Greetings,
After making a couple of posts about the historical references used in the Gorean series, I thought it would be something to post here.
The problem I have is that so many people are so quick to judge the Gorean lifestyle as ‘pure fantasy’, even some of my friends who have great interest in history and classical studies dismiss Gor as ‘bad science-fiction’... Well, I want to quash some of those ideas, and replace them with some truths.
I will try to write this post in ‘basic’ terms, that is, that not a lot of background knowledge is needed other than what I supply here. This is because everyone has a different level of historical knowledge, and I don’t want this to go over anyone’s head. If you do miss something, or have any questions – as always, feel free to contact me via CM or Fetlife.
The issue is there is so much to write about, where to start? Where to end?!
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Okay, let me do the logical thing and start at the beginning. The basics. John Norman wrote a series of books called the Gorean saga, this was set mainly on a world known as ‘Gor’ or ‘Counter-Earth’.
“As he spoke, my father often referred to the planet Gor as the Counter-Earth, taking the name from the writings of the Pythagoreans who had first speculated on the existence of such a body.” – Tarnsman, Pg. 16
“Oddly enough, one of the expressions in the tongue of Gor for our sun was Lar-Torvis, which means The Central Fire, another Pythagorean expression, except that it had not been, as I understand it, originally used by the Pythagoreans to refer to the sun but to another body.” – Tarnsman, Pg. 16
The Historical Facts: Pythagoras of Samos was (as expected) born in Samos in 569BC, and is best known as a mathematician. His ‘followers’ were dubbed ‘Pythagoreans,’ and it was considered a very secretive group of people. One of the few things known about the Pythagoreans is their idea of a ‘counter-Earth’. Being mathematicians, Pythagoreans decided everything could be factored down into the numbers one, two, three and four; added together, they make ten. The idea that ‘ten’ was the ‘perfect’ number is the basis for most of the Pythagorean theories.
They believed there had to be ten ‘bodies’ in the sky – but they could only find and see nine. This gave birth to the theory of a ‘counter-Earth’. The answer? An equal but opposite of our Earth, a ‘balance’ to counteract the Earths movement in the grand scheme of things (much like one must put two identical weights on a scale to make them balance, the Earth must have its own ‘counter weight’).
This is supported by the mention in Tarnsman of Gor of the ‘Sun Shield’ (the reason we cannot see the counter Earth), another part of the Pythagorean theory. The Sun Shield was also dubbed the ‘Central Fire’.
So, the term ‘Gor’ and ‘Gorean’ come from the terms ‘PythaGORas’ and ‘PythaGOREANs’. And the ideal of a ‘counter-Earth’ stems from the theories of these mysterious Greek mathematicians and philosophers.
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The story starts; Tarl Cabot(of Bristol) finds a letter, and boards a spacecraft which whisks him away to a ‘new’ world where he meets his father, Matthew Cabot
**The Historical Facts:** John Cabot was an Italian, born in 1451 that moved to England to start his career as an ‘explorer’. This meant he flew under the English Flag and with the permission of the English Monarchy.
In 1497, John Cabot, who is often mistaken for Christopher Columbus, was the captain of the first ship (after the Vikings) to ‘discover the new world’: America (North America), purely by accident as he was actually trying to find a western route to Asia, like many of his fellow explorers.
This voyage led him from his home port of Bristol, England, with just a single ship and only a handful of crew. The relatively light and agile ship was called ‘The Matthew’.
Although the location of the landing of The Matthew in America is widely debated, it is stated by the Canadian and British governments that the location was “Cape Bonavista”, Newfoundland.
John Cabot’s son, Sebastian Cabot, made a similar voyage in 1508. But it is unclear as to whether he was following his father’s voyage, or looking for another location (perhaps the North-West passage).
I don’t know of any historical references for the name ‘Tarl’, so if anyone knows any, I’d be interested to hear about it.
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The ‘Gods’ of Gor are the Priest-Kings. In the books they are giant bug-like creatures which lead many to believe they have no historical influence. However...
**The Historical Facts:** The term ‘Priest-King’ appears to have come from about 3500 B.C. and from the Sumerian city-states.The Sumerian cities were run by priests, as the general view was that the land was actually ‘owned’ by the Gods and Goddesses and the priests spoke for those Gods and Goddesses and how they wanted the land divided or used by the people. It was considered ‘only right’ that the people who could speak to the Gods should be able to rule. They were called the ‘Ensi’ (which, given my limited reading, I presume to mean ‘Priest’ of some sort).
These ‘Ensi’ were assisted by a council of free men (normally the elders of the city), much like the Ubar of a city has his assistants in the Gorean novels.
During times of war, the Ensi were replaced by a military leader. Many military leaders were known as ‘Lugal’, and after periods of war, some military leaders didn’t return power to the priests and became kings. They were then referred to as ‘Ensi-Lugal’, kings, military leaders and religious leaders.
The Priest-Kings on Gor were also kings, military leaders and religious leaders. They were the kings of Gor. They were often prayed to before and after wars or skirmishes which leads me to believe they were considered to have some kind of influence over military movement and campaigns, and they were considered the ‘Gods’ of Gor, the religious head of Gor almost universally (minus the few number of people who were Sun worshippers, as mentioned in Tarnsman of Gor)
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Of course, this is just the first part of the first book only three small points (!), the amount of references and obscure links to our own history in the entire series can only truly be found by being John Norman, or reading the books repeatedly.
I won’t be going into such detail with every book, as I don’t know enough about history to do it justice and I’ve been told it would be more of a ‘shortcut’ for those who are wanting a ‘quick way’ into the Gorean lifestyle.
So my best advice is to read the books, and see what connections you, yourself, make. And when you do, I’d be interested (curious) to hear about the links you’ve made.
I wish you well,
kamira.