- published: 09 Aug 2013
- views: 138537
In Greek mythology, Comus or Komos (Ancient Greek: Κῶμος) is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Bacchus. Comus represents anarchy and chaos. His mythology occurs in the later times of antiquity. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged clothes. He was depicted as a young man on the point of unconsciousness from drink. He had a wreath of flowers on his head and carried a torch that was in the process of being dropped. Unlike the purely carnal Pan or purely intoxicated Bacchus, Comus was a god of excess.
Description of Comus as he appeared in painting is found in Imagines (Greek Εἰκόνες, translit. Eikones) by Philostratus the Elder, a Greek writer and sophist of the 3rd century AD.
Lorenzo Costa depicted Comus in his painting The Reign of Comus.
Comus appears at the start of the masque Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue by Ben Jonson and in Les fêtes de Paphos (The Festivals of Paphos), an opéra-ballet by Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville.
You dangling swinging
Hanging, spinning, aftermath
Your soft white flesh turns past me slaked with blood
Your evil eyes more damning than a demon's curse
Your lovely body soon caked with mud
As I carry you to your grave my arms your hearse
You stand before me defenceless
Your stare unchanging silent, cold, intense sears my
brain
Hey, hey
Drip drip from your sagging lip
Liquid red down your body spread
Your soft breast glistens your deep navel fountains
Your shadow over chair
Your shadow over chair
Your shadow over chair like a 'plane over mountains
Hey drip drip
Hey drip drip
Hey drip drip
La-lalalalaa la-la-la-la-la-la-laa la-la-la-la-laa
La-lalalalaa la-la-la-la-la-la-laa la-la-la-la-laa
In a clearing where the sunrays dance amongst the
forest's dense secrets
You will softly rest your pale beauty enshrined by the
sweet glade
Your body at peace even the earth will fill the crack
where entered my blade
Where entered my blade
La-la-la-la-la-la-laa la-la-la-la-laa...
Hey hey hey hey...
Yea, shall I cut you down
Yes 'twould be a last physical communion
I'll be gentle I'll be gentle I'll be gentle I'll be
gentle
I'll be gentle I'll be gentle I'll be gentle I'll be
gentle
And not hurt you and not hurt you
And not hurt you na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na...
All right now
Drip drip from your sagging lip
Liquid red down your body spread
Your soft breast glistens your deep navel fountains
Your shadow over chair
Your shadow over chair
Your shadow over chair like a 'plane over mountains yea
Hey drip drip
Hey drip drip