Sometime during 100AD, three men from Greece named Asclepius, Heracles and Peruses, decided to circumnavigate the world by sea, in the eastern direction. Each of these men was prodigious in their own respective ways.

Asclepius was wise and a natural leader, Heracles was strong and courageous, whilst Peruses was extremely intelligent and humorous. What they had in common though was the spirit of adventure. Their plans included three major destinations: The Middle East, Japan and North America, before coming back to their starting point in Athens.

They stocked up food, water and travel supplies for the voyage. The major obstacle they had was finding a ship that would last the long voyage. Asclepius found a large, abandoned and broken wooden vessel near the shore in Athens. When he informed Heracles and Peruses about this discovery, they all got to work, with Peruses using his intelligence to get the building materials, Asclepius using his wisdom to plan to rebuild the vehicle, and Heracles utilising his strength for the workload. It took them just over a week to fix the ship, which they named ‘Derigonavis’, or ‘the navigating ship’.

It took two weeks for them to reach one of the major ports in Ancient Babylon. They decided to stock up on some essential supplies, for which they had to cross a sandy desert to reach the marketplace. On the way back, whilst crossing the desert, they encountered a giant serpent. The deadly beast was gleaming red, with metal-like scales and poison-green eyes. They all could tell that it was very hostile.

Asclepius told Heracles to use his strength and sword (the Greeks always brought a weapon with them for protection). Asclepius could tell the serpent was going to attack. Just as the serpent bared its large fangs and was about to eat Peruses, Heracles took out his sword, jumped at the snake and sliced its head off. Once done with this hurdle, the three adventurers headed back to the ship.

After four weeks, the men arrived at a port in Japan. There they took some assistance from a local to make their way towards the town. What they failed to observe was that the person was a sorcerer who was leading them towards a forest. By the time they had walked some distance into the woodlands, it dawned on them that they were lost. They kept hearing sounds, mentioning horrible things to scare them, and even the trees seemed to be repeating the same messages which made the environment frightening.

But the three Greeks had tremendous will power and courage, with Peruses quickly catching on that there was a pattern to the sounds and it seemed that the sorcerer was trying to get them deeper into the forest to eventually trap them. They decided to go after the voice and after what seemed like forever, they reached the wizard.

It was horrible-looking and seemed blood-thirsty, with pale white skin, rolled up eyes, messy black hair and reptilian like scales coming out of its shoulder plates. Before it could do anything, Heracles, being the courageous and strong one, took hold of the sorcerer’s neck and snapped it. The sorcerer fell, but quickly began reanimating itself. Asclepius could tell that the brain was controlling the reanimation, so he looked towards Heracles and signalled to him to crush his head. Heracles crushed the magician’s head with his foot, after which there was a mess across the floor.

They decided to head back to the ship without going into town. They managed to get out of the forest and luckily, on their way out, they found a lake with freshwater. They filled their water supplies and returned to their ship to continue their journey.

Crossing the Pacific Ocean from Japan to reach the western shores of North America took another four weeks. There they encountered some Red Indians, who seemed hostile at first but eased up after they realised these guys did not intend to attack them.

The major obstacle they did face was in the shape of a ten-foot grizzly bear that possibly came from the mountainous countryside. Asclepius took the lead and the three of them intelligently pushed the bear back with a series of moves that involved ganging up on the creature, all the time trying their best not to hurt the animal. The bear eventually went away and the adventurers then got some wood to take to the ship for repairs.

Next up was their navigation through the straits of Mexico, towards the Atlantic Ocean. As they were midway between North America and Europe, the ocean started sucking them with force. They saw a giant landmass, which was not there a moment ago and had no existence on any map, followed by the appearance of a person in front of their ship.

It was Poseidon, the Greek sea god, who asked them about their adventures. Peruses engaged him in some witty talk and entertained everyone with humour, which made the sea god happy. Poseidon then made the oceans calm again and allowed them to go ahead with their journey towards the coast of the Mediterranean.

Their friendly interaction with Poseidon annoyed Zeus, the Greek god of sky and lightning, so he sent a huge storm and led them towards a deserted island.

The travellers got off their ship to take shelter on the island, and soon Zeus threw a lightning bolt on their ship that destroyed it and the supplies in the vessel. They had reached so close to home, yet now they were stuck for good on the island. Zeus did, however, eventually realise the grit and spirit of the three travellers and accordingly told Hermes, god of travels, to rebuild their ship and place it as a constellation amongst the stars in the sky.

Nothing was ever heard of the three Greeks again, but they remained embedded as an emblem of courage, wisdom and wit, for all future travellers.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 4th, 2020