Text: Fústar
Artist: Q
| « previous | September 24th, 2007Belo Horizonte Cyclops |
next » |
Where: Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
When: August 28, 1963.
Witnesses: Fernando Eustagio (11), Ronaldo Eustagio (9), Marcos (a neighbour).
Introduction
From last week's Triclops we move on to today's Monoclops, or Cyclops as pedants might choose to call it. Cycloptic beings have, of course, a long and distinguished mythical/otherworldly pedigree, so it should come as little surprise that they find themselves included in ufology's vast and colourful bestiary.
Top of the Cycloptic charts is nasty old Polyphemus - he who enjoyed snacking on the crew members of brave Odysseus/Ulysses. It was Ulysses who taught us of the dangers involved in antagonising an already irritable Cyclops - particularly when said Cyclops's father is (God o' the sea) Poseidon. Not content with thrusting a red-hot club of wood into Polyphemus' one good eye (annoying as that was), Ulysses decided to rub salt in the wound by shrieking the following from the deck of his ship (as he fled the Island of the Cyclopes):
Cyclops, if any one asks you who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty, say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.1
Oh dear. A scene straight out of that classic TV show - When Ithacan Kings get Hubristic…
While the Brazilian children involved in today's tale were not quite as reckless, they still didn't exactly greet their one-eyed visitors with open arms.
[My thanks (once again) go to 'Q' for creating the above groovy image for me.]
Event
As with the previous entry, we depend on Gordon Creighton's "The Humanoids of Latin America" to provide us with a fairly detailed version of the encounter:
At 7.50 p.m. on August 28, 1963, three boys who were in their garden in the residential suburb of Familia Sagrada, Belo Horizonte, saw a large transparent luminous sphere float down, with four entitles seated in it. One of these beings emerged and descended to the garden on two beams of brilliant light. He was a tall, slim man, about 2 metres in height, wearing a slightly inflated 'diver's suit' of some material that resembled brown leather, gauntlets, and high black boots. Upon his extremely round and totally bald head the man wore a large round transparent helmet surmounted by a circular object. He appeared to have no ears or nose, his mouth appeared to open in a strange manner, his complexion was a vivid red, and he had only one large brown eye, devoid of any eyebrow.
The man seemed about to touch one of the boys and the eldest boy (aged 12) tried shortly afterwards to throw a brick at the entity when it had its back towards him, but it veered round, shot an orange beam at him from a square lamp on its chest and 'paralysed' the boy's arm, so that he dropped the brick.
The luminous sphere described by the boys as the size of a large room, bore three tall antennae on the top. There were two other men inside it, identical with the one described, and a woman, who had fair hair drawn back in a sort of 'pony-tail' style. The boys only had a full view of the faces of the man who emerged and the one who operated the controls, and both, they say, had only one eye, and the other two appeared no different. All had the vivid red skin,
This case only became widely known in the summer of 1965. Since then, Professor Hiúlvio Brant Aleixo and other investigators have interviewed the boys and the father of two of them, Senhor Alcides Gualberto, have probed the case most deeply, and find no reason to believe that the boys are not telling the truth.2
Thoughts
Some classic narrative details here. The aliens show up, make a move/gesture that's interpreted as hostile (but very well may be intended as chummy), meet with resistance that they counteract with paralysis, and then (presumably) leave.
It all seems rather a lot of fuss for little end product. One can imagine them returning to their home planet (let's call it Cyclopsia) to file their report:
"Well…after very many of our light years our translucent sphere arrived on the Terran's home-world. We attempted to initiate contact with some juvenile Earthlings but met with some casual resistance. One of their number threw a brick at us. At this point we decided to abandon the experiment and set off home. Er…that's about it."
These visitors just don't seem to have any "follow through". The slightest (quite understandable) signs of defensiveness and they reach for the paralysing rays (before zooming off).
I was quite taken with the detail of the fair-haired woman who seemed to be sharing the "luminous sphere" with the Cycloptic entities. Fair-haired woman? Luminous sphere? Now where have I seen that before…
Addendum (25/09/07):
Thanks to "graylien" (see comments) for pointing out that Jacques Vallée has some additional details to offer in his 1988 volume Dimensions. I own the book in question but somehow completely missed the mention.
Vallée names the young chaps who witnessed the "Cyclopes" (see above) and also ups the strangeness ante by describing the peculiar movements of the chief alien protagonist:
He alighted in the garden and walked for twenty feet or so in an odd fashion: his back seemed stiff, his legs were open, and his arms outstretched. He swung his body from left to right as if trying to find his balance and then sat down on a rock.3
There may be a quite prosaic explanation for this curious lurching about of course. The journey from Cyclopsia was no doubt long and arduous, while a modestly-sized (and quite heavily-populated) transparent sphere is no place to do any serious stretching…particularly when you're 2 metres tall. Given the circumstances, I'd suggest that popping oneself down on the nearest rock (and, possibly, sneaking a quick Cyclopian smoke) seems a most sensible option.
Images
Added: September 24th, 2007
Tags: All, Paralysis, Helmet, Giant, 1963, Sphere, Cyclops, Red Skin, Q
Views: 8393
Comments: 2
©2007 edited & written by Fústar, designed by Jess Beeley Byrne
graylien says:
Jacques Vallee covers this case in slightly more detail(including the witnesses' names) on p137-8 of Dimensions. Let me know if you don't have the book and I'll send you a copy of the text.
Fústar says:
graylien,
Many thanks for the tip off/reminder. I have amended the entry accordingly.