1. |
Dithyramb (Invocation)
01:33
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2. |
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An arduous path awaits
Through narrowest of roads
The quest to find the wisest
Uttered by the mouth of Apollo
I will soon receive daemonic inspiration
Kissed by the lips of the Sibyl
I continue my journey:
What does fate have in store for me?
eroto entos arete
“xero oti den xero tipota”
I seek Apollo
I seek the rites of Dionysos
Inspiration, Action from Apollo
Infernal Wisdom of Dionysos
I, exiled from Athens
Endured the return of the sophist
Which set me on my path
To find the wisest of men
I have been through woods
Over mountains, hills and bogs
Still I press on
Multitudes will be there to seek
The Ambiguous One
In the distance
From the hills of Mount Parnassus
I see the pneuma rise
This is the way to Delphi
A test of will and of strength
Only the wisest of questions
Will remain
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3. |
The Cave of Gaia
03:41
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In Gamelion, I arrived
-before the start of Apollo’s yearly reign
Only moments outside of Delphi,
I became aware to hear the maenads sing
I saw and smelt the blood of Python slain
Trickling out of the Gaian Cave
I was once told there were those
Who were sufficed with appearances
Symbols have become a substitute
For the forms that they represent
There are appearances and forms
There are limits to our knowledge
Question nothing or Question everything
What is a justified true belief?
On the hills of Parnassus
A vision came to be
The lovers of wisdom under attack
Death the seekers would drink
The task that must be dealt:
To learn future wisdoms fate.
I realized Gaia had too left this place
-On to the next level of understanding…
I was once told there were those
Who could not leave the cave
I followed the maenads to the mountains
And I knew myself through the vine
Enter Dionysos
On the hills of Parnassus
Know thyself—know thy place!
Surety brings ruin!
Nothing in excess!
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4. |
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[Solo 1: Domico]
[Solo 2: Giordano]
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5. |
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Apollo is a musician
And Pythia his instrument
In this magnificent pagan house of holiness
Fate approves of my mission, goats tremble
Now I prepare my sacrifice
For Zeus and his sons
On this day
I walk “The Sacred Way”
Purified by waters steep
Ignited by fires deep
The mission for the wise
Pythia will agree
Wise is ‘he’.
I fall in line with the rest of the supplicants
Near the place where Zeus cast his stone
They have also travelled miles to consult the oracle
What do they know?
My time to enter the adyton has come
Next in line to be chosen
The Python odor pours over me
I watch the pneuma rise far beyond the soil
(1:55
Solo: Lydia)
I approach the curtain, veiled
What secrets lie beyond?
What answers now await me?
Are they in the realm of poetry or philosophy?
For as Homer says: “Many lies tells the poet”.
There, seated on the tripod
Pythia awaits in wonder
Her priests surround her
And begin to murmur to me:
What is your question?
She is both young and old
She transcends pedestrian beauty
She glows in her own power
The most mysterious figure
In the Delphic Temple
Pythia—I beseech you:
Who is the wisest?
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6. |
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As I waited for my answer:
The Pythia lunged out of her seat
Pointed her figure toward the sky
Inhaled the fragrant pneuma
And Became enraptured in ecstasy
The vapors thickly engulfed her
As she whispered her question
And closed her eyes
The Priests wrote down this vision
In their book of lies
All the while they stood in awe
As she collected herself
And began to recite:
“What do you know of Wisdom, Warrior?
Do you think it can be bought?
Even our pagan gods know not all the answers…
What can man know in their shadow?
I stood deep in thought
Drew inward, as my words could not express
Wisdom, as she saw it to be
Her cryptic lines infect my mind
In Hexameter verses, her wisdom disperses
As she came down
I knew who she meant
The Priests wrote down his name
On the tablet
I knew the name, I knew of his infamy
Foundations enormous weighed upon me
But also a victory!
“There is one that pesters like a gadfly
There is one that attacks all dogmatic beliefs
There is one more that claims to lack Wisdom
Wisest is He
Or She”
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7. |
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8. |
Hemlock
05:26
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I, Iconoclast
Challenge your authority
I, Adversarialist
Expose your false beliefs
I’ve swallowed all your poison
I’ve tolerated all your lies
Your shallow words beforehand
Have some hypnotized
You told me you had the answers
I then questioned your beliefs
You wished I would’ve kept silent
But I reduce to absurdity
I don’t belong in your society
Set apart, I drink the hemlock
You accuse me of impiety
For Wisdom, I drink the hemlock
Death
One of two things
Annihilation or migration
We can’t know which
Who cares?
As the time comes to expire, talk ceases.
Like the ones before myself
I die like I fight, with honor
I aspire to the wise, though I have a long way to go
I honor the one who sought Pythia
As they lead the accused-wise to his fate
And death is now embraced
They kill what they do not understand
Now I drink the hemlock
Next in line for hemlock
I refuse to lie among the trampled
I refuse your political programming.
Indoctrination rejected.
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Polemicist Portland, Oregon
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