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Emerging into the Brightness of the Day

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Emerging into the Brightness of the Day
Emerging into the Brightness of the Day

Recognise?

I Am Alone

In Search of Cassandra, Princess of Troy

Summer Solstice Song

Güzelsin

My City Has Been
Burned To The Ground

Wedding Hymn

January 13th

Another Mad Message

Time To Go Home

Dark Shine


08 January 13th.mp3

The sun is going down.

Helius is west away

abandoning the day. 

Robbed from the embers of your home....

Out of the fire and

into this dying land....

There'll be no funeral for you

for no-one knows you here.

It's the 13th day of the year.

January 13th

As light begins to fade

defeated spoils of war

a silhouette before the Lion Gate

casts aside her garlands

A stranger here enchained

alone

forced to intrude

in someone else's feud....

The conquering king is dead.

He won eternal fame

but I forget his name, and not yours.

You cast aside your garlands.

One by one the torches flicker and they fail.

A woman clad in ragged robes is kneeling.

Done is her defiant dance.

Persephone awaits.

A foreign slave is sacrificed.


And one by one the torches flicker and they fail.

A woman clad in ragged robes is kneeling.

Done is her defiant dance.

Persephone awaits.

A foreign slave is sacrificed.

One by one the candles flicker and they fail.

A figure clutched by shadows is still.

Done is your defiant dance.

Now Hecate awaits.

Cassandra's spark goes out.

Commentary
Some of the imagery in the early part of this song draws on Cassandra’s beautiful exit speech in Aeschylus’s ancient Greek play “Agamemnon” (written 458 BCE). The ‘defiant dance’ references Cassandra’s entrance scene in Euripides’ “Women of Troy”, written 43 years later.

Robert Graves, who wrote extensively on the Greek myths & legends theorised that Agamemnon (and with him Cassandra) may have been killed as part of a ritual sacrifice on the 13th day of the 13th month as part of the White/Triple Goddess ancient religion which preceded the more familiar Greek pantheon.  From this I derived the date of January 13th as being the date of her death.  It was only some years later that I realised my error - the 13th month referring to lunar months. The correct date of Cassandra’s death is thus more likely to have been December 16th, 15 days before the end of the year.

Composer:   Ed Hooke
Date of Composition/Copyright:   1995
Date of Recording:    1995