Beyond the Gods
Once upon a time, above the vast ocean waves and over the rainforest dew, beyond the heavenly planets and past the light of the moon, there was a magnificent kingdom which harboured amazing power: Pantheios; kingdom of the Gods.
The kingdom of Pantheios was populated with Gods galore. There was the God of the seas Hydrathon, the God of fire Pyroniter and the God of the stars and the sun Aurora, and so on and so on. Each God had its own particular niche, but all gods were indeed the creators of the Universe. Again and again, they recreated the grains of sand and the drops of rain. Triumphant! Powerful! Unbeatable!
However, there is more than just the Universe. Lots more! And despite the fact that the Gods could move the tallest mountains, part the deepest seas or spin the gigantic planets with merely the sleight of their hand they could not answer humanities most simplest question; "Why?" [Soft Break][Soft Break]Why am I here? Why am I am human and not a Lion? Why does the sun appear small and big at the same time? Why does Aristotle think I am beautiful and Plato not? Why is love deemed good and hate bad? These questions could not be answered by merely pointing to some physical thing in the world. For every answer the Gods gave another question followed, and then another. It was hopeless. These were what the Gods called philosophical questions, questions that could not be answered with the eyes, if at all.
And so, it was often, that the Gods did not create again and again, the stars and the sun, the mountains and seas, but sat thinking, or arguing among each other about such questions of beauty, of morality or of life. And whilst they did, time worked against them. Holes appeared in the universe, planets decayed, and humans cried out as the natural order of things was thrown off balance as some of the Gods created and others stayed thinking.
In what appeared to be the middle of no where, in utter darkness, one could see a slither of light, tall and narrow escape form a page of black. Disguised in the absence of things, a door led to where the gods meet.
"Booom!" the strip of light quivered. "A king is needed to rule over the people Demos!" Pyroniter
shouted, slamming his fist on the majestic table.
"But why Pyroniter, can the humans not rule themselves? Why do they need someone to tell
them what to do?" Demos reasonably argued.
"Because you made the humans imperfect Demos! You are a fool!"
"Now now Pyroniter, if people are imperfect, then so is the king and what use is an imperfect
king? I am no fool Pyroniter, you are just short tempered."
"Short tempered! Short tempered!? We have been here for over one thousand years you long
winded fool. I've had enough of you Demos! I am going to ignite planet earth and watch it
burn!"
"Don't be so rash Pyroniter. Even if the humans are gone the question still remains, forever
unless we answer it."
"They will die soon anyway when the sun, the stars and the water are gone because I,
Hydrathon and Aurora stay here with you, and these problems you have created, these people.
We have argued much, we have listened much and I am tired."
And then a quiet Hydrathon who had been listening for quite some time said this.
"What if we put it to a vote?"
"A vote Hydrathon whatever do you mean?" Aurora questioned.
"It is quite simple Aurora. Either we think the humans need a king or we think the humans do not
need a king. If you think the humans need a king then wazzle your inhilomar if you think the
humans do not need a king then shnoogle your grokinfider."
“But how do we decide who is right?" Demos asked.
"Well Demos we are all Gods and so it
simply cannot be that two Gods are wrong and one is right. So whoever out of you, Pyroniter
and Aurora is the only one who thinks so then that God must be wrong."
And so they put it to the test and they took a vote. Pyroniter wazzled its inhilomar as did Aurora, but Demos shnoogled its grokinfider.
That's it then, but as Hydrathon was about to champion Aurora and Pyroniter as the winner Mons God of the Mountains and Dimensio god of extension came.
"Oh no not you Dimensio." Aurora whined.
One time Dimensio sat thinking about the problem of beauty and what it is for so long the whole Universe shrank into a tiny point and so he and Pyroniter had to make it pop out again in a huge explosion. There was a ringing all around for ages afterward.
And so the gods created the philosopher
By Ellese Elliott
