Theme Song as Essential for the Development of Myths

It is possible that under certain conditions something which is fundamental to poetry happens spontaneously; and in the form of something similar to television “theme songs” and “fight songs” for sports teams with which we are quite familiar. Such popular songs—and sometimes chants—are like backdrops or symbols for a poem’s subject, which could be anything from a newborn to a living hero to a pet to a loved one to a god. When we consider the earliest hymns, composed in honor of rulers and deities, attributes of the subject are merely listed, often rather crudely. This is still done when a mythological character (or group) first asserts itself. It is the sensuous “concept” of the character—and this concept often precedes narrative. Here is a TV theme which many of us still know by heart:

They’ve got a power and a force
That you’ve never seen before
They’ve got the ability to morph
And to even up the score

No one can ever take them down
The power lies on their side

Go Go Power Rangers
Go Go Power Rangers
Go Go Power Rangers
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers

They know the fate of the world is lying in their hands
They know to only use their weapons for defense

No one will ever take them down
The power lies on their side

Go Go Power Rangers
Go Go Power Rangers
Go Go Power Rangers
You Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers

Compare this with a portion from Utterance 274 of the “Cannibal Hymn”:

Pharaoh has risen again in the sky.

He is crowned as Lord of the Horizon.

He has smashed the back-bones,

and has seized the hearts of the gods.

He has eaten the Red Crown.

He has swallowed the Green One.

Pharaoh feeds on the lungs of the wise.

And likes to live on hearts and their magic.



Pharaoh abhors against licking the coils of the Red Crown.

But delights to have their magic in his belly.

Pharaoh’s dignities will not be taken away from him.

For he has swallowed the knowledge of every god.

Pharaoh’s lifetime is eternal repetition. 

His limit is everlastingness.
 In this his dignity of : 

‘If-he-likes-he-does. If-he-dislikes-he-does-not.’ 

He who is at the limits of the horizon,

for ever and ever. (tr. Wim van den Dungen)

I am not saying that the above Egyptian hymn is the same as the Power Rangers theme. But I am suggesting that both could be integral to the formation of mythological characters. That is to say, hymns may have something to do with what we call “character development.” It is almost as though in songs and hymns such as these that character and narrative are rolled up into one large mythico-musical expression. Whatever plot-like elements are buried in these all too vague expressions suggest a rich background of important events in which the essential traits of the character or characters in question have revealed themselves. The song of the victorious hero returned home—or of the beloved cat whose appearance delights its owner—may spring from the same source as hymn. It is even possible that ordinary people collectively develop the character of gods and demons through theme song, which in time becomes epic narrative and sometimes hymn—once the status of the being is official.

Allen Ginsberg, in “Howl,” shows that the same can be done for the “bad guys” as is done for the heroes.

What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children
screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Con gress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!
Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!