A Sleep Token Deep-Dive: Part 2
In which I do a literary and visual analysis of the lyrics of Sleep Token's album Even In Arcadia
Now for the lyrical analysis, with some visual analysis too, because I can’t resist!
Across multiple songs on the album Even In Arcadia, there are SO MANY CLASSICAL REFERENCES in general, and specifically to Arcadia itself, as well as the duality of life/death and love/grief I mentioned in Part 1, which is obviously a huge part of ST’s whole shebang.
In the first track “Look to Windward” they mention a garden of gardens, and in Caramel there’s a line “Is it going good in the garden?”
Now these could refer to Arcadia, but they probably also hark back to the garden of Eden, which formed the main thematic focus for their earlier album titled, of course, “Take Me Back To Eden”.
I think this is interesting in and of itself, that they’ve shifted from biblical references to more classical Greco-Roman references, but there are still lots of biblical allusions in the lyrics of EIA as well.
Back to the classical ones though:
In “Emergence” there’s the line “glory to the legion” which might tie in with the imagery they’re using on Spotify of Roman battle-standards and banners similar to those held by legionnaires on the battlefield.
SPEAKING OF the Spotify imagery, the two songs that have the most classical references (I think) also have unique artwork/backgrounds. Those are “Even in Arcadia” and “Damocles".”
They still feature the Roman-style battle standards, but the background for the song “Even in Arcadia” specifically shows an Arcadian-like dream world of Greco-Roman buildings and temples nestled into a hillside.
And then for “Damocles”, we can see a hybrid version of a Greco-Roman temple front with fountains and pediments and free-standing columns. (See below for more on what this might allude to…)
In the song itself “Even In Arcadia”, almost all the lines have some kind of classical (or biblical) allusions.
Come now swing wide those gates —> could be gates to a garden/Arcadia, or Eden, or the pearly gates of heaven, or all of the above!
‘Cause I have paid my penance kindly well in time for judgement day —> again blending Greco-Roman and Christian ideas of paying your way to the afterlife, like leaving coins on the deceased person’s body for the ferryman Charon, who ferried souls across the river Styx to Elysium/paradise.
Somehow I knew my fate —> kinda speaks for itself, but it reminded me of how Virgil speaks about fate in the Aeneid, his epic poem about the aftermath of the Trojan war, and how the gods would still intervene even if the heroes’ fates were already determined
Turns out the gods we thought were dying were just sharpening their blades —> ties in with the above, about the gods intervening, sometimes to tragic ends (also references to blades pop up a lot throughout the album—see below with Damocles!). This could also refer to the three Fates from ancient Greek religion, who spin, measure and cut the thread of our life.
The next few verses of “Even in Arcadia” have more of a biblical feel to me, so moving ahead to:
No matter what is real, it seems that even in Arcadia you walk beside me still —> the classical shepherd wandering through Arcadia, and finding that Death (or their long lost love) walks besides them still, either in memory/grief, or in a metaphysical sense, like the woman in Poussin’s painting (see Part 1).
Have you been waiting long for me —> this line kinda broke me, not gonna lie, because I couldn’t help but think of the shepherd, the searcher, the seeker, making their own way to the afterlife, to paradise, and finally meeting their beloved again, and asking them if they’ve been waiting long.
OR it could allude to Death walking beside them as well, and wondering how long Death has been waiting to take them.
I also thought of their even earlier album “This Place Will Become Your Tomb”, which echoes down through to this album being set in Arcadia, with allusions to Poussin’s painting of a tomb.
NOW FOR DAMOCLES (ok that could be a great band name)
Again as soon as I saw the name of this song, I thought of course about the Sword of Damocles, another story from the classical Greco-Roman world.
Damocles was a courtier at the palace of the ancient Greek king Dionysius, and wanted to get on the king’s good side, so he extolled how wonderful it must be to live as the king, and have all that power and wealth and good fortune.
The king said (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Ok, bet” and let Damocles be king for a day, so he could see what it was like—but he arranged for a sword to be hung over the throne by a single hair from a horse’s tail.
Damocles, understandably, had a terrible time as king, even for a day, because despite all the wealth and beauty and authority at his fingertips, he still had the blade hovering over him, threatening his life at any moment.
It represents the dual-edged nature of wielding power, especially for a king like Dionysius, who made a fair few enemies in his rise to power. He had to constantly watch his back, his front, and his sides, because of that constant fear.
Here’s a 19th-century painting of this tale, when artists were again inspired by the classical period, so we now refer to art and literature and architecture from the late 1700s and early 1800s as Neo-Classical.
BACK TO SLEEP TOKEN, and the lyrics of Damocles.
Well, I’ve been waking up under blades —> like poor Damocles himself
Blue blossom days —> I’m not sure on this one, but blue flowers tend to represent longing? (Anyone who knows more about the language of flowers please weigh in!)
If only Damocles would hit me back —> Love this play on words, like Damocles has the blade himself, and/or hasn’t phoned him back
No alabaster carvings or faces on a farthing —> alabaster or marble, like in the Westall painting above, or y’know all those classical sculptures in marble (and the face on a farthing is definitely a reference to British/English monarchs 👀)
Who will I be when the empire falls —> isn’t that just the eternal question, through all the empires and kingdoms that have risen and fallen through all of human history, including at this moment in time, right now?
The song Gethsemane doesn’t have any big classical references that I can discern (but please let me know what you think!), however the title is a reference to the Garden of Gethsemane from the bible.
That’s where Jesus prayed with his disciples the night before his crucifixion, when he realized one of them would betray him. I couldn’t help but think of the connection with Arcadia, where Gethsemane (a place of betrayal and death, and where Jesus’ dark night of the soul happens, if you will) is an inversion of Arcadia (a green, thriving, lush paradise).
In Infinite Baths, I wasn’t immediately sure of any classical references, but after seeing the lyrics, I’m now wondering if there’s maybe a connection to the famous baths of the Roman Emperors?
The first line especially, “When you plucked me from the grotto” made me think of Emperor Nero’s grottos in his old palace, the Domus Aurea in Rome (which you can still go and visit! It’s fascinating!). It’s now mostly underground, so the cavernous vaulted halls resemble caves, and the Italian word for cave is “grotta”.
This then became “grotto”, and is where we get the word “grotesque”, because of the decorations they used all over the palace complex, which depicted strange hybrid creatures like sphinxes and mermaids and satyrs.
In the Spotify imagery for Damocles, with that hybrid temple-esque architecture, we can see figures riding similar hybrid creatures, like horse-mermaids, AND the whole scene seems to resemble another Roman emperor’s pleasure palace, Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli.
The fountains and columns around the reflecting pool might be an allusion to Hadrian’s famous complex of baths and gardens, which then ties back into “Infinite Baths”.
The architecture in the Damocles Spotify image also seems to be such a mishmash of styles and time periods.
It reminds me of Mannerist or Baroque buildings from the 17th-century in Europe, when architects were taking the “rules” of Renaissance (and therefore classical) architecture and remixing them by experimenting with positive and negative space, light and shadow, flat and curved shapes, etc.
I also love the cyclical, ourobouros moment at the end of “Infinite Baths”, with the repetition of the line “Will you halt this eclipse in me”, just like in the opening track “Look to Windward.”
This could also refer to all those examples of eternal, futile struggles from the classical tradition, like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill, or the Danaides pouring water into a leaky basin forever. (The latter could also then tie into the symbolism of “Infinite Baths” as well…there seem to be layers upon layers of meaning in everything!)
On that note, I’ll stop there for now. Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know if I missed any references, or if you have any more info on the topics I mentioned.
I would love to do this for their earlier albums too, so let me know if you’d be interested. (And if someone can weigh in on the flamingo reference, that would be amazing, because I have no clue on that one.)
Til next time!