Originally Posted by tanya

Terrific guesses, Jay!! You were correct on two of them, and taught me something in the process! Wonderful.

In L'Autre Monde: ou les États et Empires de la Lune, published in 1657, Cyrano travels to the moon using rockets powered by firecrackers and meets the inhabitants.

That's a great guess, Jay, however, Cyrano was writing about the terrestrial moon, not the moons of Mars.

No, the correct answer here, was Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels, written in 1726, in which the author describes, relatively accurately, the two moons of Mars, first observed by telescope in 1877 by USA astronomer Asaph Hall.

It is really question number two, that represents the point of this apparently foolish exercise.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Here is where we find out who are the mice, and who are the men, (and women) of this forum.

How many brilliant minds have discussed countless topics of interest here on BC&H, without realizing that the second century science fiction author, Lucian of Samosata, (not to be confused with the third century instructor of Arius, Lucian of Antioch, born in Samosata!) had written stories, derived from Homer, and others, about extraterrestrials fighting (on our moon) to gain control of Venus? What is of interest, here at BC&H is that this science fiction author, second century Lucian of Samosata, ALSO wrote about Christianity:

Baron Munchhausen, Jay, represents a very good guess, since he did describe traveling to the moon on a canon ball.
Later, his name was changed, at least in the English speaking world, to Munchausen, and a famous syndrome in psychiatry, is named in his honor.

Yes, Micromegas, published in 1752, by Voltaire, is the novel about a giant extraterrestrial visitor from the star, Sirius, in our own galaxy, visiting Saturn.

Yes, you are correct, H.G. Wells published a story about Martians invading earth, in 1898, but the question remains, is he a relative of our own, G.A. Wells, famous "mythicist"?

Well, the main point here, was to attempt to respond to Andrew's posts, by illustrating that it is relatively unreliable to draw conclusions about chronological sequence of original ideas, based upon works of fiction.