So ... the inevitable happened. Well, not inevitable ... it could have gravitated towards almost anything.
Enter Daphne. Her story morphed from a myth about desire into a metaphor for the struggle of the individual against the gods. Perfect as they are, beautiful as they are, complete as they are, the Gods desire us. They make us sanctified. No matter how hard we try to evade them, to root ourselves in the mundane world, they find ways to break through and cultivate us. (Seriously: once Peneos turned Daphne into a laurel tree, she became sacred to Apollon.) Some may say that the divine powers that animate and move through the world are impersonal and uncaring, but I don't believe that. In a mythological sense, humanity was formed using the Titans' ashes (and, by association, the parts of Zagreus they had consumed). We are simultaneously innocent and destructive, yes, but it makes the Gods our much-more-awesome-and-100%-more-immortal kin. While I cannot say for sure, what if we spark their curiosity as much as they entice us?Exit mystical digression, pursued by a bear. Now let's get to the music.
Thinking about all of these things, I decided to write a song. While I only have the following so far—the main verses have been composed, but I have not yet found a melody—there isn't really enough devotional music on teh Interwebs for people to play with ... so I will share it with you. As I have never encountered a decent virtual editing system for music, I lost patience after a few hours and decided that anyone wanting to sing this would be intelligent enough to divide notes to fit the rhythm in the case of longer lines.
(Pssst! If you click on the image, it gets bigger! How exciting! Also, the earlier painting is “Apollo and Daphne” by ♥ John William Waterhouse ♥, my favorite Pre-Raphaelite.)
2 responses:
Many thanks and blessings for writing this. I can't read music, but the words are beautiful!
Recently I have found myself thinking about this seeming paradox of Gods who suffer and even die. To desire is to suffer - one suffers in not having what one desires. Why would a God >>choose<< to do this? And for "dying" Gods: does their death really "count" since they always come back?
In desiring, suffering and dying the Gods come closer to humans - close enough to touch. Or so it seems to me. And with that touch the "otherness" of the other begins to dissolve. We have also chosen to come down here, to desire, suffer and inevitably die. And we too come back.
"grasping for the warmth of your hand."
You're welcome. :D As I said, this is just the chorus --- I haven't found a melody for the main verses yet.
Personally, I believe that death to the Gods is just another form of suffering, or maybe a way of getting a fresh start. Even after our sun explodes and our world is blasted into oblivion, they will still exist, formless and waiting for new worlds to enter dialogue and "birth" new conceptions of who they are.
An individual human changes more drastically after death ... we are mortal, after all. I doubt that I am the same person from lifetimes ago ... but the psyche is the same. Death terrifies me because, even if we go on, I like my current personality too much to let go of it, and I am deeply concerned about what would happen to my creativity.
I think that our Theoi come close to us as well. The sexual intercourse between humans and gods in the myths seems to indicate that they are close in proximity (although, as women are the recipients more often than men, it would seem that women are meant to be more intimate with God!), as do myths that anchor the gods to physical locations and mortal conflicts.
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