by J. J. Park
“PSR?”
“It’s a strange dream. I’ll tell you later. Is it already time to get up?”
“Yes. We’re going to be late if we don’t hurry. We go back home today.”
***
Gopan’s mind remained stirred by seeing stars and planets so close and vividly at the space observatory.
“You said something about PSR when we visited the observatory. What was that all about?” Gopan asked one afternoon while they were at the lake fishing.
“Oh, I had a dream about aliens. I was at the waiting station in space. There were bizarre creatures. One of them told me that he was from PSR,” Dyami casually responded.
“That’s an exoplanet. Maybe it’s a sign to try a vision of space. What do you think?” Gopan asked.
“I’ve been thinking about that myself. I was thinking about asking Arion, the winged horse in my vision. We can call upon him to lead us,” Dyami responded.
“That’s a great idea. Just imagine us traveling to the universe on a winged horse. How cool is that!” Gopan exclaimed.
Sometime after this conversation, they went to the plain near their houses for the adventure. Twinkling stars and planets seemed to beckon at them up in the clear night sky. They found Ursa Major and Polaris and dawdled in excitement and apprehension at the unknown awaiting them.
They finally sat on the grass and soaked in the field’s energy, and when they both felt ready, Dyami played three high C notes on the magic pipe, his heart palpitating in anticipation.
The soft sound on the moonlit prairie was a perfect invocation. Arion appeared as he had promised without fanfare and flew upward at lightning speed with two of them on his back.
4
COSMOS: THE CREATOR’S ATELIER
As they flew about 200 miles into space, a spectacular aurora and sunrise appeared. Earth twinkled like a star by illuminating city lights, and the moon became a small crescent silver light in the darkness.
“Look at Earth,” Gopan shouted in awe.
Seemingly unaffected by Gopan’s excitement, Arion continued to fly at lightning speed, and Earth diminished to a small blue globe.
Shortly, Arion flew into the Milky Way Galaxy and interplanetary magnetic field.
Immediately, the supersonic wind blew through litters of cosmic debris and dust. Geysers spewed, and volcanoes erupted in the black and red universe.
Dyami and Gopan became fearful, unprepared for the deadly turbulence.
“No need to fear. This chaos will not touch us,” Arion assured them.
Arion was flying in a different spatial sphere protected by an invisible shield. They breathed a sigh of relief. What they saw from this parallel universe was a violent world devoid of any human sensitivity.
After significant turbulence, a gigantic angry ball of toxic gas and boiling sulfuric acid appeared, yielding nothing but harmful carbon dioxide.
“What is that deadly thing,” Dyami asked, pointing at the fiery ball of gas.
“Venus,“ Arion answered, passing it quickly.
“What? That’s Venus? The bright morning light in the eastern sky?” Dyami couldn’t believe the transformation of the planet he admired from afar.
Letting Dyami digest his surprise, Arion continued and passed the severely scarred Mercury wrapped in a whipping magnetic tornado.
Far away, the sun, the lethal yet life-giving star, a massive sea of gas, 10,000 degrees of heat, melted and molded electromagnetic gas into a loop. Twisted magnetic fields poked through its surface.
Arion kept flying through vast desolation. Finally, a red planet, Mars, appeared, severely cratered by ancient volcanoes, dead now billions of years, only visited by blinding dusty winds.
“Can you imagine living in that desolate and cold desert? It seems volcanoes sucked the life out of it,” Dyami said.
“They found underground water on Mars. There might be life there,” Gopan injected.
“But what type of life, microbes? I can’t imagine having a relationship with them. Can you?” Dyami asked, not expecting answers, continued,
“Look around. There is nothing but debris and toxic gas out here. It’s enough to convert an atheist. I can’t imagine that Earth’s life-giving condition was a lucky aberration,” Dyami ended his philosophical reflection.
Gopan was too busy trying to find a rover on Mars to respond to Dyami’s musings. He continued the search but could not find it.
“I hoped to see a rover exploring life on Mars,” Gopan said, disappointed.
They passed Mars and traveled further through more stardust and volcanic eruptions, eventually arriving at a gigantic ball of swirling gases and liquid.
“That must be Jupiter! A gas giant! Look at those colorful stripes and swirls!” Gopan exclaimed.
“What’s that large red spot?” Dyami asked.
“It’s a violent storm raging within the planet. It’s called ‘The Great Red Spot,’” Gopan answered.
Spinning gas and ferocious winds swirled around the massive ball that emitted devastating radiation into the atmosphere. Wrapped in cold and windswept ammonia clouds, Jupiter was indeed a planet giant. It was the only planet fittingly named so far. Its numerous moons circled.
“Look, Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon,” Dyami shouted, pointing.
“Over there, Europa. It’s frozen solid. I feel cold just looking at it,” Gopan said, looking at numerous ice ridges covering Europa.
“There’s another. How many moons does Jupiter have?” Dyami asked.
“53 and still more to be discovered,” Gopan said. He knew a lot about planets.
While they were counting Jupiter’s moons, Arion continued through litters of space. After some time, another giant ball of gas came into view with spectacular rings of incomparable beauty.
It was Saturn, the most beautiful planet that they have seen so far. Arrayed in thousands of loops and stripes of colliding and breaking ice and rocks, it dazzled through the clouds and storms.
Titan, its largest moon, massive cold liquid natural gas, had forms of the river, lake, and ocean on its surface.
“Saturn should have been named Venus. It certainly would hold its name,” remarked Gopan.
***
After passing Saturn, the atmosphere became even colder to the extreme. Eerie blue and green Uranus appeared, followed by tilted Neptune, a swirling liquid of ice blue methane gas. The supersonic wind blew around the blue planet.
The dwarf Pluto followed, and soon after, they left the Milky Way solar bubble into interstellar space, leaving the solar wind and magnetic field behind.
Immediately they encountered numerous icy particles drifting in the darkness, and the strange, frightening howls of space pierced their ears. Their surroundings all at once had altered from violent chaos into a shrieking, eerily dark, frozen world.
“Whoa! Spooky,” Gopan shivered.
The shrieks intensified and lessened at intervals. Dead stars in the dusty space looked like dense white light bulbs, enveloped in hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen. Only the ghostly specters of dark nebula and jets of grime hovered in the dismal frozen world.
As they searched for something other than drabness, a giant blue and violet cloud of gas and dust appeared, reflecting the nearby star.
“Look!” Dyami pointed.
“Witch Head Nebula,” Arion said.
“Wow, it’s eerily beautiful!” Gopan said.
Its witch-like shape was rather frightful in the dark space, still blue, and the violet color was dazzling, giving their eyes a respite from the gloom.
Far away in intergalactic space, a supernova collapsed into a black hole. The vast cloud of dust swirled in darkness, making gold, silver, and platinum: the cycle of creation repeated itself in the soupy binding obscurity.
“I don’t think we’ll find inhabited planets nor aliens. We should get back,” Gopan remarked, and Dyami agreed. Arion understood them and returned to Earth swiftly and let them off.
***
They t
umbled back to the plain, landing on grass. Moon had moved toward the west, and all was quiet. Both remained silent for a while, dazed and muddled.
“Look at the sky. Can you believe that we were there a few minutes ago?” Gopan said after some time, pointing at the sky.
“I wonder where Arion went,” Dyami said, realizing that he had not said goodbye or thanked him.
“Oh, he is probably somewhere up there in the sky,” Gopan said, then added, “How would you describe the universe?”
“I would say the Universe is a contradiction; terrifying but interesting; full and empty; barren yet life-giving, and we’re just minuscule subatomic particles in it,” Dyami answered.
“That’s formidable. For me, the Universe seems a massive soupy place where creation continues. The Creator’s atelier,” Gopan said.
“I wonder why the names of planets are after Roman pagan gods instead of Greek Olympian gods. After all, we think about Greece when it comes to the myth. I am biased on account of Arion.”
“Yeah, I think our next destination should be ancient Greece,” Gopan suggested.
“That’s an excellent idea. We can again call out to Arion. I think he would like that,” Dyami said.
The next day, they convened at teepee with Kuruk and elder Taza. The latter had not been well lately. He lacked the energy and vigor he once had. After all, he lived almost a century, a long life, full of conflicts.
“You boys are growing up more and more each time I see you,” Taza commented.
“Where have you been this time?” Grandfather questioned directly.
“We have been to space, outside our solar system,” Dyami said, and the two elders looked at him blankly.
“In other words, we went far out to space where the sun and other stars were born,” Dyami added.
“That’s astonishing. Were you in a spacesuit?” Grandfather asked.
“No, apparently we didn’t need one. Arion flew through the parallel Universe. Do you remember the winged horse I told you about from my last vision?” Dyami asked, then continued,
“It seemed an invisible shield was protecting us. The deadly surroundings did not touch us.”
“And what was it like?” Taza asked.
“We saw planets, galaxies, and more. Space is beyond what anyone can imagine. It is fearsome and deadly yet strangely beautiful and awe-inspiring. It made us feel so small, yet important and significant at the same time,” Dyami responded.
“Small yet significant? Those are good words. What made you say that?” Taza commented.
“Universe is immense and barren, only occupied by cosmic debris and other dead planets and stars. We realized how special Earth is,” Dyami continued.
“Yes, we realized how precious and invaluable every living and breathing being on this earth is,” Gopan added.
“That includes even the detestable people,” Gopan said, remembering two elders’ sentiments and feelings about white settlers.
“That is a mighty lesson you came away with,” Grandfather said.
Afterward, the two elders became pensive. The two young men left them whom they loved dearly to their reflection.
***
One sunny morning after the trip to the universe, Dyami and Gopan set out to the forest to the oak to bask in the wood, taking advantage of the nice weather. Summer was winding down, and they wanted to make the best of the rest of it.
The forest brimmed over with activities; squirrels busied themselves gathering acorns; wood duck chicks ran after waddling mother duck; a bluebird pair courted on ash branches.
“How about a trip to ancient Greece now? It’s a beautiful day to try it,” Gopan said when they arrived at the old oak.
“Why not. I have the flute with me,” Dyami said, lifting the flute he carried with him whenever he went to the wood and sat down on the cushiony fallen leaves under the oak; Gopan sat down next to him.
They sat unstirred, reflecting and absorbing the surrounding energy. The forest became quiet as if holding its breath in anticipation of their visional journey.
After some time, Dyami played three high C notes on the flute; it sent a soft musical sound throughout the woods. Soon they soared into the blue sky on Arion’s back. Thus the meaningful vision to ancient Greece took place.
5
AGORA AND OLYMPIA
“All I know is that I know nothing.” - Socrates
Arion was happy to be in his mythical birthplace. The first place he flew over was Mt. Olympus, the home of Olympian gods. Various wildflowers and plants covered its impressive peaks and gorges.
“Do you think somehow we could see Olympian gods?” Dyami asked Arion.
“Which particular god do you have in mind?” Arion asked.
“I am fascinated by Apollo and infant Hermes’ story,” Dyami answered, recalling the amusing story of two gods.
They immediately saw Apollo taking the infant Hermes to Zeus, sitting on the throne in his gold and black marble palace on Mt. Olympus. They saw amused Zeus laughing and ordering Hermes to return the cattle.
“Can you imagine a day old Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle?” Dyami said.
“It’s hard to imagine in human terms, but how did it go?” Gopan asked.
To answer Gopan, Arion flew over Mt. Olympus to a fragrant, luxurious cave on Mount Cyllene. A day-old infant Hermes sat on his cradle blanket playing the tortoiseshell lyre he made when he was barely a half-day old.
Earlier, he stole cattle from Apollo and hid them. Apollo, the god of prophecy, discovers the culprit and arrives at the cave to demand his animals back. The baby Hermes plays innocent and denies stealing the cattle, hence Zeus’s trial at his palace.
“Did he return the cattle?” Gopan asked.
“Apollo and Hermes worked it out between themselves. Apollo liked the tortoiseshell lyre Hermes made. He exchanged cattle for the lyre,” Arion joined in and explained the adventure of baby Hermes.
“You mean the famous lyre Apollo plays?” Gopan asked.
While the two amused themselves with the entertaining story of Olympian gods, Arion flew over to Olympia.
“I’ll let you off here to explore,” Arion said.
“What should or must we do here?” Gopan asked Arion.
“You can see the Olympic Games going on now. The game is in honor of Zeus. You can also visit the Temple of Zeus. The Statue of Zeus is one of Seven Wonders of the world,” Arion said, then took off like the wind instructing them to call him when they had enough Olympia.
Olympia was a bustling town, crammed with people who came to see the Olympic Games. The Jostling shouting crowds and the heat were weary and enervating.
Nonetheless, they continued to the Olympic Stadium, where the fierce competition was in progress. The best young athletes in Greece gathered there to compete.
Sculpted and oiled muscular bodies glistened under the blue sky.
“Wow, look at them,” Gopan said with admiration.
“They look like sculptures,” Dyami marveled at their beauty.
“I am sure they work out every day,” Gopan, who also worked out at home, said.
They saw marathon runners exerting themselves on the track to outrun others toward the finishing line in the stadium. The crowd cheered and shouted.
Then, they headed toward the famed Temple of Zeus to see the temple as well as the wrestling held near it. As they approached the temple, its thin marbled roof gleamed under the sun from a distance.
Outside the temple, wrestlers competed in a sandy pit. One wrestler strangled the other, and his competitor held onto his pinky finger, eventually breaking it. The game ended, and the winner was the pinky-breaker according to the rules of the game.
Afterward, they walked nearer to the façade and saw the depiction of mythical war Centauromachy on the West Pediment. Apollo was pointing at Lapiths, interpreted as a gesture showing his favor toward humanity.
When they entered the vestibule to the inner chamber, immediately, their eyes
captured Zeus’s gigantic gold and ivory Statue, standing in all its splendor. The majestic figure sat on the throne of ivory, ebony, and gold. He held his sacred emblem, a marvelously sculptured eagle, in his left hand, and a small statue of Nike, Greek Goddess of Victory, in the right.
They stood in awe, fixated in front of the Statue, in admiration of the sculptor’s handiwork. After some time, though, they remembered Arion saying to call on him. Dyami played the flute at a quiet corner near the temple, and Arion came silently and took them to Athens.
“Where have you been, and what have you been doing?” Dyami asked in curiosity.
“O, here and there, Pegasus and Unicorn,” Arion said mysteriously.
“Would you be around while we explore Agora?” Gopan asked.
“When you finish, you may use your flute to return, but don’t hesitate to call if you need help,” Arion said, letting them off at Agora.
They were among a group of young men listening to their teacher. Brightly colored cloaks draped them as was the ancient Greek vestment custom. The teacher had a snub-nose and protruding eyes. They recognized Socrates, having seen his picture in the textbook. They listened to the discourse, and surprisingly to their delight, they understood.
Socrates posed a theoretical question on immortality to young men:
“What is immortality?”
“What do you mean by immortality?”
“To live, continuing through eternity.”
“Nothing lives eternally.”
“Nothing? How can you be sure?”
“We know all living things die.”
“The body dies, but there is more than the body in life.”
“Do you mean soul?”
“Yes, but there is more, such as morality or virtue. Do you think such a value system is eternal?”
Men continued their discussion, and Dyami and Gopan left them to see the rest of Agora.
They walked through the bustling crowd in the marketplace and felt its energy and vitality. There were various activities in every corner of Agora.
In the center, a large group of people listened intently to the local council’s public announcement, and inside the portico, a group of people discussed politics.