out into the sky and saw the stars, which is why they thought there had to be something in addition to our planet. Still, it would take centuries for scientists to really look beyond Earth. It was not until the 1500s that Copernicus started publishing about the fact that Earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around.
Without this understanding, it’s difficult to start speculating about outer space or that there might be other planets that could have life on them. We take for granted all that science has taught us about outer space; without it, it would be hard to look beyond the planet on which we live.
Read More: King Tut's Extraterrestrial Dagger Has A New Origin Story
Article Sources:
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Anaxagoras
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Epicurus
The Conversation. Chariots of the gods, ships in the sky: how unidentified aerial phenomena left their mark in ancient cultures
Britannica. Nicolaus Copernicus
Sara Novak is a science journalist based in South Carolina. In addition to writing for Discover, her work appears in Scientific American, Popular Science, New Scientist, Sierra Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, and many more. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. She's also a candidate for a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University, (expected graduation 2023).
