Chorale (feat. London Philharmonic Orchestra)

The gods bless and so they curse

For better or for worse

Sire children with their human slaves

They demand blind loyalty

From beggars to royalty

From the cradle to the grave

An age of wisdom, madness and glory

An age of war and brooding peace

One chapter from an ageless story

Known as Ancient Greece

Achilles of Thessaly

Cursed with flawed immortality

Agamemnon of Mycenae

In turn with ambition

Ulysses of Ithaca

Longs for peace and security

Long be his road to achieve them

Menelaus of Sparta

Is granted the hand of Helen

To share his throne

He worships her beauty

And thereby is damned

For the gods have fashioned

Her image on one of their own

They give with one hand

Take with the other

Mystic schemes

For mortals to discover

Inside both human and divine

Half truths

Believable lies

A glimpse of glory

To covetous eyes

Fashioned scenes where their end

Justify their means

An age of wisdom

Madness and glory

A time for atonement

Sorrow or joy

The gods watch as the tale unfolds

Behind the walls of Troy

Priam and Hecuba

As regents of the nation

Seek only for peace and prosperity

Hector of Troy

Their son, a soldier, a hero

Who proudly caught his destiny

Paris

In love with life and his beauty

Hears a goddess call his name

Will he follows his head or his heart to her

Or turn away in vain

Oh Paris, come wander from your fold

And grant me your apple cast from gold

Answer my call

I can offer it all

Take me as your reward

Be mine Paris

For ever and ever

A princess of Troy

Watches over the boy

And prays

Her senses deceive her

Only Cassandra can see what future hold

And only her priest will believe her

Oh Paris

I saw from the start

One goddess

One human counterpart

The gods give and so they take

So with reason on a razor's edge

They praise and humiliate

The King of Troy makes a pledge

Exploit the pleasure and the pain

To send his son in search of peace, understanding and goodwill

They destroy then compensate

Will this nation ever be the same?

Lavish love, extol the hate

Or will insanity reign?

Now a young man heeds the call, bewitched by a goddess

Paris will you see the hidden truth?

So the debt is called

Or will you hide behind the mask of youth?

You should have known better