Bob Dylan: Cooking Up More Mythologies

Previously in this series:

By Larry Fyffe

The Holy Bible verse below indicates that the God thereof has both male and female attributes:

So God created man in His own image
In the image of God created He him
Male and female created He them
(Genesis 1:27)

The following song indicates that the God thereof has both a good (god) side, and an evil (devil) side; be the Creator of both Life and  Death:

Already the fiesta has begun
And in the streets, the face of God will appear
With His serpent eyes of obsidian
(Bob Dylan: Romance In Durango ~ Dylan/Levy)

The next lyrics create a figure that’s serpentine:

His eyes were two slits
That would make a snake proud
With the face any painter would paint
As he walked through the the crowd
(Bob Dylan: Angelina)

The Godlike creature is associated with Anubis, the male  Embalmer – albeit the Egyptian deity described beneath is likened to a female:

Worshipping a God
With the body of a woman
Well endowed
And the head of a hyena

(Bob Dylan: Angelina)

In the jolly green valley below, the partner of the giant Goddess  is painted as both heavenly and hellish, even Nazi-like:

I've tried my best to love you
But I can't play this game
Your best friend
And my worst enemy
Is one and the same
(Bob Dylan: Angelina)

Referencing Genesis 1:27, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, Jewish biblical lore presents Lilith as Adam’s first wife; translated into to a ‘screech owl’ in the New Testament (akin to Egyptian mythology in which Ra, the Sun God, is depicted as a “falcon”); Lilith flies out of Eden to Babylon because her male partner is sexually domineering – she, her offspring, portrayed as night demons:

Therefore the wild beasts of the desert
With the wild beasts of the islands
Shall dwell there
And the owls shall dwell therein
And it shall be no more inhabited for ever
Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation
(Jeremiah 50: 39)

The following lyrics, the songster, claws retracted, laments that America is modern Babylon:

The driver peeks out, trying to find one face
In this concrete world full of souls
The angels play on their horns all day
The whole earth in progression seems to pass by
But does anyone hear the music they play
Does anybody even try
(Bob Dylan: Three Angels)

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *