Legends and myths about giants abound in most races and cultures. In the Old Testament, Gen. 6:4 states, “There were giants [nephilim] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Greek mythology had the Cyclops, as well as the Titans of Mt. Olympus. The Norse, German and Eastern mythologies also have similar creatures.

Helena P. BLAVATSKY, in her The Secret Doctrine, affirms the factual existence of giants in history. She adduces several reasons for considering such an allegation:

a. Existence of fossil bones of giants. Blavatsky cites that while the science of her time still did not validate the existence of bones of giants, she mentions various reports of such fossils, even among well-known personages such as Tertullian, Philostratus, Pliny, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Homer, Plutarch, etc., some of whom saw the bones themselves.

b. Traditions and legends — Blavatsky regards the myths and legends of various cultures as not entirely fictitious but based on facts. Examples are the Danavas and Daityas of the Hindus; the Rakshasas of Ceylon; the Titans and Cyclops of the Greeks; and the Emims, Og, and Anakim of the Jews.

c. Relics of civilizations — there exists today colossal statues in the Easter Islands and Afghanistan (the Bamian statues) whom Blavatsky said were the relics of the giants before. She stated that the Bamian statues, the tallest of which is 173 feet high, and which were destroyed in 2001 by the fundamentalist Taliban government, depicted the sizes of human beings in the different root races. The stones of Stonehenge, Carnac and West Hoadley were also mentioned as evidences that those who arranged them were themselves huge to be able to move stones as heavy as 500 tons.

d. Biological reversion — Blavatsky takes the existence of extremely tall people today as examples of biological reversion to earlier types. She quotes Darwin who wrote that when different types of animals are cross-bred, they “always betray a tendency to revert to the original type” (SD II:277).

e. Esoteric teachings — using her own sources, Blavatsky states that esoteric teachings affirm that the earlier root races of humans were of such heights that we would consider them as giants, particularly the Atlanteans. The reported skeletons in the mounds of America that measures up to 11 feet high, are, if true, those of the early 5th root race humanity. The Easter Island statues belong to the 4th root race. Humanity, she says, will eventually revert back to its gigantic stature in accordance with the law of cycles (CW XIII:134).

V.H.C.

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