The Journey of Orpheus

 Step by step, dead ends never end

I've lost the way many times

In this cave full of shades, all the ways seem the same

All the ways lead to the doubt

Drop by drop, the mourn of my blood

Begs all the gods to know

If the one behind me, if the presence I feel

Is really my beloved

Step by step, the stench of the deads

Comes from everywhere

The laughs of the deads  poison the air

"Question us if you dare"

Word after word, dead souls of this world

Assure me i am leading a ghost

It's scary and cold, it moves very slow

It will take my body if I stop

Lord Hades said "know your place, or pay the price"

Step by Step, her voice calls my name

Dead words of times gone by

Is she really her? Is she still the same?

Death could bring so many changes

Day after day, our past everyday

Now it seems under a veil

It's Buried in her and rises from death

But it doesn't seem the same

It's warped and lame, maimed in pain

It seeks a back to betray

Lord Hades said "know your place, or pay the price"

Step by step, step by step, the voices of the ghosts

Say beware, say beware, or you'll soon be dead and gone

In the end, in the end, you'll be killed by a woman

In the end, at my last step, i turned to my love

She was there, she was there, and then she was no more

Lord Hades said "know your place, or pay the price"


The Journey of Orpheus - YouTube

Ssiv's comments on The Journey of Orpheus

The journey of Orpheus has two interpretations.

1) the lyrics are my personal reinterpretation of the myth of Orpheus. Hades is annoyed by the arrogance with which Orpheus has descended into hell and returns Euridyce to him, but at a price: until he has left Hades, Orpheus must never look her in the face. The god of the underworld leaves him with a warning: "know your place". The invitation to stay in one's place refers to a saying from ancient Greece: 'know thyself and be aware that you are inferior to Zeus'. It is an invitation to know one's limits.

Orpheus overcame his limits a first time when he descended into Hades, and a second time when he turned to look at Eurydice, just before returning to the world of the living. By asking Orpheus not to turn around the whole way, Hades had tested his trust in the gods.

For this, the God purposely made sure that throughout the return journey, Orpheus was consumed by doubts as to who the creature behind him really was.

The spirits of the underworld make a prophecy to Orpheus, confiding in him that he will be killed by a woman. Orpheus believes they are referring to the ghost of Eurydice, but in reality the spirits were referring to the Bacchae of Dionysus who will kill him in the future.

 Orpheus voluntarily turns to look at Eurydice at the last second because he does not trust Hades, thus proving that he 'does not know his place', and therefore loses Eurydice for the second time. 

2) The lyrics refer symbolically to Toby  He is the protagonist of the album and everything, in one way or another, is about him. Toby had projected the best sides of himself onto a cruel, indifferent and elusive woman (see the lyrics of 'Lust Loves Loss').

When, finally, this woman got tired of playing with him and said goodbye to him (see the lyrics of "Burn Like a Candle"), Toby continued to idealise her. The stubbornness with which Toby refused to see that woman for who she really was led him to a troubled and painful separation.

Toby did everything he could to 'save' her within himself, so that he could save the sides of himself that he had projected onto her and that he did not recognise in himself. He also did too much, against all evidence, he became morbidly attached to the image of her that he had created. But creation is up to the gods. To cling too morbidly to one's own idealisation is to arrogantly rebel against the truth and the natural order of things.

Thus, Toby too, like Orpheus, was guilty of not 'knowing his place' and paid for it: like Orpheus, he descended into the hell of his memories to try to save her within himself, and like Orpheus he failed.

Toby thus fails to meet the best part of himself.