#which would be quite funny because king Lear is not Icarus

[elodieunderglass]

I wanted to post the red dodgeball prophecy meme to make OP feel seen but wasn’t so sure if it was a super common belief that the eagle/call to action/“guy who comes to take you home” was Apollo. Ok hold on.

Solsbury Hill is in Somerset, and the city with lights is Bath.

Like many decent hills in the area it had an Iron Age hill fort. It is calcareous grassland (thin soil over chalk) and has some rare meadow species. Solsbury Hill is in decent striking distance of Glastonbury Tor and the unhinged new age/druid town of Glastonbury, and, in another direction, Stonehenge (and the competing Silbury Hill) but is (confusingly!) nowhere near Salisbury. The names sound the same but are different. something about chalk hills makes certain writers lose their damn minds… but there’s also the local idea that Peter Gabriel like… met Apollo.

It’s said that the deeply weird mythical British king Bladud, known for his careful observation of pigs, progressive attitude towards necromancy, founding of the city of Bath, and his mechanical wings - quite an interesting guy, easily in the top 10 legendary swineherd necromancer engineer kings - dedicated a temple to Apollo (the god of music, inspiration, prophecy and red dodgeballs) on Solsbury Hill, though now that I want to find one, I can only find self-referencing references about this, like this: https://www.akemanpress.com/2017/06/02/view-little-solsbury/

Of course Peter Gabriel only says that he meditated on the hill and was thinking about general stuff, but since he says in the song itself that he was struggling to think of how to explain his experience to everyone who would find him crazy, it ironically just makes the conspiracy theory stronger. That’s just what someone who wrote an Apollo-induced song WOULD say, you see?

(Interestingly; Solsbury Hill may have gotten its name from Sulis, the Celtic goddess of Bath, whom the Romans later sort of co-opted into Sulis Minerva. Her name may have meant “sight.” So even if Apollo wasn’t realistically at home on a hill in England, because that’s a frankly big reach, there was still a potential local deity to speak to Peter Gabriel. Anyway people sometimes sneakily camp on the hill to get hit with the Inspiration. There’s a labyrinth and stuff.)

(Ok so it turns out that this is not at all known so. Like. Apologies for this whole explanation.)

Anyway OP you wanted to feel seen!! here he comes to take you home!!!!

CLIMBING UP ON SOLSBURY HILL I COULD SEE THE CITY LIGHTS WIND WAS BLOWING TIME STOOD STILL EAGLE FLEW OUT OF THE NIGHT HE WAS SOMERHING TO OBSERVE CAME IN CLOSE IIII HEARD A VOICE STANDING STRETCHING EVERY NERVE I HAD TO LISTEN I HAD NO CHOICE I DID NOT BELIEVE THE INFORMATION JUST HAD TO TRUST IMAGINATION MY HEART GOING BOOM BOOM BOOM SON! HE SAID! GRAB YOUR THINGS IVE COME TO TAKE YOU HOME 😭😭😭😭 TO KEEP IN SILENCE I RESIGNED MY FRIENDS WOULD THINK I WAS A NUT TURNING WATER INTO WINE OPENED DOORS WOULD SOON BE SHUT SO I WENT FROM DAY TO DAY THOUGH MY LIFE WAS IN A RUT TIL I THOUGHT OF WHAT ID SAY .. WHICH CONNECTION I SHOULD CUT I WAS FEELING PART OF THE SCENERY I WALKED RIGHT OUT OF THE MACHINERY MY HEART GOING BOOM BOOM BOOM HEY HE SAID GRAB YOUR THINGS IVE COME TO TAKE YOU HOME HEEEEEEYYYY BACK HOMEEEEE WHEN ILLUSION SPIN HER NET IM NEVER WHERE I WANNA BE AND LIBERTY SHE PIROUETTE WHEN I THINK THAT I AM FREE WATCHED BY EMPTY SILLHOUETTEs WHO CLOSE THEIR EYES BUT STILL CAN SEE NO ONE TAUGHT THEM ETIQUETTE I WILL SHOW ANOTHER ME TODAY I DONT! NEED! A REPLACEMENT! ILL TELL THEM WHAT THE SMILE ON MY FACE MEANT MY HEART GOING BOOM BOOM BOOM HEY!!!! I SAID YOU CAN KEEP MY THINGS THEYVE COME TO TAKE ME HOME!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[jesters-armed]

#bladud was the father of king Lear#the Shakespeare one yeah#and if the wings were attributed to him in his correct time he predated Icarus#by several hundred years!!#they probably weren’t though#because it is unlikely that he was precisely real#and that he precisely built mechanical wings out of feathers 700 years before Icarus.#he probably didn’t found bath#he probably couldn’t talk to dead people#and he probably didn’t#do a lot of things#including breathe#I saw a blog post exploring whether Bladud might be an aggregation or aspect of Daedalus#with the Athena patronages and Apollo dedications matching as well as the mechanical wings#which would be quite funny because king Lear is not Icarus#bladud as both Icarus and Daedalus#sittin in the spa with his pigs#and some thousands of years later people pretend they totally don’t#camp on this hill#to get hit with the songwriting dodgeball

CLIMBING UP ON SOLSBURY HILL I COULD SEE THE CITY LIGHTS WIND WAS BLOWING TIME STOOD STILL EAGLE FLEW OUT OF THE NIGHT HE WAS SOMERHING TO OBSERVE CAME IN CLOSE IIII HEARD A VOICE STANDING STRETCHING EVERY NERVE I HAD TO LISTEN I HAD NO CHOICE I DID NOT BELIEVE THE INFORMATION JUST HAD TO TRUST IMAGINATION MY HEART GOING BOOM BOOM BOOM SON! HE SAID! GRAB YOUR THINGS IVE COME TO TAKE YOU HOME 😭😭😭😭 TO KEEP IN SILENCE I RESIGNED MY FRIENDS WOULD THINK I WAS A NUT TURNING WATER INTO WINE OPENED DOORS WOULD SOON BE SHUT SO I WENT FROM DAY TO DAY THOUGH MY LIFE WAS IN A RUT TIL I THOUGHT OF WHAT ID SAY .. WHICH CONNECTION I SHOULD CUT I WAS FEELING PART OF THE SCENERY I WALKED RIGHT OUT OF THE MACHINERY MY HEART GOING BOOM BOOM BOOM HEY HE SAID GRAB YOUR THINGS IVE COME TO TAKE YOU HOME HEEEEEEYYYY BACK HOMEEEEE WHEN ILLUSION SPIN HER NET IM NEVER WHERE I WANNA BE AND LIBERTY SHE PIROUETTE WHEN I THINK THAT I AM FREE WATCHED BY EMPTY SILLHOUETTEs WHO CLOSE THEIR EYES BUT STILL CAN SEE NO ONE TAUGHT THEM ETIQUETTE I WILL SHOW ANOTHER ME TODAY I DONT! NEED! A REPLACEMENT! ILL TELL THEM WHAT THE SMILE ON MY FACE MEANT MY HEART GOING BOOM BOOM BOOM HEY!!!! I SAID YOU CAN KEEP MY THINGS THEYVE COME TO TAKE ME HOME!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭