So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
When Joan was burnt
He knew malevolence
At the heart of all
A cold and jagged abyss bled of sense
The throne he earned
Through God's benevolence
Started his own fall
Clothing ragged dogma in his own magnificence
Here the stench, the gold events
The bold inventions of the will
Luxuries and splendors past the ken of mortal men
Every wanton bent desire went fulfilled
[Chorus]
A Daemon sat upon the top of the world
Like a Herod over Genesis
They sang hosannas as his banners unfurled
Kissing terrors with paralysis
His brash canvas insulted the view
Moving heaven and earth to please the
Tumultitudes, whom his strange retinue drew
To assert the thirteenth Caesar
The thirteenth Caesar
Ichor kicked inside his veins
The thirteenth Caesar
War was licked, for shame
The thirteenth Caesar
Sicker, but just as vain
The thirteenth Caesar
Gilles De Rais
When Joan was burnt
He knew malevolence
At the heart of all
He swore henceforth he would serve evil alone
Here the stench, the gold events
The insurrection of his will
Theater and feasts past the ken of mortal men
Every wanton bent desire went fulfilled
[Chorus]
Suetonius and Ovid
Filled the moonstruck dreams
With the purple of Rome
His Venus of arena-blood was dead
And he was storming home
He knew malevolence
At the heart of all
A cold and jagged abyss bled of sense
The throne he earned
Through God's benevolence
Started his own fall
Clothing ragged dogma in his own magnificence
Here the stench, the gold events
The bold inventions of the will
Luxuries and splendors past the ken of mortal men
Every wanton bent desire went fulfilled
[Chorus]
A Daemon sat upon the top of the world
Like a Herod over Genesis
They sang hosannas as his banners unfurled
Kissing terrors with paralysis
His brash canvas insulted the view
Moving heaven and earth to please the
Tumultitudes, whom his strange retinue drew
To assert the thirteenth Caesar
The thirteenth Caesar
Ichor kicked inside his veins
The thirteenth Caesar
War was licked, for shame
The thirteenth Caesar
Sicker, but just as vain
The thirteenth Caesar
Gilles De Rais
When Joan was burnt
He knew malevolence
At the heart of all
He swore henceforth he would serve evil alone
Here the stench, the gold events
The insurrection of his will
Theater and feasts past the ken of mortal men
Every wanton bent desire went fulfilled
[Chorus]
Suetonius and Ovid
Filled the moonstruck dreams
With the purple of Rome
His Venus of arena-blood was dead
And he was storming home
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
In his confession (extracted under the threat of torture) Gilles de Rais claimed that he had been corrupted by reading about the vices of the Roman emperors - Caligula, Nero, Tiberius & that mob - in a book called 'The Twelve Caesars' by Suetonius. So here he becomes the 13th Caesar. Ichor is the blood of the gods - the Roman emperors were deified but only, I believe, on their death.