In celebration of Reading Greek Tragedy Online’s presentation of Euripides’ “Cyclops” A Rock Opera Adaptation from The Center for Hellenic Studies and Out of Chaos Theatre Tomorrow, Cyclops Music.
“I tell you how to cyclops rock,
But then you go and turn around and break my heart,
You waste my cyclops time,
And mess up my cyclops mind.” – They Might Be Giants
Because I am an old (and yet aging) nerd, when I hear the words “cyclops” and “rock”, the first thing I think of is this song which, much to my dismay, doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with Cyclopes or Odysseus.
Thankfully, we have the Heavy Metal Classicist, Dr. Jeremy Swist, to bring a little culture to our lonely island. In his blog “The Man of Many Riffs: The Odyssey in Heavy Metal Music” in on the case:
“A search of the Metal Archives database reveals a wide readership of the Odyssey among metal artists. 67 different bands mention either “Odysseus” or “Ulysses” in their lyrics, while the epic is the basis of a total of six concept albums. There is a wealth of material, which precludes an exhaustive analysis here, but I will attempt to distill from a representative sample the key takeaways from heavy metal’s Odyssean reception. “
I won’t copy his efforts here, but I will just say: there is a cyclops, there is plenty of rock, and there’s music and videos too. Check it out.
Also, tune in tomorrow at 3 PM EST for Reading Greek Tragedy Satire Online
