Last Voyage

The song first quotes Canto XXVI from Dante's “Inferno” (in Courtney Langdon's translation), in which Ulysses' last voyage is recalled: unable to live peacefully the rest of his days in Ithaca, Ulysses encourages his mates to set sail once more to explore the Unknown:

Bethink you of the seed whence your lives have sprung; for not beasts ye were created, but manliness and knowledge to pursue.

At first, the voyage proceeds finely; new territory is found; though when trying to approach it, disaster strikes:

We rejoiced, but soon our joy was turned into grief, when a tempest rose 'n struck the prow of our ship.

and leads to the demise of our heroes:

Three times did it whirl her round, with all the ocean: at the fourth, it made the stern rise, and the prow sink, as it pleased another, till the sea closed over us.

And so it ends for Ulysses and his mates, who end up in Inferno, not for slaughtering the Trojans but rather for seeking the Beyond.

Why, we ask ourselves here, why is this, that we cannot eat of the fruit of knowledge, lest we lose the favor of god? Why have we to suffer just for trying to overcome our barriers? It stinks of a lie, if you ask me...

Still the lies of god by far surpass the lies of man for it wants he accepts the bounds it created for him

Not the first, nor the last voyage is this for man who craves to be more than a sheep in a pen

who craves to be more than a caged sheep.

I hope you will enjoy #Mathemorphosis' “Last Voyage”. Rest assured, Guresuke-san and I shall soon set sail again on great Mare Musicae!