Sepulka

Sepulkas were first mentioned by Lem's interstellar traveller Ijon Tichy during his fourteenth voyage. Lem never explains what they are and what their use is.

The Encyclopaedia Cosmica gives the following definitions:[2]

• Sepulka – pl.: sepulkas, a prominent element of the civilization of Ardrites from the planet of Enteropia; see "Sepulkaria"
• Sepulkaria – sing: sepulkarium, establishments used for sepuling; see "Sepuling"
• Sepuling – an activity of Ardrites from the planet of Enteropia; see "Sepulka"

Although omnipresent in art and commercials of the alien civilisation Tichy visits, discussions of sepulkas is taboo and Tichy's attempts to learn about them are seen by the locals as a faux pas. Eventually Tichy decides to purchase a sepulka, but when asked by a clerk where his wife is he admits he's a bachelor. The clerk and other customers are shocked and appalled by his attempt and Tichy is forced to leave.[3]

In Observation on the Spot it is revealed that the planet Enteropia does not exist and was a camouflage for the planet Entia. Speculations about sepulkas and their "pornosphericity" must be dismissed. It was revealed there that Encyclopaedia Cosmica was a hoax.[3]

Lem's last work, a 2005 essay "Głosy z sieci" ("Voices from the Net"), contained answers to questions from Russian internet users to Lem. Two users wrote that since their childhood they had been bothered what sepulkas were and their pornosphericity. Lem's answer was, "Well, I have no idea myself."[4]

The conclusion of a comparison of two recent Russian biographies of Lem (written in 2014 and 2015) notes that neither lemologist clarified things.[5]

The Fourteenth Voyage of Tichy was rendered as an animation film in the Soviet Union in 1985. Produced by Azerbaijanfilm in Russian language, this 10-minute film was titled From the Diaries of Ijon Tichy. A Voyage to Enteropia (Russian: Из дневников Ийона Тихого. Путешествие на Интеропию).[6] In the film, Tichy acquires a sepulka (an egg-shaped object), but when he tries to board his spaceship (piloted by his friend, professor Tarantoga), he is hit by a meteorite, the plague of Enteropia, and at that moment it is revealed that the purchased egg-shaped object kept his double, the standard remedy against the meteorite kills on Enteropia.[7]

In 1983-1985, the Polish Union of Fans of Science Fiction (Polskie Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Fantastyki) issued the award Golden Sepulka (pl) for works of science fiction.[8]

Sepulcidae is a family of extinct hymenopteran insects found in 1968 in Transbaikalia. It was identified by Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn and named by his colleague and science-fiction author Kirill Eskov.[9]

In 1972 Russian paleontologist Nina Shevyryova (Нина Семёновна Шевырёва (1931-1996) described an extinct rodent Sepulkomys eboretus ("eboretus" is another bow to Lem: "eboret" is a type of public transport on the planet Enteropia visited by Tichy in his "Fourteenth Voyage").[10]

In 2007 Wojciech Orliński published a book Co to są sepulki? Wszystko o Lemie ("What are Sepulki? Everything about Lem").[3]