What's all this fuss about?

Latin lyrics in Heavy Metal music are a common phenomenon. The darker the music, the more evil the band wanna be. What's better than using an old, mysterious, hardly understandable, cryptic, medieval and therefore almost satanic language? Unfortunately bands seldom know how to use this language properly. So, instead of evoking the demons of the realm of evil, they just evoke a hop-frog. Clatu verata nicto! - The most of you know what happened after this wrongly spoken spell.

Normally, two questions are the result of the fact that you've just read a latin phrase:
- What does it mean? (almost everybody)
- Is it correct? (just a few latin aficionados)

This page doesn't want to make fun of mistakes in latin lyrics. I wanna answer the first question to everybody who is interested. The second question is just for myself or for the two or three weird guys out there or for bands which are thinking about using a latin phrase as well. You can contact me if you want.

Samstag, 3. Oktober 2009

Behemoth - He who breeds Pestilence

Behemoth - He who breeds Pestilence - Evangelion (2009)

You can find the following latin lines in the lyrics of that song:

et credo in serpentem
misterium mysteriorum
in nomen eius Baphomet

(...)
o leo et o serpens
qui perditor perdes
sis valens nobiscum


I searched the internet but couldn't find any sources where the band took the lines from. (Very often evil satanic bands must search the holy bible to find some nice latin lines...) So I guess Behemoth created the text by themselves and they did it very well!

The meaning:

and I believe in the serpent
the mystery of all mysteries
and in his name Baphomet.

(...)
Oh lion and oh serpent!
as a devastator you'll destroy.
be strong/ powerful with us.


"Baphomet" is (as I think) three-faced idol used by the medieval Knights Templar. Nowadays it's hard to say which of the stories and legends are true and which of them are/were mere propaganda by the catholic church, because a lot of evidences the got in trials where forced by torture.
In the middle of the 19th century the artist and writer Eliphas Levi painted a sitting Baphomet with goat horns, female breasts and a serpent in his womb. This famous picture has already been used for artwork by bands like Dimmu Borgir (In Sorte Diaboli Cover) and Arcturus (Masquerade Infernale - inner picture).

2 Kommentare:

Unknown hat gesagt…

Both phrases can be found in liber xv (gnostic mass) first is part from the creed and second is part of epiklesis.
93!

markheim hat gesagt…

@ Cika: Thanx a lot for your advice!