| Tori Amos – Smokey Joe Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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To expand a little more on what everyone else has said: Because Clitorides represents the Greek goddess Persephone, Smokey Joe most likely represents Hades, or death himself. "You through black ice / at the bottom of the river" enhances this allusion as a river of black ice is very possibly the river Styx, known to separate the living world from the dead. Hades stole Persephone from the living and, according to some stories, was raped by him. Her mother, Demeter, caused the world to go barren until her daughter was returned and that is actually the source of spring and winter in Greek mythology. However, the story of Demeter doesn't really play a part in the song as Pip (personification of Athena) has taken her place. As she is the Goddess of War and of Reason, her siege of rage terrifies her because she must somehow reconcile her rational thought (killing him [the Lord of the Underworld] would cause complications) and her warrior persona. As in many of Tori's songs, the narrator must reconcile identities as every woman must do. As sort of off topic, I love that she uses the sobriquet "Smokey Joe" to refer to Hades. It reminds me of the Disney film "Hercules" when I was younger and Hades had a smokey kind of head. |
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