The Resignation of the Oracle of Zeus
Question the God(s)? Why not?
The power of the spoken word or spoken image.
Story behind the song
The Greek oracles might be considered as what we would call mediums, they were a means of communication. But a Greek oracle only spoke for one deity rather than a multitude such as Zeus here. This is titled ‘Resignation’ which can be considered to have the dual meaning of the word. One meaning is ‘acceptance’, while the other meaning would be ‘to give up a post.’ Both apply in this piece.
The minor details might make sense, but it does help to know that Helen of Troy was created by the impregnation of Leda by Zeus in the form of a swan. Helen was ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’ because she was indirectly responsible for the Trojan War.
The story is complex. Paris was given the task of deciding a beauty contest between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. He selected Aphrodite (she had promised him the beautiful Helen , wife of Menelaus). Paris abducted Helen from Menelaus taking her to Troy, which led to the Trojan War. From mythology, some might know that the gods took sides in the conflict and in particular Zeus’s wife Hera, having been slighted in the selection, worked against Troy.
There is another facet of the story many might not know which is that Zeus is given a much greater influence and interest in this outcome. Cronus was Zeus’s father and tried to having him killed because a prophecy had stated Cronus would be overthrown by one his children. But there was also a prophecy that Zeus would be overthrown by one of his hero offspring (his bastard children from the impregnation of human women). There is a suggestion that Zeus created Helen deliberately to lead to the Trojan War because it would bring about the death of many of his hero children and thus prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled.
The point in this piece is that God(s) do not conduct themselves out of any god-like purity but for selfish or even unknowable reasons as in the case of Zeus. The prayer goes to god(s), but there is an indifference on the receiving end to our sufferings and fate. The oracle will return messages from the gods to questions posed to the oracle for communication to the gods. The oracle would more often than not return cryptic and baffling responses that could be open to interpretation. In reality, for oracles to avoid blame for giving leaders false advice on conflicts and wars, they avoided the obvious ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to preserve their own lives. In this case, our oracle has no clue to the meaning of the messages being passed through the oracular process and thus ascribes a meaninglessness or callousness to the actions of god(s).
Lyrics
God the eagle, God the bull,
God the oak, the thunderbolt,
Hera’s husband, Zeus majestic,
Your bastards wander o’er the Earth,
God of man you’ve left forsaken
Spare me now your visitations.
Enough trouble here without your grace,
Spare me now your blinding face.
You were Leda’s swan.
She bore you Helen;
The Trojan War
You cast with her face
To cleanse the Earth
Of your hero children;
Let thousands die
To secure your place.
Years I’ve spoken the words you’ve bidden
Cryptic chants and empty verse.
I’ve come to know through your self-possession
You care not at all
For our lives , … your curse.
Larry, you obviously did the most homework of any of us. A moving story very aptly portrayed in the lyrics and such beautiful music. You really "shined" on this challenge. I wish there were more stars to give you! Closest thing I got is astericks. Imagine they are extra stars! *********************************************