you for a while

A fellow ‘Glow member, Marti, made a truly genius connection between Tori Amos’ Smokey Joe and the Greek myth of Philomela. Since I was struggling a bit with understanding this tune, this remarkable interpretation inspired me to post…

We’ll start with the story of two Greek sisters Procne and Philomela (think of Pip and Clyde, respectively). Their father forced Procne to marry a vicious war monger by the name of Teresus. They bore a son, but Teresus quickly bored of Procne and left her and their child. He decided he wanted Philomela instead. He forced Philomela to marry him, raped her, and subjected her to all sorts of abuse. He eventually cut out her tongue so that she could not speak of the abuse to anyone. Cleverly, Philomela weaved the story of her plight into a tapestry for her sister Procne to read. Now Procne was royally pissed at her ex…infuriated is probably the better word. Not only had he left her, but he had been torturing her sister.

A vengeful Procne packed up her son and visited her ex and her sister. Feigning kindness she offered to cook Teresus dinner. And as the myth goes, Procne killed her and Teresus’ son, chopped him up, cooked him, and served him Teresus. (I’ll wait whilst you puke…). As he dined on his child, Procne made off with her sister Philomela. When Teresus made the connection he was not a happy camper and, with axe in hand, took off to seek his revenge on the sisters. Because they could not outrun him, they prayed to be turned into birds and the gods obliged them. Procne became a nightingale whereas Philomela (who had no tongue) became a voiceless swallow.

So, is Smokey Joe about a rapist, an abuser? Interpreted via this myth it would seem plausible. Tori often describes Pip as the angry, vengeful doll, similar in nature to Procne. She also describes Clyde as the abused, vulnerable doll, similar in nature to Philomela. We’ll assume Teresus is “Smokey Joe.” Now, let’s play with the lyrics:

“I did not ask for this,” says a victimized Philomela
“Oh but love, yes you did” says an entitled Teresus.

Procne (Pip) says of her sister, “A songless robin she became…he stole my sister Clitorides. He chokes on his vitrolic tongue.” Or, in other words, this dude cut out my sister’s tongue and now he is suffering the consequences of his actions, i.e. “choking” on his crime.

Pip (Procne) says to Teresus (Smokey Joe), “Its too easy to wish you harm, so I’m going to really get you by serving you your son for dinner.” But at the same time it terrifies her, because he’s a scary man and she has to forsake her son.

Makes sense to me! Thanks Marti (and the other ‘Glow friends who responded to his thread) for making this connection. It not only makes sense, but it puts a definite imagery to this song making it even more joyful to listen to.

There are a host of other lyrics that need fitting into this myth. Comment if you have any other thoughts. Love to hear them!

Filed under: China2Ny on October 13th, 2007