The lyrics to this great song contain the following lines:
I am goin’ to teach peace to the conquered,
I’m gonna tame the proud.
Lots of other people have apparently noticed this before, but I just realized that the lines are a paraphrase of some lines in the Aeneid, when Aeneas’s father, Anchises, in the Underworld, tells him what the mission of Rome will be:
. . . to establish peace,
To spare the humbled, and to conquer the proud.
Anchises’s speech also foretells the history of the early Roman kings.
Dylan’s artistic bravery is something I really admire. He does what he wants to do at all times. I wouldn’t say I am a huge fan, but I respect the bravery of his career quite a bit. What albums would say are his best?
I’m very fond of “Highway 61 Revisited”, “Blonde On Blonde”, “Love and Theft” and his latest, “Tempest”. “Bob Dylan Live 1966”, featuring tour performances with The Band from that year, is maybe the best live rock album of all time. His eccentric Christmas album, “Christmas In the Heart”, is reviled by many, but I think it’s a masterpiece.
Wish I knew where I could find out about those early Roman kings.
Stay away from them, Paul — you’ll live longer.