Papa Emeritus III: The analysis of mythological references
Here are my thoughts of Terzo as a character, finally translated to English. Thank you to @osirisiii-bc who is so kind and gracious!
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Note: The author strongly recommends you to check out the Third Era's "policy document" - The Prologue and Introduction by Peter Bebergal before reading this article. This promotional material was sent out to the media by the label on the occasion of the Meliora release.
This analysis is based on the Prologue to Meliora written by Peter Bebergal. At first glance, this text may seem like a set of nonconnected paragraphs, as well as the music video "From the Pinnacle to the Pit" can be considered as a simple cutting of scenes from old movies. But together these two materials can shed light on the mythology of the Meliora Era and the story of Papa Emeritus III - his origin, background and motives. Let's try to understand how it happened that in the image of Papa combined three mythological characters: Prometheus, Icarus and Lucifer.
This is what the author of this analysis looked like when she wrote it
First, let's take a superficial look at the plot. The action of the video takes place in a fictional retrofuturistic city decorated in Art Deco style. The Prologue even gives us the name of this location - Meloria (not to be confused with the album title - Meliora). The city is ruled by a totalitarian cult, something like a Masonic lodge, located in the highest building of the city, which is often struck by lightning.
The protagonist is invited to take part in a cult meeting and to undergo initiation. There he meets a sultry demonic woman who gives him a magic potion (the commentary to the song "Spirit" hints that it was absinthe). The protagonist experiences a vision in which he sees how the city is actually run. Upon awakening from his trance, he escapes from the meeting and throws himself off the roof of a skyscraper. Crashing to the ground, he is reborn into the ghost of Papa Emeritus III, to whom a crowd of people flock. Papa proclaims that the light should belong to the people and rises above the city. By the way, this character has a special name, or rather, a nickname given to him by the press - Mysterious Spectre. This can be read from the page of the newspaper that Papa holds in another clip thematically related to this storyline, "Square Hammer". The headline states: "Mysterious Spectre wrestles power supply from oligarchs". Papa Emeritus in full vestments can be seen in the photo.
Now, let's dig a level deeper. From the very beginning, the video gives us a hint of the concept behind it. The words "pinnacle" and "pit" appear in the splash screen, inscribed in two triangles. The upper word is written in the style of lightning bolts, while the lower one reminds us of stone catacombs. Besides the fact that it is a Masonic symbol (and not the only one in this video, and in Ghost's art in general), it symbolizes the contrast of the heavenly and underground worlds, sacred and profane spheres.
That's what the Prologue says as well:
“Rock and roll exists in two worlds: the sacred and the profane. In the first, it harkens back to a time when people worshipped their gods by wearing masks, dancing, and often in the throes of ecstatic intoxication. In the second, rock exists in the here and now, as an expression of rebellion, sex, power, and even fame. In the realm of the sacred, the ego is destroyed when the god is seen face to face. In the profane, ego is the energy that gets things done. This is the eternal spiritual conflict: the will of the gods versus human will. Those who can keep a foot in both the sacred and the profane can change the world.“
Freemasons are everywhere!
Considering Meliora, we are inevitably faced with its duality: on the one hand, it’s a down-to-earth story about a satanic musical group controlled by the Clergy. On the other hand it’s a legend of the city of Meloria, a kind of Gotham of this fictional universe. Even Papa seems to have two incarnations: a physical and a spiritual one. But the two worlds are not only the dichotomy of matter and spirit. The video shows two levels of the metropolis: the celestial - the world of thunder and lightning, power and electricity, and the subterranean - the world of the poor and the catacombs, the underground temples "under the streets". The society of Meloria is stratified, the upper classes exist at the expense of the lower classes, who bust their hump, generating electricity for their masters and covering the foot of skyscrapers with their bones. The totalitarian regime described in the pages of the Prologue is the oligarchy's way of keeping power in its hands and suppressing any expression of free will from the enslaved people.
“Spies are everywhere. Their eyes are behind the screens of your televisions and devices, their ears attentive to every frequency in the air. Everything is mediated, pre-packaged, and pressure sealed, your lives pre-ordained.”
The watchful airships in the video are labeled grucifixes, but don't let that put us off: they are "angels," agents of the ruling class, an enemy force opposed to Papa Emeritus.
"What if man could harness the power of a god?" the Headmaster asks the protagonist. "In a sense, he would need god no longer." It may be recalled here that Meliora is essentially an album about a world without God. That's exactly how the Nameless Ghoul put it in an interview, which is cited in Revolver magazine. “Spirit Absent” ("spirit absinthe") is “Deus in Absentia”, absent God. It is a world in which man is doomed to choose his own path without prompting from above. Modern man, the man of the era of modernism, seeks to curb the laws of physics, to put heavenly fire at his service. We are getting very close to the image of Prometheus in this story.
“You have been chosen to wield this power,” the Headmaster tells the boy. “Here we are the gods.” Then he sends the protagonist to the top of the building on what looks like an elevator, which symbolizes his ascent through the lodge ranks.
The woman reveals to the protagonist that the deity called demi-surge is the source of the power that moves the gears of the city. And the same power is used to enslave its people. It is their backs that we see bowed before Moloch. The vision is replaced by the sight of a lavish ball. “Through industry, man can harness this power and attain all that which he desires!” - the woman tells and invites the character to join.
This situation is also described in the Prologue:
"The world since he was last seen has changed. Called Moloch by some, the great industrial machine has been grinding away, grinding everything and everyone down in the process."
Historically, Moloch was an ancient Semitic deity to whom human sacrifices had to be made. In the 1927 film "Metropolis" Moloch is represented by an industrial machine with an insatiable maw that devours people who labor in its bowels. And since the music video shows us the 20s of the 20th century, this machine operates on electric power. So, in this story Moloch symbolizes the dark side of progress turned against people.
Moloch in the “Metropolis” movie
The protagonist realizes that the lodge is using ordinary people as fuel for its luxurious life. He is not ready to accept this, so he pushes the woman away and, scattering, jumps from the roof of the skyscraper, from the pinnacle to the pit. There's an important element not to miss here: while he's climbing to the top of the tower before jumping, he's struck by lightning. In that moment he perhaps becomes heir to the mystical power of the demi-surge. By this Papa gains the dramatic ability to shoot lightning from his hands (and a little from his eyes).
As a man of the modern era and a resident of godless Meloria, the protagonist is free to choose how to dispose of this power. Therefore, when he becomes Papa Emeritus, already at the base of the skyscraper, he proclaims that the light should belong to the people. Like Prometheus, who stole the divine fire, he is ready to give it selflessly to the people, so that they can curb the natural force themselves. This similarity must be what the following the Prologue fragment hints at:
“…some still remember the old tales of those who tried to defy the gods. It was said they stole the fire from heaven, or called themselves equal.”
The people who rally around the sacrificed hero become Papa's flock, which is mentioned in the text:
“He is a shepherd of black sheep, the sewers are his cathedral. Here in the darkness they follow the path of the hero’s journey, the necessary travel to the underworld to become transfigured, to become something new.”
The Hero's Journey is a concept invented by Joseph Campbell to describe a monomyth. This archetypal story depicts the way of personality formation, accompanied by psychological transformation. According to the plot, the hero goes on a journey, meets a mentor, passes through a gateway where temptations await, which he must resist. Then he goes to the abyss, where he undergoes a transformation, along with acquiring the gift of the gods, and eventually returns reborn.
Doesn't that ring a bell?
Probably "From the Pinnacle to the Pit" is also a statement about art. Electricity can be perceived as a metaphor for creativity. It is a bit of heavenly power, which the creator (musician) draws from somewhere in the higher spheres and gives to his audience for free. Here Tobias himself appears as a giver of light.
The story of Mysterious Spectre will be continued in the "Square Hammer" video, where we are told that he successfully wages war with local oligarchs, wresting power from them. Let's wish him luck and pay attention to the similarity of Papa's story to two other mythological characters.
Mysterious Spectre in the background of the moon. Handsome as hell.
The cover of the single "From the Pinnacle to the Pit" shows us Papa as Icarus. Let us recall that this ancient Greek young man daringly ascended to the sun, scorched his wings with its heat and fell from heaven to earth, losing too many feathers attached with the easily melting wax. Here we can exclaim after the prophet Isaiah: "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!" Because the image of Icarus in this song is combined with the image of Lucifer. In Wikipedia we can read: "Lucifer is the Latin name for the morning appearances of the planet Venus. It corresponds to the Greek names Phosphorus Φωσφόρος, "light-bringer", and Eosphorus Ἑωσφόρος, "dawn-bringer". The entity's Latin name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil."
Or maybe he didn't fall, but jumped, as the Prologue directly tells us. A man of the modern era is free to choose his own destiny. And it is up to him to decide whether he will be thrown down from heaven or will take a step into the precipice himself, without waiting for a kick from above. Because there is no other way than "from the pinnacle to the pit". Such is the Hero's Journey.
“One figure was considered so prideful he was imprisoned in a pit where he gathered a legion to plan a great rebellion. Now they are merely stories to scare children, to remind them that defiance is a sin. Papa Emeritus III will steal your breath, the parents say. He will unscrew your hands and feet. He will take your eyes.”
Here the image of Papa is so merged with the image of Lucifer that it is difficult to understand who the text is talking about. It seems that the figure of Papa has been defamed: now he is a monster of the underworld, who is used to scare children to make them obedient. He was transformed from a light-bearer into an evil character through slander. Once again we are faced with an almost direct analogy with the Devil. By the way, isn't that why Papa addresses Cirice with the words "I know your soul is not tainted even though you've been told so" that he himself has been stigmatized, presented as a villain? Isn't this the essence of the fall and the punishment?
However Papa Emeritus appears to us: whether he is a rebel, a Melorian revolutionary who made the oligarchs tremble in their skyscrapers, a hero of the common people who brings the light of electricity and freedom to the populace, a fallen angel banished from heaven for his defiant thoughts, or a chthonic demon to scare children, he is a figure who appeals to our unconscious layers through mythological archetypes. Only one question remains: are you, dear reader, ready to follow Papa Emeritus into the abyss, taking the path of rebirth, feeling the halo above your head melting and being replaced by a mitre with an inverted cross?
