THE LOST CIVILIZATION OF HOMO SUPERSAPIENS

A sinuous exploration of ancient texts in an effort to uncover the reality of gods, their lands and the fall of man.

Rogiers attempts to find evidence of a species he has dubbed Homo supersapiens, who resided in the “Land of the Gods” until it was destroyed by “the Universal Soul.” According to the author, that’s the moment when the lesser species Homo sapiens stepped into the void. The book is a pleasurable frolic through the works of the ancient Greeks, Romans, Indians and Germanics as well as a slew of supporting myths, folk tales and fairy tales. Rogiers has found enough commonalities among the stories to be intrigued by the notion that they may have come from a common thread: ages of declining splendor, creatures of extraordinary powers, a great battle and final catastrophe that brought a Golden Age to a thunderous close. “How can I prove my theory?” the author wonders rhetorically. It doesn’t appear that he can. For all the spadework and intelligence Rogiers has brought to finding similarities in the tales, he leaves more holes than he constructs satisfactory bridges. The stories feature disparate names and dates and events that don’t jibe as well as a host of questions. Is the theory of evolution a “party line” or the best available explanation? If supersapiens were super, why did they vanish? (His unhappy conclusion: they degenerated “the moment they began to interbreed with humans,” in another apparent blow to so-called evolution.) Moreover, why shouldn’t various human cultures each fashion a story which is universal to the human condition? While fascinating questions are opened up–for instance, why the emphasis on the whiteness of supersapiens’ skin?–Rogiers leaves more unanswered than answered.

A hodgepodge of uncanny associations and curious theories.