Myth No More

Wilmington, Delaware in winter always marveled the mind of Pollard Hedrich. Wrapped in brown skin that rivaled the inside of matchbooks, his mind had always been afire. He walked with his friend Tyrell Frankman, the color of charcoal, along a field with a clear path, snow surrounding them.

“I’m just saying that's what was on his back,” Hedrich declared.

“I’m not going to correct you. Just imagine if the heavens replaced the world. Again, not trying to start anything.” Then, they heard a stomping sound. It grew and resembled the rumbling of a freight train. Right before the two students stood the massive figure of Atlas. His muscles strained like tight wires harnessing horses. His straight face looked black against the snow. His overdeveloped calves and trapezius muscles bulged like grapefruits.

In absolute astonishment, the two New Sweden University students stood in awe, their mouths slightly ajar. Atlas came down in the form of a thousand feet of sinew and might and offered a fist bump to the two of them.

“Don’t be alarmed. I will not harm you in any way,” Atlas intoned. His voice seemed gravelly yet clean and firm. “You’ve argued about me lately, huh?”

Hedrich looked at Frankman. “Yes. My friend here says you carried the world on your back,” Hedrich explained with almost too much eloquence. “I say it was the heavens.”

“This is why I’m not correcting you. You’re both wrong. Instead of focusing on what made blood run down my thighs and caused me to grunt throughout the ages, zone in on how I got it all off my back.”

The two men looked at each other in wonder. “How’d you do that?” Frankman asked.

“I shrugged.” Atlas made a small smile crease his face. He looked up at the sky. “I had been so burdened by the weight of everything and one day it just hit me. Let it all go. So, I straightened my back and allowed whatever it was the Earth, the sky, it didn't matter. It had to get off my back,” Atlas explained.

“So what’s going on with the world or the heavens or whatever?” Frankman asked.

“It’s set firmly in reality. Science. I’m a myth for a reason. People had to explain phenomena and when you speak about such mythology, there’s usually punishment involved. Prometheus with the liver; Sisyphus with the stone; I struggled for ages with whatever the hell was on my back. But I beat the ‘gods.’”

“How’d you do that?” Hedrich asked.

“Simple. I just stopped being brought down because of how good I am. Did I mention they’re no gods, either? They’re just what gets passed down through the ages through folklore. What are the major faiths now? Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. All made up. Wholecloth. The whole thing came from people telling stories and actually believing the words that came out of their mouths.”

Hedrich and Frankman stood erect with their breath coiling up towards the sky. With plenty of room Atlas walked around them in a semi-circle, snow kicking up with his every step. The fine particles shimmered in the afternoon light.

“We’re atheists and our girlfriends are, too,” Frankman announced.

“I know. I carried all of your conversations, all of the weight of your petty arguments and minor spats,” Atlas mentioned.

Hedrich put a hand in the air as if to watch it levitate. “Wait, let’s go back to faith. You mean you're validating my disbelief? I stopped believing at seven-years-old.”

Next a wind came and a figure of glowing white skin descended upon them all. She had golden hair tousled in some places, braided in others. She stood just a few feet shorter than her husband, Atlas. Her creamy skin almost blended with the white puffs of snow surrounding them.

“Pleasure to meet you boys. I’m––”

“Hesperis,” Hedrich answered.

“Yes, I was wondering what all the fuss was about down here. My husband likes to come up from Atlantis sometimes. Delaware seems nice. Cold.”

“So you know what we're talking about?” Frankman asked.

She looked down and up again. “You’re discussing whether this Titan of Titans held the Earth or the heavens on his back. Through all his toil and pain, he bore the weight of people who didn’t deserve to be carried aloft.”

Atlas looked at his wife. Heidrich and Frankman picked up their heads.

“It’s all about balance, young men. Once you understand that it doesn’t matter what he held, that he shivered and whatever it was fell to the ground like a stone splashing in the ocean.”

“She’s great, right?” Atlas asked, a small smile curling around his mouth.

“But what I want to know is if it was just a matter of spheres….” Hedrich posited.

“That’s exactly what it was. It was the heavens as known to ancient Greeks during a time period when knowledge of the cosmos was rather scarce. Now with global positioning systems, interplanetary travel, and good old maps, we’ve got the knack,” Atlas asserted.

“Yes, and don’t forget that the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere, much like this bit of mythology. The myth exists on the fringes of reality and inhabits a place that is difficult to touch,” Hesperis further explained.

“You’d never drop her,” Frankman acknowledged.

“Never,” Atlas remarked with a tinge of sadness and absolute strength.

“So, what do we do with this knowledge, and thank you for coming down or is it up from that city that was lost so many eons ago,” Heidrich observed.

“Our home in Atlantis is a place of solitude and unspeakable joy,” Atlas replied.

“For every bit of strife he’s experienced, this great being has withstood it all and come out as leader at last,” Hesperis praised.

“But we still have to settle this misconception,” Frankman put forth. “What was it that you were holding up?”

“It doesn’t really matter. It was the fact I kept carrying the weight for so long. I should’ve never even started. I’m just glad I finished,” Atlas responded wistfully.

“You’ve inspired authors. Miss Ayn Rand referenced you in her magnum opus,” Hedrich offered.

“Hesperis, how many times have you read that novel?” Atlas questioned.

“One thousand, nine hundred, and five times. It’s worth it.”

“Of course. We’re studying it right now,’’ Heidrich replied.

“The historians say that within the myth, I discovered astronomy. Not everyone agrees but that is the consensus.”

“I agree,” Frankman admitted.

“I do, too. It’s just that the issue with the world versus the worlds is intriguing. It’s such a poetic touch to say that you put all of that on your back as punishment. Your pain and anguish for the war against the Olympians…it’s just not just.”

“Why do you think I shrugged?”

“But it wasn’t the Earth but the sky?” Hedrich asked.

“Yes, it was the aforementioned celestial spheres, not the terrestrial ones. But it’s so easy to confuse them with the sculptures and the artwork depicting me holding up the heavens.”

“Can we find some place better than this?” Hedrich asked. “This cold weather is putting a damper on my soul.”

“Let’s go to Atlantis!” Hesperis interjected.

The mythological figures scooped the college men into their hands and departed to the Atlantic Ocean just a few steps away for the gigantic figures.

The descent into the land of plenty and delight awakened the senses within the men. Smiling faces and serious ones, too, engaged in wrestling matches and sipping nectar and spooning ambrosia abounded. Their exploration of this place rested at the throne of both of the deities that brought them there. A glow existed between the two as they took their seats on the throne, fathoms below the surface of the ocean.

“Now, you see the excellence of our home and why we stopped by and brought you here. It certainly is quite a sight, no?” Hesperis beamed.

“From the heavens, to the Earth, to the ocean…you sure have made quite the journey,” Hedrich observed.

“And it’s not over, either. We’re preparing to be enveloped by the rapturous nature of our daughters, the Hesperides. They are Daughters of the Evening. And will put on a great show for you.”

The nymphs graced the two men with their presence, offering golden apples and enticing them with song and dance. Their fanciful dance and wondrous offerings enlivened the guests to the beautiful world at the bottom of the sea.

They then stopped their enchantment and scurried out of sight.

A mortal, a man a few years older than Hedrich and Frankman walked in front of the two of them and the deities.

“It is hereby decreed by Zeus that Atlas return to his perch in the west and hold up the Earth, not the starry sky.” The man left as quickly as he came. And guards for the Olympiades the same size as Atlas and Hesperidis surrounded them. They moved to take control of them but the two remained defiant. They did not allow the guardsmen to take hold of them. Hesperis sobbed almost so that her face looked like cracked porcelain. Atlas walked with the air of a king and the somber gait of a prisoner awaiting death. Hedrich and Frankman yelled unspeakable obscenities at the two guardsmen and ran to obstruct their path.

“It’s okay, gents. The Earth shouldn’t be as bad as the heavens.”

“I will not stand for this at all. It’s bad enough the misconception remains. Now, they're trying to ensure that you hold up the world to prove a point?!” Frankman questioned with emphasis.

“It’s alright. It’s alright. My muscles don’t lead me as far as my mind. I know that I can shake off the Earth, too. It’s all about setting things right.” Hesperis then motioned to summon Lucifer, the Christian mythology figure opposite of her name.

“You’re getting the Devil in on this. Okay, I see your power move Hesperis,” She called him and in dust and fire, Satan himself appeared.” He looked the size of a mortal but showed himself to be a bounty of striking looks and a solid strut that could shock and cajole.

“You called me, Hesperis?” He queried. He wore all white with gold accents and his skin looked like the color of smoke, not quite white nor did it appear black.

“Yes, Devil. You have the power to persuade,” she mentioned. “Get those guards and Zeus to let go of my husband and I will give you a reward.”

“And what’s that?” The Morning Star wished to know.

“You will have the souls of these two men standing before you?”

Hedrich and Frankman looked at each other. They shrugged.

“‘What profits a man to gain the world and lose his soul…?’” Hedrich stated with force. “Frankman, are you ready for this?”

“I’m with it. I'd rather rule in Hell than be a servant in Heaven.”

“Okay. Two souls. Got it,” the Devil made note.

“Now, go free my Atlas from another round of imperceivable pain.”

“Guards! I am the Son of the Morning, I have come to do a favor for this lovely woman in exchange for the souls of these young gentlemen. I can promise you paradise forever by living and never dying. How’s that sound?”

The guards looked at one another quizzically. Atlas had the slightest grin plastered on his face. They looked down and saw the Devil had a similar grin.

“Okay, we can go for that,” the guards let go of their prisoner and Hesperis clung to her husband with an immense embrace. The two young men clapped knowing that their souls would be in the hands of Lucifer for all time.

“It’s only right. We’re both atheists and hell is where they go anyway,” Frankman pointed out.

Lucifer put two fingers to his lips, bowed, and floated away in a blast of fire.

Atlas squatted down on his haunches. Hesperidis looked on with splendor. The college men looked at the Titan.

“Now, you see? Whether it was the sky or the earth, it is a myth no more. We’ve discovered the truth behind the ideal and represent for both interpretations,” he announced. Hesperis clapped with enthusiasm.

Hedrich and Frankman broke into uproarious applause as well.