- Bob Dylan And The Sign Of The Cross Parts I and II
- Bob Dylan and the Sign of the Cross Parts III and IV
Now when I was just a bawling runt I saw what I wanted to be And it's all for the sake Of that I should be (Bob Dylan: Sign On The Cross)
Right from the get-go, singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan refers to the mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans; sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely.
Sun-God Apollo encourages the Trojan hero Hector to attack the Greek ships; said it is that the Greek princess Helen possesses the face that sinks a thousand ships:
So spake he, and bade Terror and Rout To harness his horses And himself did don his shining armour (Homer: Illiad, chapter xv ~ translated)
In the song lyrics below, Caesar, a follower of the chief God Jupiter from whose head Athena bursts, is on his way to conquer Rome:
I can feel the Holy Spirit inside And see the light that freedom gives I believe it's within the reach of every man who lives And the dying sun was going down And the night was coming along (Bob Dylan: Crossing The Rubicon ~ variant)
The theme that history, whether on the micro-, or on the macro-level, depends upon individuals seizing the right moment to act before Hegel’s Athena asserts that it’s too late:
Because later on you might find the door You might want to enter But of course the door might be closed (Bob Dylan: Sign On The Cross)
So it is with modern Disco dancers ~ they have the Goddess of Love to thank; the Dionysian dancers become like Mars, the God of War, the mythological lover of Venus.
As in the following song lyrics:
Your gaze got a hold on me My god this feeling just won't quit I'm in the right, just get out of my face And I'll tear the roof straight down to the floor (Mikael Johansson: Hot Nights)
Indeed there are those among us who insist that Disco will return yet again because the sign on the cross says so.
To wit:
“Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Disco”