THE “ATLANTIS’ PROJECT – PART 1
THE 'ATLANTIS' PROJECT - A CYCLE OF FOUR OPERAS
All rights reserved Copyright (C) 2017 Derek Strahan
The project is to compose and write libretti for a cycle of 4 operas on the subject of a lost civilisation of antiquity, drawing principally on Plato's account of 'Atlantis' and also on many contemporary writings of the last 100 years, which seek to find a basis of factual and psychological reality in the myths of many cultures linking past global cataclysm to the destruction of antediluvian civilisation.
I have already composed four pieces of music that present themes intended for use in the operas. One of these recordings has already been released on CD: 'Atlantis' for Flute and Piano. This was commissioned by Michael Scott of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and composed with the assistance of the Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council, and it was first performed at a Masters Degree Recital by Belinda Gough, one of Michael Scott's most promising students, who is now furthering her career in Europe.
The second piece is 'Eden in Atlantis' for soprano Flute and Piano which was premiered last year by Liza Rintel, a soloist with Opera Australia, with Michael Scott and David Miller both distinguished soloists on the staff of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Together these two works portray aspects of the Atlantis story capturing its mythic characters and the magnificence of Atlantean civilisation. “Eden in Atlantis” is also the title of the proposed first opera of the cycle, for which the libretto has already been written.
A third work 'Atlantis Variations' is a 50 minute work in three sections for solo piano, which culminates in a passage portraying the ultimate destruction of this world by fire and flood, caused by an alignment of the sun, Venus, the Moon and Earth which causes an asteroid strike which in turn causes a slippage of the earth's crust.
A cycle of 4 operas invoking mythology and concluding with a flood clearly seeks to emulate the model suggested by Richard Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung'. Wagner's work was a product of the political and philosophic thought of the late 19th century, whereas the 'Atlantis' project will reflect changes in social attitudes of the last 100 years. However, what the project could have in common with Wagner's 'Ring' is its suitability for generating the kind of public interest in performance, leading to linkage in trade between art marketing and tourism, which a successful piece of music theatre often creates.
The first opera, "Eden in Atlantis" will evoke a time described by many cultures as an Age of Paradise, or a Golden Age, when humans lived closer to nature. The following three operas will deal with the events of the following time, an age of high civilisation dominated by a great maritime power, as described in the famous account of Atlantis written by the Greek philosopher and historian, Plato Aristocles, in 355 BC based on information told to his ancestor, the Athenian statesman Solon, by Egyptian priests in the city of Sais, in 590 BC. Libretti for these operas have already been written: "Poseidon in Atlantis"; "Calypso in Exile" and "Atlantis Lost". Published texts of these are available online at numerous online stores.
The following is the edited text of a talk I gave to introduce the first performance of the 25-minute Scene for Soprano, Flute & Piano, on Nov 16 1996.
"I would like first to explain why this Australian composer is choosing to explore a topic of such antiquity. What has this to do with Australia today? Why concern oneself with events which, if they happened, may have happened eleven thousand five hundred years ago! Why hark back to European literature? The story of Atlantis isn't even about the Pacific region! It's about the Atlantic Ocean. Well, let's widen the parameters a little. The Atlantis story is not European. It's Egyptian in origin. And, no doubt because of that, it has always been an embarrassment in European culture. It presents figures from Greek mythology as historical people. It claims knowledge of the Americas before they were discovered. It claims that a high civilisation existed during the Ice Age. And it claims that this civilisation was destroyed by a cataclysm of such magnitude that it could not have been a local event.
There is, of course, a huge literature on what is called pre-history. There are conflicts within science about the age of human civilisation, and there is conflict between religious and scientific opinion. And there is disagreement about the meaning of mythology. How much actual history does it contain? The scientific consensus has maintained that human civilisation as we know it began to evolve no earlier than 6,000 years ago. This safely quarantines human development within an era of geological stability, and allows for what is essentially the Western 19th century idea that technological and material development follow a path of progress, ever upward and onward.
That is at variance with an idea common to the early mythology of nearly every world culture - that a series of high civilisations have existed reaching back many millennia, each one being destroyed by a global cataclysm. Beliefs vary about how many such ages there have been. Four is the number given by both Greek and Hopi Indian traditions. The Mayan Indians count seven. The Chinese speak of ten. Western culture, borrowing from Hebrew Scripture, counts only two, Eden, and the age which ended with the Great Flood.
Plato gave a precise date for the sinking of Atlantis - 9,000 years before his own time: that is, 11,000 years ago, roughly the time of immense earth changes described by geology as the end of the Quaternary Age, a period of climate change which saw the end of the Ice Age and a rise in sea level. There is a great deal of evidence that these changes were accompanied by cataclysm. Perhaps the most vivid evidence is the case of the snap-frozen mammoths, whose bodies are still emerging from Siberian perma-frost. The first recorded body was found in 1797 and many have since been discovered in a frozen state, their meat still palatable to sleigh dogs, and with undigested tree leaves in their stomachs. On one famous occasion mammoth steaks were served to humans at an Academy of Sciences dinner in Moscow in the 1930's. The terrain in which the frozen mammoths are found does not support the kind of vegetation they were eating when they died. Their habitat was a temperate zone. It is clear that something cataclysmic happened which, in one stroke, suffocated or drowned them, froze them, some still standing upright, and moved their entire region within hours from a temperate to an arctic climate. Something that must have shaken the entire framework of the globe and affected every ocean and land mass.
(Image credit: Flying Puffin via Creative Commons)
Was this the same event which caused Atlantis to sink beneath the waves? Plato presented his account as history, and it was acclaimed by Socrates as "no invented fable but genuine history". Egyptian literature which might have confirmed the story told to Plato's ancestor was lost when the great libraries of Alexandria and Pergamum were destroyed by religious zealots in successive waves of conquest. Mayan Indian tradition echoes aspects of the Atlantis story. Alas, Mayan literature was lost too. All but 20 codices and scrolls of Mayan and Aztec writing were destroyed by Spanish Conquistadores, depriving us of all but the barest record of the pre-history of this region.
To complicate matters, science has also suppressed evidence. When Charles Darwin published his 'Origin of the Species', he deliberately ignored evidence of the inexplicable disappearance of whole species, because he wanted no loose ends in a theory which decreed that the planet has only experienced gradual change. Recent scientific confirmation that dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid strike 60 million years ago allows for modification of the dogma of uniformitarianism. But the same event around 11,000 years ago which killed mammoths also destroyed thousands of other species. All over the globe their fragmented remains are piled in chaotic graveyards from Alaskan muck islands to tar pits on Wiltshire Boulevard in Los Angeles!
To sum up, there is scientific evidence of past cataclysm. But is there any real evidence of human civilisation in the remote past coinciding with such global upheaval? Well, there is the hypothesis put forward by the late Professor Charles Hapgood, and which was cautiously endorsed by Albert Einstein. In 1966, Hapgood published a book titled "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilisation in the Ice Age". This presented the results of a study of medieval and Renaissance maps which showed coastlines which had not yet been 'discovered', including parts of South America and an ice-free Antarctica. He theorised that these were copies of much older maps which were made by a maritime civilisation which existed prior to the change in sea levels that occurred roughly 11,500 years ago. He also theorised that, under as yet unknown circumstances, the lithosphere, the earth's outer crust, periodically shifts around on the core, causing whole areas of land once in temperate zones to shift into polar regions.
Piri Reis map
Other evidence of past civilisation is in the Cyclopean building remains scattered around the globe, built by an unknown people, using an unknown technology who displayed great mathematical skill and knowledge of astronomy. The Egyptian pyramids are but the most famous example, and the larger ones together with the Sphinx are now thought by many to have been built much earlier than formerly supposed. The most recent book on this subject, "Fingerprints of the Gods", by Graham Hancock, suggests that Antarctica may have been the home base of this civilisation. Where does Atlantis fit into all of this? Well, recent history shows that an island can appropriate culture and become the centre of power. After all, Australia was invaded and colonised 200 years ago by just such a power!
Plato's story of Atlantis described the island as having, initially, been colonised by a god, Poseidon, who married one of the natives. What an intriguing idea that Positron and his brother Zeus may have originated in Antarctica and may have colonised Atlantis and the Mediterranean - thus creating two power groups which eventually went to war with each other, a conflict remembered in Greek myth as the war between the Gods and the Titans.
In a theatrical sense I find this whole saga very suitable for opera. But writing it is also part of my own quest for the truth about human origins. What happens when a world age ends? What happens is that we experience some extremely bad weather. The foundations of the earth are shaken. There are signs in the heavens. There are volcanic eruptions and earthquakes throughout the globe. Sometimes the sky moves, which can mean the poles shift, or the axis tilts. Enormous tidal waves sweep across continents carrying everything before them. A cloud cover of debris hides the sun for months, years, perhaps decades. The biblical shadow of death. How much of our civilisation would survive such devastation?
The assumption in most mythologies is that the end of a world age is an act of God, brought about by human wickedness. But what if such events are no more than very bad weather? Moreover, what if the very bad weather is, in cosmic terms, a relatively frequent event, even a relatively normal event ? Like a thunderstorm, or a hurricane? Perhaps the occurrence is cyclic? Perhaps the ancient human preoccupation with astrology is symptomatic of attempts to predict the event? Recent research suggests that the ancients had knowledge of the precession of the equinoxes, and were able to plot the occurrence of events during our galaxy's 26,000 year cycle.
If cataclysm is a cyclic event, the human race should come to terms with it. Religion already anticipates the last day. Science should plan for it. The truth can change attitudes. At the very least we should stop pointing nuclear warheads at each other, and point them instead to outer space, to home in on rogue asteroids. We should make good use of the time allotted to us. We should be kind to each other. We should heed the mute testimony of the dinosaurs from 65 million years ago; and the mammoths from 11,000 years ago.
Musicians especially have a reason to be grateful to those snap-frozen mammoths. Over the past three centuries musicians have had very intimate contact with these creatures, especially keyboard players. Historically, most of the world's ivory has come from mammoth tusks. The ivory was usable because, like mammoth meat, it was perfectly preserved. This means that since the invention of the keyboard, much music has been played on ivory from animals which died around 11,000 years ago."
End of text for concert talk. Further notes follow.
CONCEPT
UINIFYING THEME: Civilisation has not gradually evolved in a slow and continual progress towards perfection. It has moved in cycles, interrupted by frightening global cataclysms which have left their mark on the human psyche. The human race remembers these in myth, but, in its terror, has sought comfort in fantasies of empowerment, principally the fantasy that the disasters were caused by its own wickedness. This fantasy gives the human race the illusion that it can prevent disaster by adherence to moral codes enshrined in what has come to be known as religion. This is not said to question the supremacy of the Intelligence which creates and which is the Universe. It is said to suggest deficiencies in human understand of that Intelligence. Although, ostensibly, the purpose of religion is to enable humans to be controlled by God through revelation of morality, the real purpose of religion is to enable humans to control the behaviour of God through propitiation and adherence to moral codes! Unfortunately the moral codes evolved for this purpose have a rigidity in excess of the requirements of social regulation. The rigidity is a symptom of human fear of failure (because failure will lead to catastrophe). Unfortunately (again), in failing to live up to the demands of such codes, human terror is compounded by a double sense of failure:
1) the failure to be virtuous
2) the failure thereby to prevent further divine punishment.
The last two dimly remembered cataclysms were:
1) The expulsion from Eden (or Paradise): actually a drastic change in climatic conditions, possibly caused by an axis tilt or a slippage of the earth's crust, perhaps triggered by an earlier cosmic intruder.
2) The Great Flood (or the end of the Ice Age), again cause by a drastic climatic change (for the purpose of this opera, presumed to be an asteroid strike in the Gulf of Mexico caused by an unusual celestial conjunction).
Characters in the opera cycle will show awareness of these issues, and we will observe at first hand the evolution of some of these attitudes in reaction to events.
SECONDARY THEME: In its efforts to achieve self-regimenting social organisation, the human race has constantly experimented with different social structures. At either extreme are matriarchy and patriarchy, each a means of empowerment of one sex at the expense of the other. These are, obviously, an expression in macrocosm of the eternal conflict between female and male individuals, which is the microcosm. The macrocosm is much slower to change than the microcosm! That is to say, it is much easier for individuals than for systems to find a balance between each other's desire to control and dominate. Individuals can sometimes achieve this in a lifetime but the lifetime of a social system may span hundreds, possibly thousands of years, and it may even require a global cataclysm to bring about change. Unfortunately, with the cataclysm comes loss of culture.
In integrating the two themes outlined above, the dramas on which the opera cycle is based will explore the interaction between the macrocosm and the microcosm.
An implication of the "story" will be that we, the human race, are still experimenting and striving to create conditions of justice and fairness for ourselves, for each other. An important part of this process lies in the casting off of illusions about ourselves, and in facing up to the facts, the truth about our past. Unless the truth is disclosed and accepted, we are doomed to repeat the cyclical errors of the past.
STYLE - APPROACH TO MATERIAL: A quasi-realist approach:- mythic figures will be treated as real people, just as real explanations will be found for mythic events. Dramatis personae will include characters from both upper and lower strata of society. This will provide a core of "anchor" characters - ordinary people through whose perspective extraordinary events are witnessed and experience - to balance the presence of rulers.
The libretto will include both declamatory or narrative passages and passages in the vernacular, making individuals accessible to and recognisable by audiences.
The staging of catastrophic events will be presented in such a way that they can be shown on stage! For example, at the close of "Eden In Atlantis" the events of the cataclysm are all seen as events happening in the night sky. At minimum, this requires the use of the stage backdrop as a cyclorama on which, through techniques of lighting and projection, the events can be "painted" in motion. Smoke and explosions are a staple of theatrical excitement. The "shaking" of scenery and stage props to simulate seismic effects is, admittedly, a challenge, but the spectacle of Eden on fire is seen by the characters from a high mountain ledge. At maximum, staging this event allows for the fullest possible use of new technology. At minimum, the events being also described vocally in the libretto, the singing of these passages can occur against a backdrop of lighting and smoke to suggest "sulphurous fires". The importance of the scene lies not only in its visceral effect but also in the emotional reaction of the characters to the destruction of Paradise. The motivating agents to portray this are libretto and music, and the performance thereof. Visualisation is the prerogative of the producer and director. Hopefully, they would respect the compose/librettist's desire for a quasi-realist treatment!
DRAMATIC STRUCTURE: Each opera will present a self-contained story, but all willbe thematically linked. In each there will be three levels:
1) Geological truth (or as close as one can get with available data).
2) Human life at the institutional level, portrayed through the personal lives of the leaders of society: their conflicts, power struggles, successes, failure and their romances.
3) Human life at the level of the common people, showing how individual needs and desires are impacted upon by the social engineering of the time.
Prodigious events, heroic deeds, betrayals; rulers and their rebellious progeny; priests, priestesses, functionaries and their political intrigues; the leaven of the common people; and, in each opera, a primary relationship which struggles for fulfilment.
Prometheus pic
THE PROMETHEUS CONNECTION
WHY LUCIFER? No story set in Eden would be complete without the presence of the Serpent. The question therefore arises, what is the character of the Serpent, and what is the nature of the temptation with which the Serpent confronts Adam and Eve? There is no simple answer since the role of the Serpent has been the subject of many commentaries and interpretations over the centuries. In writing this section I am partly motivated by the wish to avoid giving offence to people whose religious convictions might give them cause to object to my characterisation of Lucifer in the plotline of the first opera, "Eden In Atlantis". It is, of course, impossible to please everyone, but I wish, where possible, to minimise opposition in principle to this project because of its content. Therefore I propose to try and explain why I have written this particular version of the Eden story. The best way to offer an explanation is to report on the results of my research, and this requires an analysis of the symbol of the Serpent under three headings: mythological; social/ moral; personal.
THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE SERPENT: Not all versions of Christianity have regarded the Serpent in the same light. Orthodox Christianity has demonised the Serpent and equated him with the Fallen Angel, Lucifer, and, in later commentaries, with variations incarnations of Evil, whether Satan himself or other demons or emissaries such as Mephistopheles or Beelzebub (a corruption of the Babylonian God Baal, or Bel, originally meaning 'beautiful'). Lucifer himself is described as having been 'beautiful' before the Fall, which was caused by his rebellion against the authority of God, as represented by Jehovah (Yahweh). Gnostic Christians, however, regarded the true God as existing outside matter, viewed Jehovah as a demiurge (deluded demon) who, in matter, created a flawed universe. The Wise Serpent was seen as the only reliable intermediary between the human race and the true God. Though theologically opposed, these two versions of Christianity each share a common perception of the Serpent as a messenger. In each version this messenger brings knowledge. Indeed the name 'Lucifer' has the meaning of ' the light-bringer'. It is for this reason that, in a pre-Christian context, the Lucifer of Judaic myth (which is derived from earlier Sumerian myth) is seen as an equivalent of Prometheus of Greek myth. The later demonisation of Lucifer needs to be seen in the context of the Christian need to explain the existence of Evil in theological terms. This is a study in itself, for which there is no space here, although I acknowledge the validity of such study.
THE MORAL DIMENSION: The opera stories outlined below do attempt to address the question of Evil - indeed this is one of the main concerns of the Atlantis legend - but they do so in the context of the Promethean myth, which is the myth of the rebel demi-god who defies the authority of the divine overlord to bring forbidden knowledge to the human race. The question of Evil then concerns not so much the behaviour of the rebel demi-god, but the behaviour of humans in respect of the use which they make of the forbidden knowledge. In a modern, psychological sense, the persona of the rebel demi-god is a projection of our own desire for knowledge, and the punishment meted out to the rebel angel is an expression of our own anxiety and guilt in presuming to access and use such knowledge. This makes the issue pertinent to our own age.
The scientist and the artist are both modern analogues of Prometheus, and therefore also of Lucifer. Each is a messenger in the sense that each brings a revelation the social use of which has the potential for good or evil. This has become true for science since the Industrial Revolution, and is increasingly so as technology advances. The portents were also clear to artists, however, from the eighteenth century (the dilemma articulated in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"). The preoccupation of writers and composers of the nineteenth century with such figures as Prometheus and Faust and Byronic equivalents such as Manfred are symptomatic and the list of artists who explored demonic forces is a long one and includes, in composers, Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Gounod, Tchaikovsky, Boito, Liszt, Wagner and, finally, Scriabin who, in his last tone poem "Prometheus: Poem of Fire" Op. 60, made the linkage between Prometheus and Lucifer explicit.
The point should also be made that the rebel demi-god seems invariably to be linked in some way with light or fire or both. Prometheus' gift to the human race was fire; Lucifer, originally the "light-bringer" then presided over the fires of hell; and, in Nordic mythology, and in Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" Loge, the trickster, the messenger combines in his character elements of Hermes, and Prometheus/Lucifer - and is, specifically, a Fire God and also a demi-god, half human and half divine!
Illustration by Arthur Rackam
It's also worth reflecting that the name 'Satan' ( in the bibilical book of Numbers and in Job) was originally given to "one of God's obedient servants" (*) ,that is to a 'malak', the Hebrew term for 'messenger', transalated into Greek as 'angelos'. These 'angels' were also referred to as 'sons of God', and were conceived as members of a great army. The wings of these 'angels' should be on their feet, like those of Hermes. To place them on the shoulders is to confuse them with fairies! The original role of a Satan, as determined by God, was an adversarial role: to block or obstruct human activity. This role evolved later into the role of tempter: testing the faith of human's in God. Later still, the Satan became autonomous, and issued temptations on his own behalf!
(*) "The Origin of Satan: Elaine Pagels, The Penguin Press, 1996
THE HUMAN DIMENSION
FALLEN ANGELS: In 93 AD, the Jewish writer, Flavius Josephus, also a Roman citizen, published "Antiquities of the Jews" in which are many commentaries on the Scriptures. Writing on the Creation myth, he states "while all the living creatures had one language, at that time the serpent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife, shewed an envious disposition, at his supposal of their living happily, and in obedience to the commands of God". This almost human interpretation of the character of the serpent is at odds with the later characterisation of the serpent as Lucifer, or Satan in disguise. But Josephus' suggestion of a domestic triangle found fruitful soil in my dramatic imagination! And if one ascribes to the serpent the human features of a fallen angel, one finds, in Eden in the first days, an anticipation of the events described in Genesis Chapter 6 of the days after the Fall: "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." The first four verses of this chapter contain probably the most condensed and elliptic account of an era in world history in any literature. But there is a suggestion that the progeny of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" were "giants" - "mighty men which were of old, men of renown". This equates the "giants" of Genesis with the "titans" of Greek mythology who were, ultimately, at war with the gods. In that Prometheus himself was a Titan, and a demi-god (of mixed divine and human parentage) one begins to discern, dimly, the contours of an actual history of the world in these oblique references. Certainly the progeny of Poseidon were Titans, therefore, if one takes Plato's account of Atlantis to be history, it follows that (the descendants of Poseidon being the inhabitants of Atlantis) the Titans and the Atlanteans and the "giants" of Genesis are one and the same; and that, by the same reasoning, the civilisation which built Atlantis is also that which built Babel - a world civilisation with a common language! - and which was (in each case) destroyed by a cataclysmic rising of the waters.
SUPPRESSED HISTORY: The flood, however, was the most recent destruction. In researching the mythology of Atlantis for writing the libretti to these operas, I began to realise that the full story would have to include also an account of the earlier Golden Age and the catalcysm which brought that to an end. Hence "Eden In Atlantis". And this in itself presented a problem since further reading indicated that the creation myth described in Genesis itself supplants earlier history! The history which it suppresses is the history of matriarchy! For further consideration of this issue I refer you to the section below titled 'OVERVIEW'. Suffice to say, at this point, that once I made the decision to populate Eden with a matriarchal society (to recreate suppressed history) I decided that I would also have to make "adjustments" in the characters of the dramatis personae as presented in Genesis!
Before detailing these "adjustments" it's worth considering two examples of "evidence" for the suppression of the history of matriarchy. Both relate to sex change in divine identity, and are just two of many examples to be found in the writings of Robert Graves ("The Greek Myths"). The first concerns the name of the god Uranus. Uranus is a masculinisation of Ur-ana, the name of a female deity: Queen of the Mountains, of summer of wild oxen, representing the goddess in her orgiastic midsummer aspect. The myths surrounding Uranus offer one of the many examples of the usurpation of meaning which resulted from the ascendancy of patriarchy over matriarchy. Another example is the gender change which occurred when the Sumerian goddess Iahu (meaning 'exalted dove') became the Hebrew God Yahweh (Jehovah).
What is one to make of these changes? It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the original myths suggesting the existence of matrilineal societies have been suppressed in a massive re-ordering of human consciousness. It therefore seems that some invention is required to restore a semblance of historical truth in deriving drama from myth. Thus, as regards the myth of Uranus, and the Golden Age which flourished under his rule, it seems reasonable to ascribe this age to the rule of Ur-ana, as being an account of a harmoniously organised matriarchal society! If one equates the Golden Age with the Age of Paradise, then it is also reasonable to ascribe to Iahu, a female creatrix, the role given to Yahweh, in the Eden story. The question then arises: since the Age of Paradise occurred under matriarchy, is rule by female authority inherently more harmonious than rule under male authority?
I suspect not, in that power always corrupts. In a matrilineal society, the rights of male parentage would be limited. A woman would have many short term marriages. A man could be a "consort" for a limited period, probably not more than a year. This arrangement survived into Roman times in the cult practises of the Goddess Diana. I suspect that the conditions which made Earth a Paradise were not the result of social organisation but of different geological conditions. These conditions are summarised in the opening paragraph of the plot summary of "Eden In Atlantis". For this see below at "Plot Synopses of the Operas". You can also read extracts at Google Books.
Eden In Atlantis - Google Books Result
https://books.google.com.au/books?isbn=1618423142
Adam and Eve story re-written. Lucifer is a dissident scientist expelled from Celestium (at Antarctica before the pole shift), exiled to an island in the Atlantic, where a matriarchal society rules. Only Lucifer and Eve survive the catastrophe of an asteroid strike that overwhelms Paradise.
(All Rights Reserved Copyright 2011 Derek Strahan)
Diana - Queen of the Woods
ADJUSTMENTS: The "adjustments" made in the Eden story, then, are as follows:
1) Jehovah becomes Iahu, and, in place of the Creation story (which really recounts the beginning of patriarchy) is the portrayal of an established matriarchal society under a ruler named after the principle Goddess.
2) Adam becomes the son of the ruler, who is in love with Eve. The name Adam, however, is also used as a generic name meaning "the first man". The ruler's son would inherit the name "Adam" being "the man of first importance" in the community.
3) Eve, however, is in love with Daemon, another young man of the community. The love is mutual, and their feelings for each are subversive of the norm, as all romantic love is. This plot invention is a personal polemic by the writer to impose a universal value on the story. Adam uses his social position to cause the death of Daemon and becomes the consort of Eve. The name Daemon is given to Eve's lover to indicate in him characteristics which Eve, in the Creation story, found attractive: beauty and lack of fear.
4) Lucifer, in myth, is identified as the "fallen angel", the Morning Star which fell from the sky. In this story, Lucifer (the "Light-Bringer") is an earlier version of Prometheus. Lucifer's science enables him to predict the fall of the "Morning Star" - a rogue body falling into the solar system, causing havoc and. ultimately, destroying Paradise by changing the geology of the Earth through cataclysm. Lucifer, like the Serpent of Eden (who is also the Wise Serpent of Gnostic belief) is envious of Adam, being himself in love with Eve. When Lucifer, through knowledge, survives with Eve, he, in turn becomes Adam, 'the first man' in the new age. Among his progeny in the new age are the giants/titans of myth, including Prometheus, thus providing continuity and consistency throughout the opera cycle.
5) The word paradise itself comes from the Avestan (old Iranian) word pairi-daeza meaning 'a walled or enclosed garden'. The prototype of all such gardens was that of Yima, the first man. ("Memories and Visions of Paradise", Richard Heinberg. Heinberg goes on to identify Yima as the Adam figure of Iranian legend). In placing the Paradise of Eden in an island, I cite Robert Graves ("The Greek Myths) - "All neo-lithic and Bronze Age Paradises were orchard-islands".
6) I have assumed that Paradise would harbour many creatures, not all of them friendly to humans. The monsters of mythology including dragons, may well have been real species, now extinct. The walls surrounding the gardens of Paradise may have been necessary to keep monsters out!
7) Two moons in Paradise! Heavenly bodies in myth are given the role of characters in drama and are frequently named after gods, or vice versa. The sky, or heaven, is seen as their abode. This form of animism is common to all cultures. Different bodies have different characteristics, and some are seen as hostile. I have therefore developed leitmotifs to represent different bodies since, in the context of cataclysm, their "behaviour" clearly affects the lives of humans. There are numerous myths about the Moon in all cultures, varying from the Greek myth of Preselenites (who lived before the Moon appeared) to the myth of the Bushmen, who affirm that a large continent West of Africa disappeared at an epoch when there were TWO moons.
FANTASY DIGITAL ART BY ERIK TANGHE
PLOT SYNOPSES OF THE OPERAS
1. 'EDEN IN ATLANTIS". The setting of the opera evokes the earth in an earlier geological age, the "Golden Age" of Greek mythology, the "Eden" of legend. The earth is closer to the sun, the year is of 360 days, the axis is perpendicular to the elliptic, resulting in eternal summer from pole to pole. The sun is larger. The sky is a different colour. There are two moons. The earth is bountiful. Many forms of animal and marine life now extinct proliferate. Though amply provided for by nature with little effort, humans have to share their environment with many dangerous animal species, and tend to live in protected communities. On the island continent of Atlantis, matriarchal rule prevails under Iahu (named after the prevailing deity). The story concerns the love triangle between Eve, Lucifer, an older man, a refugee from another culture, who has scientific knowledge, and Adam, son of Iahu. Lucifer learns that Adam caused the death of Eve's first love, Daemon, by, firstly, conspiring to have him "married" to his mother as her "consort" for one year, and, secondly, having Daemon lead a hunting party to kill a dangerous "dragon" (a large, carnivorous reptile). Eve and Daemon are deeply in love, but such "permanent" liaisons are discouraged in this matriarchal society, where inheritance is matrilineal and male paternity is not formally acknowledged. Daemon dies during the hunt. Lucifer, who is himself in love with Eve, does not yet tell her about Adam's betrayal. Conflict is resolved by the advent of a strange "star", a body which enters the solar system. Lucifer, having knowledge of glass, metals and fire is able to predict this event and bring Eve to safety in his workshop (lair) in a cave in the side of the great mountain. Eve insists on bringing Adam with her. From this vantage point , from the mouth of the cave, they witness the "star" enter the sky and collide with the second moon. Eden is then engulfed with fire. Lucifer chooses this moment to reveal to Eve Adam's role in the death of Daemon. In despair Adam flings himself into the flaming abyss which is now Eden. Eve survives with Lucifer, who becomes her new Adam.
MUSIC DEVELOPED: In the Scena already written, Eva sings about a tryst in a walled garden (Eden) between Eva and her first love, Daemon. The music and words evoke the paradisial scene. A performance of the Scena "Eden In Atlantis" for soprano, flute/alto flute & piano is released on a Jade CD of that title JADCD-1074. The recording is also posted on Youtube in 5 parts with visuals.The link to (part 1) is:
(Parts 1 – 4 are also posted)
The Scene contains a leitmotif for the (present) moon. This was originally written as part of a film score "The Cult of Diana" ( Roman Goddess of the Moon). An orchestrated version of it and other pertinent themes may be heard in a Suite drawn from this music released on a Revolve CD "Cult of Diana" RDS 011.
2. 'POSEIDON IN ATLANTIS"
The background: This is the second of 4 dramas in the Atlantis cycle. In the first, “Eden In Atlantis”, dissident scientist Lucifer was banished from Celestium, capital city of the great southern land, for revealing secrets of fire to the common people. He was exiled to an island in the Atlantic, Atlantiha, where a matriarchal society ruled. Taking the name of Adam, he brought science to the island, by which he predicted a great catastrophe, a collision of Earth's two moons, that only he and Eva survived. Much later the population of Celestium were forced from their land by encroaching ice, and New Celestium was established on an ice-free southern island.
The story: Now two brothers. Poseidon and Zeus, with Hermes and Ares and full crew, are sailing north from New Celestium to find and colonise new territory in the great northern lands. The maps they use are ancient. They were made by their ancestors in the time before “the ice”, are therefore now inaccurate and need to be redrawn. The brothers anchor at a mid-Atlantic island to re-supply, and discover that they are on Atlantiha, inhabited by descendants of Adam and Eva, and where a matriarchal society has been re-instated, under the Queen Cleito, who rules with the assistance of a group of female advisors. Unexpectedly, Poseidon and Queen Cleito fall in love, causing Poseidon to delay departure. A quarrel between the brothers ensues over this, and Poseidon decides to remain on Atlantiha with his loyal advisor, Hermes. Half the crew remain with him while half, lead by Ares, sail on with Zeus, who laughingly abandons Poseidon to “rule over the sea”. Cleito emphasizes her ascendancy by seeking seclusion on her island retreat further up a great river that traverses the island, leaving Poseidon to search for her, while she casts spells to seduce him and prepares potions. When Poseidon finally seeks her out they quarrel over the social patterns of life in Atlantiha where women can choose men as temporary partners, termed consorts, where men have no rights of paternity, and same sex relationships abound. Hermes, who has become attached to Lilith, one of Cleito’s advisors, advises compromise so, despite disagreement, love prevails: Poseidon and Cleito resolve to “embrace what unifies, and discard what divides”. Poseidon still feels regret at how he and Zeus parted. Sailing north Zeus confesses to Ares that he feels similar regret, but must sail on to carve out a northern empire over which to rule. He predicts that, in the future, the twin empires that the two brothers create may come into conflict.
MUSIC DEVELOPED: Music themes for this opera are developed in the 20-minute work "Atlantis" for Flute/Alto Flute & Piano (released on Revolve CD "Voodoo Fire & Other Works", Revolve RDS 006.
"Through the Veil of Time"
3. "CALYPSO IN EXILE"
“Calypso In Exile” begins with the death of Poseidon under whose rule Atlantis has grown into a powerful trading nation with colonies on each side of the Atlantic. Poseidon’s first son, Atlas, inherits the empire which is divided into regions each ruled over by the remaining nine sons. Atlas feels weighed down under the burden of rule, and is particularly annoyed by the behaviour of his daughters. The ceremony for the divination of Poseidon is noisily interrupted by Calypso and her female companions who have been hustling in the harbour at Cercenes. Calypso insults her grandfather claiming he suppressed the true religion of Atlantis, now condemned as witchcraft. Furious, Atlas banishes both Calypso and Circe from Atlantis.
Ulysses visits the island of Ogygia to which Calypso has been banished, he having recently escaped from Circe’s clutches at her island. Ulysses and Calypso instantly fall in love causing Ulysses to abandon his travels and remain with her. Meanwhile Circe makes an alliance with Medusa of the Gorgons, and Sara of the Amazons, whose North African homelands around Lake Tritonis are being ravaged by raiding parties. They plot to make an ally of Zeus who they know to be now in competition with Atlas, and may wish to join them in an invasion of Atlantis. Calypso has refused to join with them and Ulysses offers to sail with her to Atlantis to inform Atlas of the plot and, in so doing, persuade him to lift her banishment order. A violent storm at sea causes the invasion fleet to founder. A handful of sailors survive to make land at Atlantis where they report on the appearance of strange apparitions and omens accompanying the deaths of Zeus, Ares, Circe, Medusa and Sara. Ulysses reluctantly tells Calypso he must leave her to return to his home. Atlas comforts Calypso, offering his forgiveness, support and bids her join a ceremony of thanksgiving to the Gods for saving Atlantis, now at the peak of its power and glory.
MUSIC DEVELOPED: The duo “Atlantis” for Flute/Alto Flute & Piano, (1990).contains an instrumental Nocturne which portrays a scene between two lovers as described above.
Leitmotifs evoking male and female principles are introduced and developed in the second segment of "Atlantis Variations". In "Maya Compound Variations", double invertible themes Maya I & II are further developed, exploring potential when used in opera.
The work "Voodoo Fire" contains a treatment of African polyrhythms which will be an important feature of religious rituals of subversive beliefs (the tribes of Amazons and Gorgons were located in West Africa). It can also be heard on the Revolve CD “Voodoo Fire & other Works” RDS006
In 2003 I wrote a 20-minute Narrative for soprano & wind quintet title “Calypso in Exile” This work was written in 2003 for the Canberra Wind Soloists on a commission from the Canberra School of Music (now the Australian National University School of Music). During composition the Canberra Wind Soloists disbanded and the work has not yet been played. The “Narrative” is, of course, sung. Its form is derived from the long passages for solo voice in “The Ring” that Wagner wrote to denote past events. The work still awaits its world premiere! Interest invited.
4. "ATLANTIS LOST"
“Atlantis Lost” Deucalion, son of Prometheus and Clymene, and Pyrrha, daughter of
King Epimetheus and Pandora, meet on the slopes of Mount Atlas. Deucalion comforts Pyrrha after a strong earth tremor. They express mutual attraction though each is an acolyte to a holy order. Prometheus intervenes to warn that their feelings may take second placed to a looming natural disaster. Pandora, in league with High Priest Phantes, is scheming to marry Pyrrha to Linos, one of the ruling Regents. Epimetheus, worried about an impeding invasion by Pelasgians plans to have himself declared a god, to enforce his authority. Atlantean blood Prince Gades, in league with the Pelasgians plans to have Epimetheus overthrown and himself installed as ruler. Learning that Pyrrha and Deucalion are in love, Phantes arrests both for sacrilege. Signs in the sky confirm fears that nature will destroy Atlantis. Prometheus, with family, Pyrrha and close associates escape on a prepared ark. As Epimetheus dies from poison during his divination and Gades appears to announce Atlantis defeated, a great tidal wave overwhelms everyone and everything. The ark sails alone on an empty ocean. Mermaids lament the passing of Atlantis.
MUSIC DEVELOPED: Some musical ideas for portraying aspects of the narative form part of my work for solo piano "Atlantis Variations". Part 1 closes with "The Golden Age" as described by Plato. Music builds to an extended fanfare to illustrate the grandeur of Atlantis at its height of fame.
OVERVIEW
TURF WARS OVER KNOWLEDGE: This is a summary of attitudes which I have encountered in the course of reading books which touch on the subject of mythology. In making inferences from mythic and legendary sources, it is usual to find some attempt to correlate information of this kind with the findings of science. There is, increasingly, an interesting interdisciplinary element in these writings, whether mainstream or "fringe". The prevailing "consensus" view in science, since the advent of Darwinism, is the "gradualist" position (also known as "uniformitarian"). Adherents of this view hold that there have been no major upheavals in the condition of the planet, and that all environmental and evolutionary changes have been "gradual". Opposed to that, and marginalised until very recently, is the "catastrophist" view: that the earth has suffered frequent cataclysmic events, some of them within the relatively recent history of the human race, the memory of which survives in accounts of prodigious mythic happenings; but for which evidence can also be found in archaeological and palaeontological data.
Polarisation of these two views seems to have occurred mainly because of rivalry in the nineteenth century between religion and science. Catastrophes such as the Great Flood and other devastating but apparently localised "Acts of God" were seen by scientists as being the province of religion, and not as having any basis in fact. To entertain the possibility that such "myths" might contain germs of truth was to give comfort to religion and to lessen the authority of science. However, it can now be seen that strict "gradualism" is just as dogmatic as the religious fundamentalism it opposes. Scientists now engage in open debate over the view that the age of the dinosaurs was brought to an end by an external agent, perhaps an asteroid, whose collision with the earth brought about a catastrophic change of environment. The near passage to earth of comets and asteroids regularly make front page news, and there was detailed TV reporting when recently a comet "the size of a mountain" was headed for Jupiter: and debate that if a body of this size collided with earth, the event would bring about a "doomsday scenario".
Ironically, "beliefs" based on scientific "gradualism" are as much based on "religion" as are "beliefs" based on biblical "myth". The originator of uniformitarian thinking was Aristotle who denied the possibility of any change in the position of heavenly bodies by placing the immoveable earth at the centre of a spherical universe inhabited by planets which moved on fixed courses, enclosed within and kept separate by invisible spheres. Later Roman writers, such as Cicero, pointed to the perfect and predictable behaviour of the planets as proof that the planets were divine, and went on dogmatically to deduce that "Therefore the existence of the gods is so manifest that I can scarcely deem anyone who denies it to be of sound mind".
Notwithstanding Aristotle and his gradualist heirs, it seems that there is a great deal of evidence emerging to support the catastrophic view of history. One inference is that humans are no less immune to the possibility of sudden extinction than the dinosaurs were; and that it has already almost happened several times! There is also polarisation in the attitudes to myth of historians, philosophers and psychoanalysts. The divergence of opposing camps occurred as early as the fifth century BC when the Greek writer Theagenes created the allegorical school of interpretation, whose adherents held that all Homeric gods represent either human faculties or natural elements. In the third century BC another writer, Euhemerus argued that myths are exaggerated accounts of events actually witnessed by early peoples, and that, for example, the Homeric gods were historical kings.
Euhemerus
The allegoric view persists in the work of the Jung school of psycho-analysis which holds that myths are an expression of unconscious archetypes. The euhemeristic view is represented by a whole series of writers, largely ostracised by mainstream science, who have adopted interdisciplinary techniques allied to lateral thinking to explore what basis of fact there might be in myth, particularly as regards the nature of human civilisation before 6,000 BC, that is, during the misty period generally referred to as pre-history.
THE TRUTH ? It seems reasonable to suppose that the historical truth lies somewhere in between these two extremes; and one must also allow for another distorting factor: the re-writing of history. We know only too well, from contemporary history, how new rulers, through censorship, book burning and repression, make assiduous attempts to re-write the very recent past. There is no doubt that the myths by which societies lived, in past ages, were subject to the same processes of revision, and for the same reasons. As Robert Graves has stated: "Primitive peoples remodel old myths to conform with changes produced by revolutions, or invasions and, as a rule, politely disguise their violence: thus a treacherous usurper will figure as a lost heir to the throne who killed a destructive dragon or other monster and, after marrying the king's daughter, duly succeeded him. Even myths of origin get altered or discarded. Prometheus' creation of men from clay superseded the hatching of all nature from a world-egg laid by the ancient Mediterranean Dove-Goddess Eurynome - a myth common also in Polynesia, where the Goddess is called Tangaroa".
As mentioned above (in The Prometheus Connection/Suppressed History) another name for Dove-Goddess, in her Sumerian form, was Iahu, meaning "exalted dove". Having read that Iahu is the original version of Jehovah (Yahweh), it then comes as no surprise to learn that the name Uranus is a masculine form of Ur-ana, a female deity representing the Goddess in her orgiastic midsummer aspect. These are only two of the clues suggesting that one of the "revolutions" to which Graves refers was the overthrow, in past ages, of a matriarchal system of social organisation, and its replacement, eventually, by entrenched patriarchy perpetuated through a system of patrilineal inheritance of property and authority. This is exactly the system described by Plato as having been established in the Atlantis of Poseidon and Atlas. Concurrent with this are accounts by other writers of invasions of Atlantis by tribes of women warriors, notably the Gorgons and the Amazons; and the accounts of subversive island kingdoms set up by "sorceresses" such as Circe and Calypso. By some accounts Calypso was a rebellious daughter of Atlas, who was expelled from the mainland for practising witchcraft.
SUMMING UP: An overview of history, which includes myth and "pre-history" places Atlantis, or at any rate ante-diluvian civilisation at mid-point between the change from matrilineal to patrilineal society. Paradise, or the Golden Age of "Cronus" (some say of "Uranus") is the age of Goddess worship, and of a geologically different world. The myth of Eden (and other similar myths in many cultures) describes a paradisial world destroyed by cataclysm (or from which humans are excluded, which - meaning non-existence - is code for destruction). In European mythologies, the matriarchal pre-history pertaining to the Edenic world has been suppressed (or re-written) and in its place we have a Creation myth which supplants earlier history.
Post-Edenic, antediluvian history, as found in myth, which includes the exploits of the rumbustious and very human Greek deities presents the spectacle of a world in turmoil, where the former matriarchal and newer patriarchal systems and religions vie for supremacy over a period of time occupying several thousand years. One must assume that that wars involving killing actually took place between opposing male and female armies; and that the antagonisms generated by such hostilities are tragically embedded in our genetic memory banks. It is during this period that, slowly, as patriarchy became established, the old Goddess-based religious beliefs were demonised so that finally, in modern times (that is, over the last two thousand years) the practises of the old religions were discredited to such an extent that it became possible to justify burning women at the stake for advocating them.
It seems probable that the demonisation of the old religions is part of the process of traumatisation which occurred when the earth was "torn asunder" by that other more recent cataclysm known as the Great Flood with which we associate the sinking of Atlantis as described by Plato and the biblical destruction of Babel.
THE TASK OF THE WRITER: seeking to reduce the vast bulk of myth to manageable proportions, to provide material for opera libretti, is (in my view!) as follows:
1) to identify an overall, unifying theme.
2) to "flesh out" mythic characters, to cut them down to size (to restore their humanity) so that they can play their part in a drama of individual conflict.
3) to relate the unifying theme to the individual conflict so that the microcosm illustrates and interprets the macrocosm.
4) in doing this to employ in reverse the revisionist principles of those who, over the ages have (as Graves says) "remodelled" myths to suit the beliefs of new regimes. That is to say, one must try to "peel off" the revisions and rediscover something of the original history of the human race!
Drama is an appropriate device for achieving this end, and opera is a particularly apt form of drama for this purpose as it combines concept and emotion to a high degree. There is scope for creativity in the rediscovery of history through myth; and there is challenge for a composer in portraying epic events occurring as a background to intense human dramas.
I am also interested in the geological background to the ancient world. Some writers have suggested that there are elements of fact not only in myth and legend but also in old folk tales. For example, skeletal remains have been found throughout the world of humans of heights up to 7ft. and over. This concords with the statement in Genesis that "there were giants in those days", and in the Greek myth of the Titans, as well as giving credence to the frequent mention of giants and ogres in folk tales. I am also inclined to believe that life has not evolved and survived in academically neat packages. Life does not conform to text books. It is all much messier! We now know that pygmy mammoths survived until 5,000 BC on Arctic islands. Perhaps the dragons and sea monsters of legend may have been survivors of earlier world ages who co-existed with humans and terrorised them until hunted to extinction or destroyed by violent cataclysm and climate change. As Atlas found out, it's a heavy world!
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