I don't think anyone's picked up on it yet, but here it is. This song is Dido and Aeneas. There are nearly direct quotes from the Aeneid in here. I would know, too, I translated four books of it. For those of you not knowing this classic, lemme give you all a brief synopsis. Aeneas is a survivor of Troy, he's prophecised to go and find a city, but Juno is trying to stop him. Along the way, after Juno tosses him over the seas with a storm, Aeneas winds up shipwrecked in Carthage, where the Phoenician Dido is buildng a city. Dido is a strong woman leader, she has escaped her brother Pygmalion, after he killed her husband Sychaeus. Dido is not supposed to marry again, but after hearing the lost Trojan King's story, she falls in love. He stays there wiith her, they fall in love and spend a night in a cave avoiding a storm, and begin to live together. The gods step in at this point, and Aeneas, in order to fulfill the prophecy, must leave to go found a city. He is "led by fate", a phrase repeated in the Aeneid, and he would be punished by the gods for not leaving. She is heart-broken and begs him to stay. When he does not, she begins to plan her suicide. Her suicide happens in the center of the city, where she runs herself through with Aeneas's sword, then lays upon a funeral pyre, burning, and dies.
Now to the lyric. "What ravages of spirit/ conjured this temptuous rage" is right our of book 1 of the Aeneid. It talks about the anger of the spirits and the fate of the man, Aeneas. "And fate has led you through it" is there as well, "fato profugus," in latin. "Apparitions of your soul" is something that happens in the Aeneid, after Aeneas leaves dido, and she dreams him. "trying to escape this desire" surely refers to Dido longing for Aeneas and trying to forget him. The verse beginning with "a glowing ember" is one of the parts that really convinces me. They talk about Dido burning as if embers inside of her were hot and burning with this desire for him (that's partially the gods doing) and it also foreshadows her death upon the pyre.
That's what this song is, a love song and a suicide song.
Yes, That's right. I remember reading some of the Aeneid after watching the play once many, many years ago. I've seen a screen play recently and some of the lines were repeated. "....conjured this temptuous rage" was quoted as "tempestuous" rather than "temptuous" but yes I'll go along with that.
Yes, That's right. I remember reading some of the Aeneid after watching the play once many, many years ago. I've seen a screen play recently and some of the lines were repeated. "....conjured this temptuous rage" was quoted as "tempestuous" rather than "temptuous" but yes I'll go along with that.
I don't think anyone's picked up on it yet, but here it is. This song is Dido and Aeneas. There are nearly direct quotes from the Aeneid in here. I would know, too, I translated four books of it. For those of you not knowing this classic, lemme give you all a brief synopsis. Aeneas is a survivor of Troy, he's prophecised to go and find a city, but Juno is trying to stop him. Along the way, after Juno tosses him over the seas with a storm, Aeneas winds up shipwrecked in Carthage, where the Phoenician Dido is buildng a city. Dido is a strong woman leader, she has escaped her brother Pygmalion, after he killed her husband Sychaeus. Dido is not supposed to marry again, but after hearing the lost Trojan King's story, she falls in love. He stays there wiith her, they fall in love and spend a night in a cave avoiding a storm, and begin to live together. The gods step in at this point, and Aeneas, in order to fulfill the prophecy, must leave to go found a city. He is "led by fate", a phrase repeated in the Aeneid, and he would be punished by the gods for not leaving. She is heart-broken and begs him to stay. When he does not, she begins to plan her suicide. Her suicide happens in the center of the city, where she runs herself through with Aeneas's sword, then lays upon a funeral pyre, burning, and dies.
Now to the lyric. "What ravages of spirit/ conjured this temptuous rage" is right our of book 1 of the Aeneid. It talks about the anger of the spirits and the fate of the man, Aeneas. "And fate has led you through it" is there as well, "fato profugus," in latin. "Apparitions of your soul" is something that happens in the Aeneid, after Aeneas leaves dido, and she dreams him. "trying to escape this desire" surely refers to Dido longing for Aeneas and trying to forget him. The verse beginning with "a glowing ember" is one of the parts that really convinces me. They talk about Dido burning as if embers inside of her were hot and burning with this desire for him (that's partially the gods doing) and it also foreshadows her death upon the pyre.
That's what this song is, a love song and a suicide song.
Wow, thanks for this. I like to relate songs to something real. Like what the artist actually intended the song to mean, or something similar.
Wow, thanks for this. I like to relate songs to something real. Like what the artist actually intended the song to mean, or something similar.
Yes, That's right. I remember reading some of the Aeneid after watching the play once many, many years ago. I've seen a screen play recently and some of the lines were repeated. "....conjured this temptuous rage" was quoted as "tempestuous" rather than "temptuous" but yes I'll go along with that.
Yes, That's right. I remember reading some of the Aeneid after watching the play once many, many years ago. I've seen a screen play recently and some of the lines were repeated. "....conjured this temptuous rage" was quoted as "tempestuous" rather than "temptuous" but yes I'll go along with that.