Journey to the Mythological Inferno

Journey to the Mythological Inferno is a book by Dr. Enrico Mattievich.
The author, Dr. Enrico Mattievich, is a retired professor of physics that taught in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) for more than thirty years. In the book, Dr. Mattievich exposes his thesis about ancient contacts between “Old World” and America, presenting the Greek and Roman texts of classical literature that relate to the knowledge of America, that many historians and geographers have not considered until now.
Some time ago, the writer and archaeologist Henriette Mertz, presents similar theories, suggesting that the legendary voyage by Odysseus and his ship crew, after the Trojan War - narrated in Homer’s “Odyssey” - could well had taken them from the Gibraltar Straits, and across the Atlantic, to North America(1).
She also proposed that the Argonauts could have navigated down to the South Atlantic Ocean, past the mouth of the Amazon River, to Rio de la Plata, and by following it upstream they could have reached Bolivian Altiplano and Thiahuanaco(2). Dr. Christine Pellech also proposed that Odysseus’ voyage to the Kingdom of the Dead was a real trip to Niagara Falls.
PLOT
Over five centuries ago, scholars of the ‘New World’ have been finding surprising parallels between myths, traditions and rites of the people of America, and those of the ‘Old World’. Specialists in pre-history and archaeology now have in their possession sufficient proof of prehistoric visits to America by ocean routes. Ceramic fragments found in Ecuador, beneath deep strata related to the Valdivia civilization, dated 3000 B.C. and identified with the Jamon culture of Japan, are the most ancient proof of visits across the Pacific.
One of those ceramic fragments had the unmistakable shape of a ship. Also, in Ecuador, in the coast site “La Tolita”, skulls that have thin gold pieces in the mouth were found with other funeral remains at the circular mounds known as ‘tolas”. It has been overlooked that it was an ancient Greek custom to place a gold coin -known as obol—under the tongue of the deceased to pay for the trip down the Acheron , and that the Greek world ‘tholos’ is the name given to circular funerary monuments.
On the North Atlantic coast, in addition to the well known archeological sites in Terra Nova that proved the Nordic colonization started by Leif Erikson -at the beginning of the 11th century--, various objects and stone constructions of still older origin were found, together with inscriptions attributed to Celts, Phoenicians, and Libyan navigators, proving that adventurers and navigators had been crossing the Atlantic since some millennia ago.
With the growth of Archeology in the 19th century, in addition to the evidences cited above, several others were increased: on the botanic, artistic and linguistic areas. Recently, the discovery of cocaine in the mouth of Egyptian mummies, as well as tobacco chopped leaves along with other herbs, to prevent putrefaction, in the mummy of the great warrior pharaoh, Ramses II, of the thirteen century B.C., constitute evidence in favor of ancient Greek-Phoenician contact with America. In spite of that, supporters of such early contacts could not counter the main objection of those who doubted these evidences: “Why, then, are there no indications of knowledge of America in the Old World literature?”
In Journey to the Mythological Inferno Dr. Mattievich puts an end to those objections by presenting the classic literary text from the Old World that relate to the knowledge of America.
NOTE
Prior to the publication of the book in Portuguese—in Rio de Janeiro, 1992—Dr. Mattievich presents his preliminary findings in Lima (Peru) to Peruvian archeologists, in a conference at the National Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, on January 24, 1986. Less than three years after its publication, the book was presented in a lecture to the Pan-Macedonian Association of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia, in January 8, 1995, which was followed by an extensive article published four day later in Neos Kosmos, Australia’s largest circulation newspaper in Greek language.
The news report aroused the curiosity of a very important dignitary; Mr. Antonis Nicolaras, Attorney at Law, and at the time President of the Themistokles Association of 5th High School Graduates of Piraeus. Through Mr. Ioannis Neonakis, the Greece’s General Consul in Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Nicolaras proposed the publication of the book in Greece. The Greek language translation has been so well received that it is now on its fifth authorized printing, and some non authorized electronic versions.
The organizers of the first Greek edition, led by Mr. Nicolaras, prepared a three weeks long “Homeric program” beginning on October 6, 1995, with the book launching at the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club of Piraeus; followed by an evening gathering at the National Technical University of Athens, where Dr. Mattievich gave a lecture presenting his thesis of “America’s Discovery by Ancient Greeks”.
Just before the lecture Dr. Mattievich was presented with a generous homage made by Greek authorities; among them, a commemorative plate of the city of Piraeus by its Mayor, Mr. Stelios Logothetis; the Prometheus Medal, grant from University President, Prof. Nikolas Markatos, for “stealing the fire of the gods”; a commemorative watch, presented by Mr. Nicolaras on behalf of the Themistokles Association of 5th High School Graduates of Piraeus; and a bronze Cycladic style statuette, presented by Commodore John Marangondakis, President of the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club of Piraeus, for his contribution to Greek Archeology.
Mr. Nicolaras also promoted the Commission that was to sent to Peru to propose Scientific collaborations in Archeology; thus putting in practice the intents of Mr. Daniel Estrada Perez and Mr. Antonis Tritsis, Mayors of Cusco and Athens, respectively, who under the auspices of UNESCO signed, on September 18, 1991, a cooperation agreement declaring Cusco and Athens to be Sister Cities.
In July 1997, the National Technical University of Athens sent to Peru a commission of three Greek professors, led by Prof. Christos Ftikos, and of which Dr. Mattievich was invited to participate. In Cusco, with the collaboration of Mr. Daniel Estrada, the commission was able to establish a cooperation proposal with the “Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco”.
The thesis presented in “Journey to the Mythological Inferno” claims that the Greek and Roman myths related to the ‘Lower World’, the House of Hades, the Kingdom of the Dead or the Inferno, originated in South America, specifically in the Andean region of Peru, where the ruins of the Palace of Hades and Persephone, mentioned in Hesiod’s “Theogony” -written around 700 B.C.—still stand, known as Chavin de Huantar. This theory took form after his first visit to the archeological site of Chavin de Huantar, in 1981.
The author interest for the archeology of Chavin began when he realized that the labyrinthine structure of the Chavin Palace could have been constructed for acoustic purposes, so as to simulate the ‘sound of the gods’. This sound, along with the frightening appearance of the gods engraved in Chavin Palace, must have caused a terrifying effect.
Since 2008 a collaboration between Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustic (CCRMA) and the Archeology/Anthropology group of the same University, start “The Chavín de Huántar Archaeological Acoustic Project”, whose purpose is to study the acoustic properties of Chavin de Huantar, which may eventually provided scientific proof to the hypothesis -‘the resounding palace’—presented in Mattievich’s book.
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(1) Henriette Mertz, “The Wine Dark Sea” (1964)
(2) Childress, “Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean”, p. 143
(3) Christine Pellech, “Die Odyssee - Eine Antike Weltumseglung” (1983)

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