Around 500 years BC the Hindu epic Ramayana tells the story of the demi-god Jatayu and his brother Sampaati, who had the forms of vultures, and who used to compete as to who could fly higher. One day, Jatayu flew so high that he was about to get seared by sun’s flames. Sampaati saved his brother by spreading his own wings and thus shielding Jatayu from the hot flames. In the process, Sampaati himself got injured and lost his wings and had to live wingless for the rest of his life.
The story of Icarus has a more tragic end. He did not listen his father Daedalus who warned him not to fly too close to the sun. Icarus soared through the sky curiously, and in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted the wax. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. He disappeared into the sea.
Flying remains an incredible sensation. In a Byzantine bas-relief dating to around 500 A.D., riders in baskets suspended from a central pole are shown. I remember flying in one of this carousel when I was a child. It gives an incredible sensation of freedom.
“Fly me to the moon,
And let me sing among the stars,
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars…”