The music on this web site was created by Vangelis, as art of a longer
composition that he calls "Mythodea: Music for NASA's Mars
Odyssey Mission."
Mars Odyssey team members wanted to know more, so we asked
Vangelis a few questions about his personal connection to Mars and music.
Have you always been inspired by space, as you are by music?
Mythology, science, space exploration, these are subjects that have
fascinated me since my early childhood. And they were always
connected somehow with the music I write.
I understand the world through music and I believe that music shapes
the universe. Mankind has always had a sense of wonder about
space, has always been curious. It's something that's implanted
in us. It's natural to want to travel and discover. It is, always has
been, and is always going to be like this. We are space.
What fascinates you most about Mars exploration?
The stars and the planets have interested people for millennia, and
Mars in particular. It doesn't matter what each one of us believes
about it -- Mars has always held for mankind a sense of mystery,
legend and intrigue. And man's persistence to reach, to explore
Mars, to find the much anticipated traces of life there, despite the
many difficulties and set-backs incurred in trying, this persistence
is amazing.
What connections do you draw between your music, the Mars
Odyssey mission, and Odyssey -- the great, epic tale written by Homer?
In Homer's Odyssey, Ulysses is trying to go back to his
homeland. And he goes through different adventures and difficult
times for years and years. So Odyssey seems a good name for
NASA's Mars Mission, because it has been and is still an extremely
difficult adventure.
You call your music for the Mars Odyssey mission:
"Mythodea." Where does that name come from?
I made up the name Mythodea from the words myth and ode.
And I felt in it a kind of shared or common path with NASA's current
exploration of the planet. Whatever we use as a key; music,
mythology, science, mathematics, astronomy,we are all working to
decode the mystery of creation, searching for ourdeepest roots.
And whatever we find on Mars, the doors will be open to the next
Odyssey, to something so many have instinctually felt for so long,
something which through music I remember -- that at the dawn of
creation the seeds of life were likely scattered far and wide across the
endless skies, and that science will continue to show us how we are
connected, no different than the universe itself.