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What Is The Oldest Reference To The Catlike Lyran Extraterrestrials?

packshaud

packshaud

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Title says all. Through a Wikipedia binge, I found a book called The Wanderer, written by Fritz Leiber and published in 1964. This book mentions catlike extraterrestrials, and I'm wondering if it helped to create Lyrans (the botched report of Kenneth Arnold's UFO sighting, published by Associated Press, that led to flying saucer sightings later is well known).
 
Which version of "Lyrans" are you referring to? There have been multiple alleged ET species called "Lyran". I don't recall any of them being described as cat-like.

There's also the Lyran category of "star seed" humans / beings / souls, which as far as I know only dates back as far as the emergence of New Age stuff in the 1970s.
 
Weren't there various cat like species in Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry and van Rijn stories from the late 50s onwards?
 
packshaud said:
Title says all. Through a Wikipedia binge, I found a book called The Wanderer, written by Fritz Leiber and published in 1964. This book mentions catlike extraterrestrials, and I'm wondering if it helped to create Lyrans (the botched report of Kenneth Arnold's UFO sighting, published by Associated Press, that led to flying saucer sightings later is well known).
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When I saw the title of the thread the first thing I thought of was C.J. Cheryh who wrote some sci fi books about cat like people. I don't remember where they were from though.
 
Tunn11 said:
Weren't there various cat like species in Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry and van Rijn stories from the late 50s onwards?
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Yes, there were ... One cat-like species was called the Cynthians, and there was a character named (or called) Cynthia. The Cynthians were described as smaller than humans with features akin to cats and lemurs. I don't recall whether the Cynthians were an intelligent and / or spacefaring species.

I think there were other species with feline characteristics in Anderson's stories (particularly his Technic series), but it's been a very long time since I read any of them. Also, the stories have been re-published and anthologized so much I don't know what their chronology may have been.
 
JahaRa said:
When I saw the title of the thread the first thing I thought of was C.J. Cheryh who wrote some sci fi books about cat like people. I don't remember where they were from though.
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Yes - Cherryh wrote about feline species (e.g., the Hani from the Chanur series). However, Cherryh didn't publish any fiction until her first novel in the mid-1970s.
 
After confusing googling of lyrans it seems to have something to do with something called starseed. I don't recall anything about actual reports of feline aliens (although it seems almost inconceivable that there aren't any), but they're unusually common in science fiction, as cat people are in fantasy. I'm reminded of the Kilrathi in Wing Commander. Perhaps they keep popping up in popular culture because of some racial memory. Perhaps it's just because we know cats will inherit the Earth.
 
EnolaGaia said:
Which version of "Lyrans" are you referring to? There have been multiple alleged ET species called "Lyran". I don't recall any of them being described as cat-like.

There's also the Lyran category of "star seed" humans / beings / souls, which as far as I know only dates back as far as the emergence of New Age stuff in the 1970s.
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It's a bit annoying to see references of extraterrestrials by their constellations, as if the stars were clustered in the sky also in distance. I asked because if you search for Lyran aliens on Google Images, a lot of results with catlike beings are shown.

Of course there are quite old references...

catlike.jpg


... but this is not exactly what I had in mind.
 
As far as I could tell, there was an upsurge in associations drawn between feline forms and Lyra / "Lyrans" when the "starseed" / "star seed" New Age stuff emerged in the mid-1970s.

As to the frequent choice of Lyra as a point of origin (regardless of species descriptions) ...

For sci-fi writers Lyra would have been of interest / emphasis owing to the fact it contains Vega - one of the brightest stars in the sky, and one located only about 25 light years away.

On a more mythic / folkloric / esoteric note ... Vega was the northern Pole Star at the time Homo sapiens sapiens was completing its spread around the world. It's one of the 3 bright stars (along with Deneb and Altair) comprising the Summer Triangle - aka the Navigator's Triangle. This asterism was an important component in some ancient astrological / seasonal observation schemes as well as visual nighttime orientation.
 
packshaud said:
It's a bit annoying to see references of extraterrestrials by their constellations, as if the stars were clustered in the sky also in distance.
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That's right. Vega (Alpha Lyrae), the closest star in Lyra, is 25 light years away, while Sheliak (Beta Lyrae) is about 960 light years away. As seen from Sheliak, Vega and the Sun are a pair of distant stars close to each other in the sky. An alien from Vega would be a Vegan; an alien from Sheliak would be a Sheliakite or something.

Incidentally, Larry Niven also wrote a story about Beta Lyrae, The Soft Weapon (1967), which includes the Kzin cat-like aliens mentioned above. This was made into an episode of Star Trek TAS, complete with Kzinti.
270px-Slaverweapon.jpg

Maybe this was the start of the catlike alien/Lyran association, although I must admit I've never heard of any such link.
 
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To be fair, the Pleiades are actually clustered. They also are supposedly home to some extraterrestrials, although their young age and spectral class makes complex life extremely unlikely--but hey, that did not stop the space lizards from the American series V (1983 and on) being from Sirius. By the way, I'm going to risk to say that David Icke's books on reptilians were inspired by this series.
 
packshaud said:
To be fair, the Pleiades are actually clustered.
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True, but the Pleiades are not a constellation; they are a cluster in Taurus. There are many other clusters in Taurus, at a wide range of distances - indeed, Taurus is particularly rich in clusters, since it intersects the galactic plane.
 
eburacum said:
True, but the Pleiades are not a constellation; they are a cluster in Taurus. There are many other clusters in Taurus, at a wide range of distances - indeed, Taurus is particularly rich in clusters, since it intersects the galactic plane.
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I know that, but at least there would be some sense in saying Pleiadians. So, I was not sure how to spell this gentilic, and Google gave me this book as the first result:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9655557693
 
There is a Sci-Fi narration that talks about parallel futures as in Dicks " The man in the castle" one, but far crazy. In that parallel reality Nazis have won the war and have turned huge extensions of Europe land to inhabitated wilderness. With the only purpose to use it as private hunting ground, were modified humans are chased for fun. There is a reference to a new created specie of Feline womens, build artificially.
 
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