The Prodigal Son is drawn from an ancient parable of the Particle Sun which was actually very insightful and shows that long dead societies knew more than we realized even if their science wasn’t fully developed. I explained it here a while back and you might be able to find it. I’ll summarize:
The best way to describe light for the ancients was as a concentrated force residing within the sun. They theorized that not all of the sun’s energy was concentrated on Earth but that much of it went elsewhere. When some of this light missed the Earth it was destined to be gone forever……but……some small percentage…..a few particles….bounced off other nearby objects, primarily planets. These planets, of course, do not generate their own light. That light came from the sun but was only a small portion of the whole. Mars, for instance, could not be given credit although it seemed to shine in the night sky. These particles of light that bounced off Mars and allowed us to see it became known as the particle sun. They had passed Earth by and yet returned. You can see how the Prodigal Sun is an offshoot of this.
At some point we came to “know” that light is not made of particles, but of waves, then it became unclear again and really isn’t completely understood even to this day. It is an example of how ancient wisdom holds up over long periods sometimes even if inexact. The Bible did a good job of taking this ancient parable and applying it to the human condition, so call Frank the Prodigal Son is appropriate but the Particle Sun is the origin and also applies.