The story of Jason and the Argonauts is one of the most famous in Greek myth, and its development from the oldest layers of Greek mythology down to the modern age encapsulates the dramatic changes in faith, power and culture that Western civilisation has seen over the past three millennia. From the Bronze Age to the Classical Age, from the medieval world to today, the Jason story has been told and retold with new stories, details and meanings. This book explores the epic history of a colourful myth and probes the most ancient origins of the quest for the Golden Fleece - a quest that takes us to the very dawn of Greek religion and its close relationship with Near Eastern peoples and cultures.

Nearly half of all Americans believe in the existence of extraterrestrials, and many are also convinced that aliens have visited earth at some point in history. Included among such popular beliefs is the notion that so-called ancient astronauts (visitors from outer space) were responsible for historical wonders like the pyramids. In The Cult of Alien Gods, author Jason Colavito reveals for the first time that the entire genre of ancient astronaut books is based upon fictional horror stories, whose author once wrote that he never wished to mislead anyone.
In this entertaining and informative book, Colavito traces the origins of the belief in ancient extraterrestrial visitors to the work of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). This amazing tale takes the reader through fifty years of pop culture and pseudoscience highlighting such influential figures and developments as Erich von Daniken (Chariots of the Gods), Graham Hancock (Fingerprints of the Gods), Zecharia Sitchin (Twelfth Planet), and the Raelian Revolution. The astounding and improbable connections among these various characters are revealed, along with the disturbing consequences of Lovecraft's "little joke" for modern science and public knowledge.
Beyond documenting Lovecraft's influence on ancient astronaut theories and Raelian cloning efforts, Colavito also argues that the appeal of such modern myths is a troubling sign in an age when science is having its greatest success. He suggests that at the dawn of the 21st century Western society is witnessing a deep-seated erosion of Enlightenment values that are the basis of the modern world.

The public enjoys considering questions like, did aliens visit ancient civilizations? Could Jesus have fathered a dynasty? Did people of the ancient world visit the Americas centuries before Columbus? Such wonderings have spawned countless books, movies and television series, but very often missing is any actual evidence behind the claims. According to many writers and TV hosts, evidence for ancient astronauts or early transatlantic voyages can be found in ancient texts. But too often sources remain obscure and some writers have altered or fabricated texts to make their case for extraterrestrials and lost civilizations. This book examines more than 130 primary sources texts used to make the case for Atlantis, aliens, fallen angels, the Great Flood, giants, transatlantic voyagers, ancient high technology and many other mysteries. The texts covered reach as far back as ancient Egypt and come from cultures as diverse as Greece, Mexico and China. English translations are presented with explanatory notes showing how these texts have been used and abused to make entertaining claims about prehistory.

Horror fiction stormed the bestseller lists with classics like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, setting the stage for Stephen King's worldwide popularity, but the genre has literary roots going back centuries. This collection provides insight into the way classic horror texts were received, interpreted and discussed by the first generations to experience them, ideas that continue to define the way modern society views horror. Each reprinted article, review or critical essay is prefaced with an introduction and explanatory notes to frame the work in its historical context. The book also includes an overview of horror criticism, publication timeline, and period photographs and illustrations.

Tracing the development of horror entertainment since the late 18th century, this study argues that scientific discovery, technological progress, and knowledge in general have played an unparalleled role in influencing the evolution of horror. Throughout its many subgenres (biological horror, cosmic horror and others) and formats (film, literature, comics), horror records humanity's uneasy relationship with its own ability to reason, understand, and learn. The text first outlines a loose framework defining several distinct periods in horror development, then explores each period sequentially by looking at the scientific and cultural background of the period, its expression in horror literature, and its expression in horror visual and performing arts.

Could the Great Pyramid of Giza be a repository of ancient magical knowledge? Or perhaps evidence of a vanished pre-Ice Age civilization? Misinformation and myths have attached themselves to the Egyptian pyramids since ancient Greece and Rome. While many Americans believe that the pyramids were built by aliens, archaeologists understand that the Giza pyramids were built by the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty around 2450 BCE. So why is there such a disconnect between scholarly opinion and the popular view of Egypt? In The Legends of the Pyramids, Jason Colavito takes us back to Late Antique Egypt, where the replacement of polytheism with Christianity gave rise to local efforts to rewrite the stories of Egyptian history in the image of the Bible. When the Arab conquest absorbed Egypt into the Islamic community, these stories then passed into Islamic historiography and reentered the West. Colavito's The Legends of the Pyramids lays open pop culture's view of Egypt in movies, TV shows, popular books, and New Age beliefs, detailing how the hidden history of Egypt has grown alongside the official history of archaeology and Egyptology.

Say you found that a few dozen people, operating at the highest levels of society, conspired to create a false ancient history of the American continent to promote a religious, white-supremacist agenda in the service of supposedly patriotic ideals. Would you call it fake news? In nineteenth-century America, this was in fact a powerful truth that shaped Manifest Destiny. The Mound Builder Myth is the first book to chronicle the attempt to recast the Native American burial mounds as the work of a lost white race of ""true"" native Americans. Thomas Jefferson's pioneering archaeology concluded that the earthen mounds were the work of Native Americans. In the 1894 report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Cyrus Thomas concurred, drawing on two decades of research. But in the century in between, the lie took hold, with Presidents Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and Abraham Lincoln adding their approval and the Mormon Church among those benefiting. Jason Colavito traces this monumental deception from the farthest reaches of the frontier to the halls of Congress, mapping a century-long conspiracy to fabricate and promote a false ancient history - and enumerating its devastating consequences for contemporary Native people. Built upon primary sources and first-person accounts, the story that The Mound Builder Myth tells is a forgotten chapter of American history - but one that reads like the Da Vinci Code as it plays out at the upper reaches of government, religion, and science. And as far-fetched as it now might seem that a lost white race once ruled prehistoric America, the damage done by this ""ancient"" myth has clear echoes in today's arguments over white nationalism, multiculturalism, ""alternative facts,"" and the role of science and the control of knowledge in public life.

Of all the ancient structures scattered across the globe, Egypt's Great Pyramid, built by the Pharaoh Khufu (also known as Cheops) around 2580-2560 BCE on the desert plateau of Giza, has attracted the most attention from ancient astronaut theorists and alternative historians. By some estimates, more has been written about the Great Pyramid than any other topic in ancient history, excepting only the Bible. The sheer number of odd theories about the pyramid has led archaeologists to label fringe investigators "pyramidiots." There is hardly any modern fringe theory about the Great Pyramid that is not derivative of one in place by 1877, the year James Bonwick wrote the overview of the 47 most popular theories about the pyramid that you are about to read. Thus, the following book is essential reading for understanding the history of pyramid theories and how ancient astronaut theorists and alternative archaeologists employ them.

Did extraterrestrial beings visit our planet in ancient times? That's what the popular cable television program Ancient Aliens: The Series asks viewers to believe. But is it true? Only one book dares to weigh the evidence to find out once and for all if the "ancient astronaut theorists" appearing on Ancient Aliens really know what they're talking about, or if their ideas are lighter than a UFO's tractor beam. What you are about to read is a collection of skeptical xenoarchaeologist Jason Colavito's episode-by-episode reviews and commentaries covering Seasons 3 and 4 of Ancient Aliens. This critical companion examines the specific claims made by ancient astronaut theorists on Ancient Aliens and evaluates them against the scientific, literary, and historical evidence. Did aliens create Bigfoot? Did aliens make a peace treaty with deep sea fish? Ancient astronaut theorists say YES! Read on to find out if they're right...

In "The Call of Cthulhu" (1926), H. P. Lovecraft described a global cult that worshiped the octopus-headed extra-terrestrial god Cthulhu, his minions, and the megalithic undersea city in the Pacific where they rested dead but dreaming until the day of Cthulhu's glorious resurrection. While Lovecraft's undersea monster drew on a number of mythic sources, surprisingly and unbeknownst to Lovecraft, there was a real religion in the Pacific that reproduced with uncanny accuracy the major details of the Cthulhu myth as given in the story. In Samoa the war god took the form of an octopus, lived in a great stone palace called the House of the Octopus, and was periodically reborn in a glorious resurrection. His followers prayed to him for blinding red rage. This book collects five essays on the octopus god of the Pacific and his cult, including the startling details of the real-life Cthulhu cult of the Pacific.

This volume collects a range of early tales from Greco-Roman Antiquity down to the dawn of the Victorian Age that imagine encounters with creatures on or from the moon. These stories span the centuries and come from cultures as far afield as ancient Greece, medieval Japan, early modern Britain, and nineteenth-century America. Each tells an interesting tale of not just of the adventure inherent in encountering moon creatures but also of the cares and concerns of the people who projected their hopes and fears onto the lunar orb. Just as real space exploration had to take small steps to our closest neighbor, the moon, before venturing outward into the vastness of space, so too did science fiction need to start close to home before venturing across the cosmos into the depths of the unknown. Read on, and start retracing that journey across the sands of time and through the depths of space. With tales from Lucian, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Adams Locke, and more...

It is often unacknowledged how deep a debt modern ancient astronaut theorists owe to the nineteenth-century Theosophical movement, a Victorian-era amalgam of Spiritualism, Eastern religions, and good old-fashioned hokum. The Theosophists proposed that beings from Venus and other planets visited earth in the deep past and were responsible for ancient ruins and the foundations of religion. This book presents early texts from noted Theosophists and those who encountered Theosophy, covering the beings from other worlds that came to the ancient earth to "civilize our planet." These texts provide an interesting window into the origins of the modern ancient astronaut theory and demonstrate just how much the talking heads of cable TV and the modern authors of alternative history owe to the pioneering work of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century occultists. This volume features W. Scott-Elliot's complete The Lost Lemuria and H. P. Blavatsky's Stanzas of Dzyan among other selections.