Songs for Muses

Songs for Muses #9: Helen (It's Not Me)

The LAST installment of Songs for Muses is for the one and only Helen of Troy, also known as the “face that launched a thousand ships.” I was talking to the excellent folks over at Greek Myth Comix and they summed it up well: Helen never gets to tell her own story and is bent to fit whichever side of the Trojan war the author is on. Also, this song is an experiment to see if I can make a song that sounds like the radio. The answer: "maybe, kinda?"

Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and she was the most beautiful woman in the world. The actual #1 most beautifullest. She hatched out of an egg, but that’s another story. When Helen got to marrying age, a bunch of the most powerful Greeks competed to be the one to wed her. The situation was at a standstill, and Odysseus came up with an idea to solve the deadlock: the suitors would draw straws, but before they did, everyone had to swear an oath of loyalty to defend the winner. Menelaus of Sparta was the lucky(?) one, and he and Helen married and went back to Sparta and hung out there for a while.

Later on Mount Olympus, Peleus and Thetis (Achilles’s mom) got hitched. There was a big fancy wedding and all the gods and goddesses were invited, except for Eris, the goddess of Discord. For obvious reasons. She wasn’t great at parties. 

Eris was pretty angry about being snubbed and decided to mess everything up by throwing a golden apple in to the wedding that said “for the fairest” on it. Hera, Athena and Aphrodite were each like “that's mine, duh” and went to Zeus to settle the argument. He knew that would be trouble so he picked out a mortal, the Trojan prince Paris, to do it instead.

Paris was like, “whoa, you guys are all goddesses and each totally perfect” so each goddess laid out a different bribe. Aphrodite’s promise was to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, in exchange for declaring her the winner. So he did. And then he went to claim his prize. Athena and Hera were not psyched. Little did Paris know, he now had a furious Menelaus, a host of loyalty-sworn Greeks AND two pissed-off goddesses gunning for him. The Greeks sailed to attack Troy, and they fought in the Trojan War for TEN YEARS. Wasn’t really fair for Menelaus to be so mad, anyway— he DREW STRAWS for Helen's hand, for heaven’s sake.

Depending on who’s telling the story, Helen either eloped with or was abducted by Paris. Whether or not she fell in love and chose to go with Paris didn't really matter. Either way, it was out of her hands: a goddess promised her to someone, so she had no real say in the matter. (And she didn’t have any say in her marriage to Menelaus in the first place, either). She was treated like a prize, not a person. Then everyone blamed her for causing this mega-war, which was clearly not her fault. And anyway, many modern scholars think if there actually was a Trojan War the whole thing with Helen was probably a ruse and the war was more likely for control over the trade routes to the Black Sea. So there. 

Thanks for listening, folks. It’s been rad. Thinking of doing a Kickstarter to get records made. Keep your eyes peeled!

-Bullfinch

Another beautiful illustration by Anna Cincera

Engineered by John Thayer at Thump Studios, Mixed by John & mixed more (mangled?) by me.

I'd planned to post the ninth and FINAL installment of Songs for Muses today but I'm being a perfectionist so it's going up next week. Happy holidays, happy new year, and stay tuned for the last song!

Songs for Muses #8: Penelope (Still Gone)

This week's muse is Penelope! And this week's song is special because it's recorded and performed with my band, City Mice! It'll be on our first EP, which will probably come out in early 2015. Yay!

Penelope's song is about distance, and the confusion of distance and loss; the vague line between missing and mourning.

Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. Odysseus and Penelope are married and happy and have a new baby son Telemachus but then the Trojan War breaks out and Odysseus has to go do war stuff. Ten years later the Greeks finally win the war and go home, but back in Ithaca there's no sign of Odysseus. Penelope's not sure if he's alive or dead or where he is or what's going on. He'll be busy wandering around for another ten years, doing all the stuff in the Odyssey, trying to get home.

In the meantime, a bunch of suitors show up to Ithaca to try to marry Penelope. Like, 108 of them. She's not into it, and is determined to wait for Odysseus to return. They're very persistent. Penelope devises a plan to stall: she declares that she's going to weave a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father, Laertes, and she'll pick one of the suitors when she's finished. Each day she dutifully weaves, and every night she unravels part of her day's work.

Eventually Odysseus gets back and kills all the suitors and he and Penelope live happily for a long time after.

Next week is the grand finale of Songs for Muses. Stay tuned!

Be sure to check out City Mice, and keep an eye out for our EP! The rest of it is WAY happier-sounding, I swear.

-Bullfinch

PS. It's my birthday!

Songs for Muses #7: Pasiphaë (Bull in a China Shop)

This week's muse is Pasiphaë! Hers is a story of a curse and a crazy love.

Pasiphaë is the wife of Minos, king of Crete. Somehow, this super-awesome white bull shows up on Crete. In some stories, it's because the brothers Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon were competing over who should be the king. Poseidon presented Minos with this amazing white bull from the sea as proof that he should be the king, with the understanding that Minos would sacrifice the bull back to him. In other stories Poseidon just gives Minos the bull for no reason. Or it's just there, chillin, being a bull. Bottom line is Minos is supposed to sacrifice a specific bull to Poseidon but he's all like "what a pretty bull, I want to keep it for myself" and Poseidon is all like "that's what she said" and curses Pasiphaë to fall madly in love/lust with this bull. [Edit, he tells Aphrodite to curse Pasiphaë because love stuff is more her thing].

Pasiphaë is so enamored with the bull that she asks Daedalus, the great artificer, to design her a cow suit so she can "be coupled" with it. Daedalus does as she asks, and Pasiphaë goes ahead with it. She then gives birth to a half-human, half bull: the Minotaur. Then Daedalus has to build a labyrinth for it and a bunch of other mostly-bad Minotaur-related things happen. Pasiphaë knew she shouldn'tve gone for it, and she did anyway. Classic. Who isn't guilty of that, from time to time?

Also, real talk, this tune was like 99% inspired by Britney Spears.

Only 2 more Songs for Muses to go! Stay tuned. -Bullfinch

Songs for Muses #6: Eurydice (Don't Look Back)

This week's song is for Eurydice! Hers is the story that inspired this whole series of songs. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been told and re-told and re-re-told and re-adapted: it's one of the most-referenced Greek myths in Western culture. The story goes, briefly: Orpheus was the best musician in the world (the best mortal one, anyway). He played the lyre, which was apparently the hip instrument in Greek mythology. He charmed all the animals in the forest, and even stones would roll after him to hear him play. He fell in love with Eurydice and they got married, but right after the wedding she stepped on a snake and died. Bummer. Orpheus couldn't bear the loss and went down to the underworld to see if his super-awesome lyre-playing couldn't win him back his beloved Eurydice. Hades and Persephone, the king and queen of the underworld, were so moved by his song that they decided to make one exception just for him. They said that he could have Eurydice back under one condition: as the two of them made the hike back to the upper world, he had to walk ahead of her and not look back. Simple 'nuff.

We usually get this story through the eyes of Orpheus: his grief, his journey, and his ultimately unbearable curiosity and anxiety. Imagining the walk out from the underworld from Eurydice's perspective-- placing your trust in someone you love, depending on that person, hoping against hope that they'll pull through-- that was so much more moving to me than Orpheus's story ever was. Picturing the view of Orpheus's back from Eurydice's eyes was the spark of Songs for Muses.

Of course, Orpheus doesn't exactly pull through for Eurydice. But maybe he will for this Eurydice. Maybe this time her song will be the one to save the day.

-Bullfinch

I've been getting a lot of requests for the lyrics for these tunes, so I'll start posting them until I'm caught up. First's first, with Sirens: (Link to song!)

It's not easy we get a bad rap Luring sailors to their doom? What a bunch of crap. It's a lonely life flying up above the waves No one dares to hear us and we sing all day

La da da, la da da

Over the choppy sea you'll hear our calls resounding

Our lonely song will set your human heartbeat pounding

It's not our fault that all you idiots keep drowning!

You'd be wiser if you'd lend an ear Listen close now you've got nothing to fear

Being Sirens is a special hell Knowing every secret with nobody to tell

La da da, la da da

Over the choppy sea you'll hear our calls resounding

Our lonely song will set your human heartbeat pounding

It's not our fault that all you idiots keep drowning!

Songs for Muses #5: Cassandra (Writing Horoscopes)

This week's muse is Cassandra! She was a princess of Troy, with an awful curse: she could foresee the future, but no one ever believed her. 

Stories of how she got the curse vary a little. In Hyginus' Fabulae, Cassandra fell asleep in a temple of Apollo. He came and embraced her, but she didn't want to sleep with him, so he cursed her. By most other accounts, Apollo was in love with her, and she promised him she would "give herself to him" in exchange for the power to see the future. He gave her the power of prophesy but she didn't hold up her end of the deal, so he cursed her so that no one would believe her. Good old Apollo, being a sore loser, yet again.

Instead of listening to her, Cassandra's family believed that she had gone mad and was lying to them. She's often depicted as being super-hot and super-insane. (And that annoying trope lives on, millennia later...)

Cassandra predicted many of the events of the Trojan War: she warned Paris not to go to Sparta (to abduct Helen). He didn't listen, and it was a disaster. She warned the Trojans not to accept the Trojan Horse from the Greeks. They didn't listen, and it was a disaster.

All sorts of other bad stuff happens to Cassandra during/after the fall of Troy, but I won't get into that.

I wondered what Cassandra would be like if she were alive today. What would she be doing? I was walking down the street, and found my answer: 

-Bullfinch

Songs for Muses #4: Danaë (Looks Like Rain)

This week's muse is Danaë!

For the first part of her story, Danaë is in a pretty sad spot. She's the only child of Acrisius, the king of Argos. He's bummed because he doesn't have a male heir, so he goes to ask the Oracle at Delphi if Danaë will have a son. The Oracle is like "yeah, but he's gonna kill you!" and Acrisius is like "no thanks!" and locks Danaë in a bronze tower so no one can knock her up. Or so he thinks. Zeus, who is not one to let anything get between him and a pretty lady (never mind consent), comes to Danaë in the form of a "golden rain" and gets her pregnant. Imaginative, those Ancient Greeks.

-----

I pictured Danaë looking out of her window at the oncoming rain, and thought she must feel trapped, listless, hopeless. Everyone's felt that way. There have been so many times I've felt that way. It also happens that my apartment is a 5th-floor walkup, so on days I'm not up to going outside it does feel a bit like being locked in a tower. Except my tower has Seamless and Netflix. Hooray modernity.

-----

The rest of the story: Danaë gives birth to Perseus so Acrisius puts them in a box and throws them into the sea. Zeus pulls some strings and they come out fine. Perseus grows up into a fancy demigod hero guy and does a bunch of hero things (including slaying Medusa) so that Danaë doesn't have to marry someone she doesn't want to. And he does wind up killing Acrisius but it's totally an accident. Danaë ends up A-OK and lives happily ever after. The End.

-Bullfinch

Another awesome illustration by Anna Cincera!

Songs for Muses #3: Medusa (What Doesn't Kill You)

This week's song is for Medusa. If it sounds angry, that's because it is. After this one we'll be back to the regularly-scheduled pretty/funny songs, but for now, Medusa:

The Gorgons-- sometimes just Medusa, and sometimes three sisters-- are female monsters with snaky hair, and any mortal who looks at them is turned to stone. Perseus only manages to kill Medusa by looking at her in the reflection of his shield. The concept of the Gorgon dates back to the beginnings of Greek mythology, but in Roman times Ovid re-tells the origin of the monster. It's Ovid's Medusa in particular that this song is written for.

Ovid writes: "She was once most beautiful, and the jealous aspiration of many suitors. Of all her beauties none was more admired than her hair: I came across a man who recalled having seen her. They say that Neptune, lord of the seas, violated her in the temple of Minerva. Jupiter’s daughter turned away, and hid her chaste eyes behind her aegis. So that it might not go unpunished, she changed the Gorgon’s hair to foul snakes." (Metamorphoses, Book IV)

That's right: Medusa gets assaulted, and then she is the one who gets punished for it. She is the one who gets exiled and isolated. And the way it's written, her shameful transformation almost sounds like payback for being too beautiful.

Rings a lot like Men's Rights Activists' rhetoric, doesn't it?

I wrote the song over the summer, after a one-two punch of events. The first was Elliot Rodger's killing spree, which brought media attention to the sickening world of the Men's Rights movement. The second was a horrible incident of sexual assault and violence against girls in India's "untouchable" caste that made international news: http://www.vocativ.com/world/india/rape-indias-untouchable-caste/

There was global outrage, but there was also this:

"Several months ago, Mulayam Singh Yadav, a prominent politician in Uttar Pradesh, sparked outrage when he said that three young men convicting of raping two [untouchable] women didn’t deserve a death sentence because “boys will be boys.”"

It's not just mythological gods that get away with murder. And it's not just halfway around the world, either. It's under all of our noses, all the time. I saw a panel of male venture capitalists recently deny they'd ever seen any sexism in the workplace. They weren't covering anything up, they just really didn't believe any sexist things ever happened. And yet, two of my closest female friends confided in me this week that they'd been sexually harassed at work. How on earth do people not see it?

Victims keep quiet, in part because there's so much shame associated with speaking about trauma in general, and especially sexual assault. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," people say. The idea that trauma could potentially be positive or "good for you" is total bunk, and adds to the pressure that people feel after traumatic events to deal with it silently. Trauma in itself is enough: compounding it with shame is a formula for real damage. What doesn't kill you doesn't make you stronger. In Medusa's case, what doesn't kill you makes you a monster. -Bullfinch

Playing a Songs for Muses set at Pete's Candy Store tomorrow night. Accompanied by the lovely laura-hopefully. Sneak previews of some of the next few weeks' songs. Come hang & get your nerd on with us!

Songs for Muses #2: Daphne (Rather Be a Tree)

This one is for Daphne, one of my favorites. Daphne is one of the only women in Greek/Roman mythology to successfully avoid a god's advances (actually, the only one I can think of at the moment).

The story goes: Apollo and Cupid get in a pissing contest over who's a better archer. Cupid, to prove his better-archer-ness, shoots Apollo in the heart with a gold-tipped arrow, and the nymph Daphne with a lead-tipped one: Apollo then loves Daphne, and she thinks he's repellent.

Apollo feels entitled to Daphne, since he's a god and all, and chases her. Like a creep. Just as he's about to catch up, Daphne cries out to her father, a river god, for help. He turns her into a laurel tree.

Apollo then takes a branch of the laurel and wraps it around his head: “‘My bride’, he said, ‘since you can never be, at least, sweet laurel, you shall be my tree." (Ovid, Metamorphoses: Book I)

And that's why every dude from Greco-Roman antiquity (especially Apollo) is portrayed with leaves on their heads. 

(This isn't from antiquity, I think it's from Star Trek, but you get the picture)

Songs for Muses #1: Sirens 

The first entry in Songs for Muses is for the Sirens! Thought it was only appropriate to start off the series with the winged singers. 

The Sirens are usually represented as sexual temptresses, whose irresistible song lures innocent sailors to leap from their ships to their death. In the Odyssey, the Sirens' song doesn't tempt Ulysses with sex, but infinite knowledge:

“‘Come here,' they sang, 'renowned Ulysses, honour to the Achaean name, and listen to our two voices. No one ever sailed past us without staying to hear the enchanting sweetness of our song- and he who listens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know all the ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy, and can tell you everything that is going to happen over the whole world.’”  (The Odyssey, Book XII)

I love that. Curiosity, not just lust, is what overcomes the unlucky listeners. It must have been hard being a Siren. All the gossip, with no one to spill it to.

-Bullfinch

Hi internet!

Watch this space for a series of nine songs written for mythological women (my "muses"). I wanted to explore characters who didn't get their perspectives told as much as the male characters in their stories. What was Eurydice thinking as Orpheus lead her out of the underworld? Was it, "you had ONE job, punk. One job." What would Cassandra tell you if you met her on a Manhattan corner? What if the Sirens were just lonely?

I'll be releasing one song a week (at least), starting this week. Stay tuned!