"A plausible scenario would have an initially dark, cold proto-Venus, pulled by Jupiter’s gravity from the outer solar system shortly before 2500 B.C., pass close to Jupiter, then manage to escape its gravitational field. We can term this the Peripheral Passage (PP) of Jupiter by Venus, and we can assume that extreme tidal forces from Jupiter’s gravitational field created tremendous heating and released a great deal of light that would have been visible to observers on Earth."
"This could account for the curious stories of the ancient Greeks, that Athena (Venus -- eventually Aphrodite replaced Athena in this role) was born from the head of Zeus (Jupiter), and of the ancient Hindus, that Shukra (Venus) emerged from the mouth of Shiva (Guru or Jupiter)."
"According to Greek myth, Zeus swallowed the pregnant Metis ... She gave birth to Athena inside of him, and then Athena emerged from his head -- on the opposite side from his mouth. In effect, at least one ancient Greek observer spotted proto-Venus when it approached Jupiter as tidal friction heated it up to incandescence, and the Greeks called it Metis."
"Velikovsky seems to have been unaware of the Metis myth and thus he misinterpreted the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus myth to mean that Venus had been explosively expelled from Jupiter itself. His scientific critics rightly considered that bizarre and unacceptable, so his reputation suffered and his other valuable contributions were ignored."
"This proto-Venus would have been large and dense enough to maintain its integrity in the gravitational, magnetic, and thermal environment of Jupiter, though its surface would melt and some would be shorn off and become its giant tail, and the entire planet could have become molten. This Venus would possess a set of elements different from those of Jupiter itself. This scenario would also resolve the paradox that Venus is old (the proto-Venus) and yet its surface features appear young (shaped by its PP experience)."
"The Peripheral Passage explanation would overcome the three chief objections -- escape velocity, elemental composition, and heat generation -- to the assertion of Velikovsky that Venus emerged as a comet from Jupiter. The issue of the Jovian origin of Venus has been one of the main criticisms of Velikovsky’s theories in general (it was #1 on astronomer Carl Sagan’s list) as well as a key reason for denying validity to ancient accounts, many in mythic form, as sources of astronomical, climatic, and geological information. These objections held particular importance because the whole theory depended on the reported emergence of a comet-like Venus from Jupiter, which seemed outlandish and not credible to critics."
"Now that this emergence can be seen to have a commonsensical, scientifically plausible explanation, the credibility of the ancient observers -- who after all were eyewitnesses -- must rise accordingly, and therefore their other stories must be examined more carefully as potential sources of important information."
"The story of Metis constitutes precious evidence that, correctly interpreted, could have significantly changed the course and outcome of the Velikovsky controversy. It also ties into a more general theory of the terrestrial planets of which an appropriately modified version of Velikovsky’s theory forms part."
"Curiously, PP could also account for the two specific roles that Jupiter played in ancient myth: as father of the gods (such passages of various initially invisible celestial bodies near or touching Jupiter could have been viewed as births) and as hurler of thunderbolts (the energy generated by Jupiter’s active processes could have caused gigantic lightning bolts visible from Earth to leap onto objects passing nearby)."
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