The Lost Sinners
by Larry Fyffe
(B)ut remember - it's like the boogie man told the cantaur when the cantaur invaded the territory of the Giant Mother Geese "you don't have to be around those people" (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
Ancient Greek mythology informs us that “centaurs” are half-human and half-horse.
At a party celebrating the marriage of Cronus and Rhea, they get drunk and assault the women, including the bride.
They end up being driven from their nice mountain home.
Nevertheless, Bob Dylan, a contrarian to the core, hangs around with the strange characters from ancient Greek stories, and nursery rhymes by Mother Goose:
Little Boy Blue come blow your horn The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn What! Is that the way you mind your sheep Under the haystack fast asleep
Cronus swallows his children, including Hades, Hera, and Poseidon. The Titan god swallows them because he fears that he’s going to be overthrown by the upstart Olympians.
Rhea, the Giant Mother Goddess of the Titans, consort and sister of the father of time Cornus, saves Zeus from being swallowed. He gives his father Cornus a drug which causes him to regurgitate the swallowed siblings.
Zeus leads the revolt against the Titans. The Olympians defeat them. Rhea joins her progeny, and the god of thunder, atop the clouds that cover Mount Olympus.
In the following song, Bob Dylan combines a biblical story with Mother Goose. Jesus is compared to the little shepherd who falls asleep. Christ is not available when He’s needed to round up lost sinners. His crucified body lies in a locked tomb.
Martha, his cook, waits for Him to blow His horn:
Ring them bells Sweet Martha for the poor man's son Ring them bells so the world will know that God is one Oh the shepherd is asleep where the willows weep And mountains are filled with lost sheep (Bob Dylan: Ring Them Bells)
In the song below, the persona taken on by the singer is a sheep that’s wandered away from the protector of the fold.
The stray sheep comes up with a Darwinian excuse for its wayward behaviour:
Temptation's not an easy thing Adam given the devil reign Because he sinned, I got no choice It run in my vein (Bob Dylan: Pressing On)
The song quoted beneath gets mentioned by Bob Dylan.
The wayward sheep say they are just little, and didn’t know any better. They ask for mercy from the Almighty One:
We're poor little lambs who have lost our way Baa, baa, baa We're little black sheep who have gone astray Baa, baa, baa Gentlemen songsters off on a spree Damned from here to Eternity God have mercy on such as we Baa, baa, baa (Bing Crosby with chorus: The Wiffenpoof Song
~ Galloway/Minnigerode/Pomeroy/Kipling)