Mythology in Music: Clutch's "Release the Kraken"

Clutch is a four man American rock band which has been performing together since 1990. They have had eight CDs released with a ninth, Strange Cousins from the West, set to hit stores next month. Clutch is known for their unique sound which combines both hard rock and blues/funk influences. Their lyrics are also equally thought provoking and often contain references to history, mythology, science-fiction, and religion.

The song "Release the Kraken" off their 1999 album Jam Room draws its influence in part from the actual Greek myth of Perseus but mostly from the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, a loose retelling of the same story. Clash of the Titans was directed by Desmond Davis and featured special effects by Ray Harryhausen, who also produced the film.

Clash of the Titans’ biggest, and perhaps most iconic, addition to the myth of Perseus was that of the Kraken; a monster from Norse mythology, not Greek. It is also interesting to note that Harryhausen’s Kraken looks nothing like its mythological namesake but rather like a multi-limbed version of another one of Harryhausen’s monsters; the Ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).

The following video was created by YouTube user sidewalkhawg and features "Release the Kraken" played to clips from Clash of the Titans.

The italicized words in found in the "Release the Kraken" lyrics were taken from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1995), page 819.

Sources: "Release the Kraken" lyrics found at http://www.stlyrics.com/.

What's the matter brother, does the drought got you down?

(Open up the bomb shelter, sweep it on out)

Sing to the ocean in the afternoon haze,

Up the iron pillars, rise in the waves.

Andromeda is weeping. Inside one teardrop swims

Brave Useless in training less a millimeter thin.

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

GET THE SACRIFICE ON!

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

GOOD GOD Y'ALL!

Useless the Younger we pray for you.

You know we got your back in whatever you do.

Bathysphere bobbing in Eyeball Bay,

Black lash crashes, forty foot waves.

Cepheus is holding Cassiopeia's free hand

As the Kraken breaks the surface making bee-line to the land.

In Greek legend the son of Zeus and Danae

He and his mother was set adrift in a chest,

But rescued by the intervention of Zeus.

He was brought up by KING POLYDECTES,

Who, wishing to secure Danae, got rid of him by encouraging him

In the almost hopeless task of obtaining the head OF THE MEDUSA!

With the help of the gods he was successful, and with the head,

Which turned all that looked on it into stone, he rescued Andromeda

And later metamorphosed Polydectes and his guests to stone.

Mythology in Music: Avenged Sevenfold’s “Beast and the Harlot”

California based rock band Avenged Sevenfold are known for their biblical reference laden lyrics. Even their band’s name is a direct reference to the tale of Cain and Able, where God pronounces that whoever slays Cain will have vengeance poured out upon them “sevenfold” (Gen. 4:15).

Their hit single “Beast and the Harlot” off their sophomore album City of Evil (2005) is a particularly notable example as it is a retelling of the story of the Whore of Babylon from the Book of Revelation (Chapter 17). In Revelation the Whore of Babylon is a key player in the apocalyptic events that are described as unfolding at the end of time. She is imagined as being “clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication” while astride “a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names” and with “seven heads and ten horns.” She will seduce the kings of the earth and will drink “the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.” Some scholars have interpreted the Whore of Babylon as an anti-Virgin Mary, the mother of the Antichrist, and wife of the devil.

In the accompanying music video the Whore of Babylon is depicted as a sexual seductress, the black tar symbolizing sin is taken from Dante’s Inferno.

This shining city built of gold, a far cry from innocence,

There's more than meets the eye round here, look to the waters of the deep.

A city of evil.

There sat a seven-headed beast, ten horns raised from his head.

Symbolic woman sits on his throne, but hatred strips her and leaves her naked.

The Beast and the Harlot.

She's a dwelling place for demons.

She's a cage for every unclean spirit,

every filthy bird and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings.

Fallen now is Babylon the Great.

The city dressed in jewels and gold, fine linen, myrrh and pearls.

Her plagues will come all at once as her mourners watch her burn.

Destroyed in an hour.

Merchants and captains of the world, sailors, navigators too.

Will weep and mourn this loss with her sins piled to the sky,

The Beast and the Harlot.

She's a dwelling place for demons.

She's a cage for every unclean spirit,

every filthy bird and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings.

Fallen now is Babylon the Great.

The day has come for all us sinners.

If you’re not a servant, you’ll be struck to the ground.

Flee the burning, greedy city.

Lookin’ back on her to see there's nothing around.

I don’t believe in fairytales and no one wants to go to hell.

You've made the wrong decision and it's easy to see.

Now if you wanna serve above or be a king below with us,

You're welcome to the city where your future is set forever.

She’s a dwelling place for demons.

She’s a cage for every unclean spirit,

every filthy bird and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings.

Fallen now is Babylon the Great.[x2]

From Chernobog to Chernobyl

In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine suffered a fatal meltdown which resulted in the deaths of 56 people. Over 600,000 people were exposed to high doses of radiation as a result of the meltdown; 4,000 of whom would later be diagnosed with some form of cancer. In addition to this, the disaster poisoned the city’s atmosphere with radioactivity resulting in the entire city being declared uninhabitable to this day. The Chernobyl Disaster, as the incident has come to be called, remains the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.

There are those who believe that part of the reason this terrible accident befell the city of Chernobyl is the because of the city’s name. In Russian the name Chernobyl literally translates as “Black Grass” and is semantically linked with the name Chernobog; the Slavic god of death, darkness, and destruction.

The fascinating world of Slavic mythology (which encompasses the mythological beliefs held by the people inhabiting the areas of Europe located between Poland, Siberia and Macedonia) is an area of the mythological map about which much is speculated and little is actually known. As it stands, mythographers still know more about Slavic folklore – with its infamous witches, vampires, werewolves and immortal warriors – than they do about the ancient Slaves’ gods and goddesses.

The reason for this has to do with the fact that the Slavic people did not start keeping written records of their mythological and religious beliefs and practices till after the 9th-Century, by which time Christianity had already infiltrated the culture and gained many converts thus tainting the pre-established systems of belief.

One of these post-Christian records is the Chronicle of the Slavs (c. 1170), composed by Saxon historian Helmold of Bosau (ca. 1120–1177). According to Helmold, the Slavic people had, in times past, worshiped a very peculiar deity who embodied both life and death, creation and destruction, heaven and earth, light and darkness and would shift between one personality and the other depending on the time of the year.

During the months of spring and summer this god was known as Belobog (lit. “White God”); a benevolent, white cloaked figure who carried a staff. However, when the seasons changed to fall and winter Belobog would also change into Chernobog (lit. “Black God”), a demonic figure shrouded in darkness. However, as soon as winter ended and spring returned so would Belobog. This cycle naturally repeated itself every year and those worshippers who prayed and scarified to this god – Helmold says that Belobog/Chernobog’s cult was particularly strong amongst the Baltic Slaves – would alter their services depending on the time of year.

Outside of this, little else in known about this most intriguing of deities. Mythographers seeking to learn more about the Belobog/Chernobog cult have often come up stumped and some have even postulated that the entire thing maybe a farce dreamed up by Helmold. Nevertheless, some intriguing clues remain. One is a Slavic idol depicting a two-headed deity with a single body, possibly a depiction of Belobog/Chernobog. There is also the Slavic folk hero Belun, a Gandalf the White-type character who appears during the daylight hours during spring and summer and helps farmers tend to their crops. Belun will also help travelers lost in the dark Slavic forests by leading them back to the light of day. Is Belun a thinly veiled variation of Belobog?

Then there is matter of the 10th-Century Primary Chronicles, a Russian text which records the rooting out of heretical beliefs amongst Slavic Christians. The most prominent of these heresies was a type of dualism which taught that there were two gods; an unnamed god of light and a god of darkness called Tsar Santanail. The two gods made the world together but parted ways when creative differences arose in regard to the creation of humankind. The unnamed god of light wanted humans to be purely spiritual beings but Tsar Santanail wanted to make men and women out of dirt, thus confining them to the mortal realm. This disagreement eventually lead to a celestial battle which lasted seventy-seven days. In the end, the two gods decided to compromise. Man was made of dirt but also was endowed with a soul which would be free to ascend to the spiritual realm after death. The two gods also divided the world into two halves, night (which would serve as Tsar Santanail’s realm) and day (which would serve as the god of lights’ realm).

The Christian influence in this myth should be very clear; the war in heaven and man being made out of dirt are both elements of the Christian creation story. Also the name Santanail seems too close to the Christian Satan to be mere coincidence. However, there are other elements which are clearly drawn from Slavic paganism (seventy-seven is a sacred number in Slavic mythology) and may even suggest a sort of reinvention of the Belobog/Chernobog cult. Tsar Santanails’ fondness of dirt and darkness after all certainly seems similar to Chernobog’s own love of all things earthbound and murky.

Nevertheless, lack of evidence has not stopped the myth of Belobog/Chernobog from gaining a foot-hold in the popular imagination both abroad and at home in the Slavic nations of Europe. In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster speculation arose that not only establish a link between the names Chernobyl and Chernobog but also attempted to link the disaster to the biblical Book of Revelation and its prophesies foretelling the coming of the demon Wormwood who will fall from heaven, “burning as if it were a lamp” and poison the waters where it lands (Rev.8:10-11).

On a less ominous note, Chernobog also served as the inspiration for Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881) classic piece “A Night on Bald Mountain” (1860). Walt Disney Pictures later featured “A Night on Bald Mountain” in their acclaimed animated film Fantasia (1940) which combined classical music with modern animation. The “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence is particularly notable as it is often considered the most frightening segment of the film with its demonic, gargoyle-like Chernobog conducting an infernal orchestra of demons, witches, ghosts and harpies who fly and cackle through the night.

Chernobog’s most recent appearance in popular culture, however, is as a main character in British fantasy author Neil Gaiman’s 2001 best-selling novel American Gods where is he depicted as a cantankerous old man desperately seeking his next ritual sacrifice. And just incase you were wondering Belobog shows up too.

Below: Chernobog in “A Night on Bald Mountain,” Fantasia (1940).

Sources: Forests of the Vampire: Slavic Myth, by Charles Phillip and Michael Kerrigan (1999) and Illustrated Dictionary of Mythology, by Philip Wilkinson (2006).

Monkey: Journey to the West

Earlier this month (June 5th) I had the privilege of viewing what might quite possibly be one of the most amazing (not to mention unique) operas ever to debuted on the east coast; Monkey: Journey to the West.

Part of South Carolina’s massive multi-cultural Spoleto Arts Festival, Monkey: Journey to the West was conceived by acclaimed Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng with art direction and music by notorious Brits Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz). Told over the course of nine acts (total running time two hours) and performed completely in mandarin by a live Chinese cast of multi-talented actors and actresses and incorporating brief animated sequences, Monkey: Journey to the West was like nothing I have ever seen before on stage.

However, while Monkey: Journey to the West may be very new to the United States it is a story that is very old in the East. Originating as a Chinese legend combining the mythologies of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism as well as the real life exploits of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (602-664 A.D.), Journey to the West was first written down in the 16th-Century by an ex-vice magistrate of the Jiangsu Providence named Wu Cheng-en (ca. 1500-1582). In it unabridged written format Journey to the West is exactly one-hundred chapters long.

Based on an ancient Chinese legend, Journey to the West tells the story of Sun Wukung; the Monkey King. Born from a stone egg atop the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, Monkey – as he is often called for short – is faster, stronger, and smarter than all the other monkeys and quickly becomes their king. He also receives a special magic bō staff from the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea which allows him to become the mightiest warrior in all of China.

Monkey’s exceptional physical, mental and spiritual prowess, however, soons leads to unbridled arrogance and pride. Scaling the Mountain of Five Elements – home of the Chinese pantheon – Monkey crashes the Queen Mother of the West’s peach banquet, eats all the best peaches of immortality and basically makes a general mess of things. Monkey then declares himself the ‘Great Sage Equal of Heaven’ before the gods and demands to be honored as such. Incensed at Monkey’s boasts the gods and saints of heaven try to put a stop to his antics but each fail.

Finally, as a last resort the gods call upon the help of the Buddha who challenges Monkey to a bet, saying that Monkey can not jump across the entire breath of heaven. Monkey arrogantly accepts the bet and takes a mighty leap. He lands at what he believes to be the far end of heaven where nothing exists except for five mighty pillars. To prove that he has actually been to the edge of heaven Monkey takes a leak on the pillars and then leaps back to the feet of the Buddha who then shocks Monkey by revealing that not only did Monkey fail to leap across heaven, he never even left the palm of the Buddha. The five pillars that Monkey saw (and soiled) were actually the fingers of the Buddha.

Having lost the bet, Monkey is imprisoned beneath a mountain by the Buddha where he remains for five hundred-years. He is finally released when the goddess of mercy, Guan-Yin, chooses Monkey to serve as the bodyguard of a young Buddhist monk named Tripitaka who has been chosen to make a pilgrimage to the west (India) and retrieve the Buddhist scriptures and bring them back to China.

Monkey agrees to accompany Tripitaka, but as a precaution Guan-Yin places a magic golden headband on Monkey’s head that will inflict migraines upon the sentient simian at Tripitaka’s discretion should he get out of hand. As Monkey and Tripitaka set out on their journey they are joined by two more traveling companions; Pigsy, a lethargic womanizer who was cursed with the physical attributes of a pig after he made unwanted advances towards one of the Jade Emperor’s daughters, and Sandy, a water demon who was thrown out of heaven after breaking one of the Jade Emperor’s prized vases.

Together, this unlikely team of monstrous misfits seeking redemption accompany and protect the pious, thought often naive, Tripitaka on his fourteen-year-long trek to India. Along the way they encounter numerous threats and obstacles including dragons, man-eating demons, a town full of people who detest monks, a valley of volcanoes, seductive spider-women, and much more.

Finally, the four companions reach India and the Mountain of the Buddha where they are receive the Buddhist scriptures and are bestowed various redemptive honors by the Buddha himself. In particular, Tripitaka and Monkey are each granted the status Buddha; Monkey becoming the Buddha Victorious in Battle.

Monkey: Journey to the West was the headlining show at this year’s Spoleto Festival, and once word got out proved to be the hottest ticket as well. The show I saw was defiantly a once in a lifetime experience and something I would recommend to anyone who was presented with the opportunity to see it. The Journey to the West has been one of the most influential myths in the history of China where Monkey is seen as a cultural hero. The tale has also proven influential in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan and became of favorite of British kids growing up in the 70s and 80s (like Albarn and Hewlett) when it was turned into a popular live action TV series by Nippon Television. Most recently the legend was used as the basis for the 2008 martial arts fantasy film The Forbidden Kingdom staring Jet Li as the Monkey King.

Monkey: Journey to the West is currently playing in London at the Royal Opera House.

At Top: Original promotional artwork for the opera by Jamie Hewlett.

Center: Buddha's bet with Monkey as depicted in the opera.

Sources:

Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China, translated by Arthur Waley (1942)
About A Little Monkey: The Origins of Journey to the West, by Karen King (2008)
Land of the Dragon: Chinese Myth, by Toney Allen and Charles Phillip (2005)
Illustrated Dictionary of Mythology, by Philip Wilkinson (2006)
Monkey King: Journey to the West, by Diane Wolkstein (2009)