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incorrectcats · 2 years

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So, as I promised, here is my overly obsessive, too enthusiastic, and probably poorly written and structured mess of an analysis of the song Kaisarion. Because I love it wholeheartedly and I need to share all this love with the world.

But, first things first: sorry in advance if this turns up to be way too long. It may happen. I just can’t shut up about this. And of course, this is just my opinion and interpretation, and in no way, shape or form is this any kind of irrevocable truth and, at the end of the day, every song is just partially what the author meant and partially what us, listeners, understood of it and how we translated it to our own experiences and feelings.

Lastly, as always: English is not my first language, I’ll try to be as clear as possible hehe.

Okay, LET’S GO.

To me, Kaisarion —as many other Ghost songs— is about embracing the very cause of your downfall. It’s about turning your back to what you’ve been told is good and sacred and righteous, and finding your own way to happiness. It’s a song telling you “it’s okay if you’ve been cast out, because we’re here, waiting for you down here”. And, taking this into consideration, the lyrics are very interesting.

But first, a bit of history!

In Kaisarion, we’re being told two different stories: one that is linked to the lyrics and their literal interpretation and the other one, more emotionally-based and metaphorical. Impera is an album about empires and, more precisely, about the fall of those empires, and the word “kaisarion” refers to the Caesareum of Alexandria, an ancient temple in Egypt where Hypatia, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, was murdered (we’ll come back to this later). “Kaisarion” is also very close to the word “kaiser”, which was the name given to the German emperors and, at the same time, which is a word derived from Latin, like any other “caesar”-related word (including, for instance, the Russian “tsar”).

So, just with the title, we already have a very powerful imagery right before us, but the true meaning lies beyond the title, because here’s where things get wild and where our dear and terribly mistreated Hypatia comes into play. Because Hypatia sought shelter in the Caesareum when she was being persecuted by a Christian mob and, sadly, didn’t find what she was looking for. The mob found her in the temple, and well… We know the ending of the story.

Which is kind of ironic, because the Caesareum was a temple conceived by an Egyptian queen in memory of her Roman lover (allegedly) and later finished by yet another Roman dude (Augustus, you may know him-). And all of them were pagans, one of the reasons why Hypatia met such a tragic end.

And, amongst many other things, that’s what Kaisarion is about: is about injustice, about a society that preaches one thing and acts the opposite, about false appearances, about prideful ignorance, about the violent repression of any kind of diversity or difference. We can see it reflected in the lyrics of the song:

“Our brotherhood of good faith sealed an apostate witch's doom”

Here, the apostate witch would be Hypatia, and her murder, as the ellimination of many other pagan people and temples, would be the seal that strengthen the foundations of Christianity which, despite being a religion with a relatively pacifist dogma, had caused the uprise of pretty violent mobs in its first centuries. (NOTE: with this I don’t mean to say that this violent reaction is an exclusive Chistian thing. Not at all. It’s very similar to many other historical processes where a social group goes from being under a heavy oppression/opposition to gaining a lot of power in a relatively short amount of time. But that’s another story for another time.)

Another of the lines that shows this glorified violence is in the first pre-chorus:

“It's the smell of the burning temples swept away by rhymes”

The “burning temples” could refer to the library of Alexandria or to the pagan temples, and the “rhymes” could be related to Christian canticles, which is something that, I think, is very linked to the collective imaginary of Christianity (see, for instance, Gregorian chant, choirs, etc.).

This idea of evil-disguised-as-good can also be found in the second verse:

“Kaisarion, a matter of love

When Mother Earth is calling for a father up above

Kaisarion, put on the smiles

And throw your holy rocks right at her for her satanic wiles”

And I could keep commenting on this, because it’s such an interesting topic, BUT, we need to move forward, because in the second pre-chorus there are some of my personal favourite lines:

“It's the truth of candor shone through the prism of deceit

It's the continence of bishops with their choirboys en-suite

It's the tongue selling adulation that licks to no avail

It's the noise of the righteous dogma that hides the handmaid's tail”

Here, we find again this idea of hypocrisy and fake virtue used as a rug behind which all the dark and evil stuff can be found. But with that last line, I just- *screams into the void* Sorry, I need to express how clever it is, how TF plays with words and creates whole narratives out of single sentences.

“It's the noise of the righteous dogma that hides the handmaid's tail”

The “noise” of a “righteous dogma” already tells us what we’re dealing with: it’s not a whisper, it’s not a sound; it’s a *noise*. It’s loud, and probably obnoxious, and it pretends to convey a message of justice and goodness when, in reality, it “hides the handmaid’s tail”. And please, note that, apparently, the lyrics say “tail” and not “tale”, AS I THOUGHT IT SAID UNTIL LITERALLY A MINUTE AGO WHEN I READ THIS:

“The emphasis of ‘tail’ rather than tale if this is indeed the correct lyric could be clever word play to bring about a more animalistic nature in these hidden ideals within the perpetuation of any ‘dogma’, presenting it almost as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, hidden behind the bright innocent exterior that most groups interested in persuading others to their cause, whatever their purpose, try to perpetuate.”

It’s… It’s just fucking brilliant. For real. I’m absolutely speechless, staring at my laptop with a dumbfounded smile.

And, finally, there’s the chorus:

“Far away from the stench of the heavens

Long ago, yet too close to forever

When a paradise is lost, go straight to…”

These are the phrases that are sung side by side with the name of Hypatia.

And, this is the thing: although this is a song about the building of an empire on the foundations of the destruction of what preceded it, about blinding pride and fanaticism, violence and intolerance… This is also a song about deception.

About pretending to be what one is not.

And that’s why, despite being a song apparently sung from the perspective of the mobs that murdered Hypatia, the true singer of this song is our dearly beloved Papa, and this unholy smartass is not praising what these mobs, moved by fanaticism and hatred, did and enforced. He’s laughing at it. He’s exposing it. He’s forcing us to look at it, and then he points in the opposite direction.

Because, when paradise is lost you go straight to…

Yeah, to the Antipope.

(I don’t know if he still does this, but I’ve seen performances where, after “go straight to”, he yells “HELL” and- I mean, the drums go on a descending scale at the end of the song, which yeah… Something something, using sounds as metaphors for words, something something…)

Replicating what Lucifer and all the fallen angels did in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Papa tells us that, maybe, there’s another place to be. A different way to go. And that, if we’re rejected by this society for whatever reason, if we’re deemed unworthy of respect, maybe we should turn our backs to it and go. Because there’s many others like us, the dispossessed and the disinherited, and we don’t need all this fake ass righteousness.

We shall find a place of our own “far away from the stench of the heavens”.

As a queer woman, there are many Ghost songs that make me feel this very particular kind of pride for being who I am and, above all, living my life unapologetically. It’s a message of self-love, but also a message of companionship, of community and finding strength in other stray kids like you. It’s very heartwarming, and very personal, often feeling like a helping hand whenever you’re lonely and helpless, navigating difficult times. I think it’s one of the many reasons why so many people feel attached to this band and its songs.

In conclusion, Kaisarion is a wonderful album-opener (well, besides Imperium) and TF does something amazing, with words and with music, but also with ideas and with thoughts. This song is a masterpiece in its own and, although I can’t quite analise it from a musical perspective (because I don’t know shit about music lol), I’m glad I could ramble about my love for its lyrics and history.

Now give this Antipope another Grammy-

#the band ghost #ghost the band #ghost bc #kaisarion #impera #ghost impera #papa emeritus iv #popia #classic references #historian shit #lis.txt #tobias forge #ghost lyrics #lyric analysis #imperatour #oof it's really long yay #i spend my afternoon doing this and i still feel like i could talk for hours #never ask a historian about anything #we're insufferable

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