The Schematics of the Gods
Myths are mirrors of the human condition. I took the gods apart like broken systems and found them just as insecure and flawed as the rest of us. In all the centuries we've been telling these stories, nobody's gotten it perfect, so maybe I can stop expecting perfection from myself.
I've read the sacred texts, I've seen the blueprints of the divine
The faded, coffee-stained schematics for their grand and flawed design
Let's start with Zeus, the CEO, up on his marble throne
Terrified a better god will one day take his own
He's not a king, he's just a thug, afraid of his own sons
His power's just the fear he has of all the other ones
And Aphrodite on her shell, a perfect, hollow dream
She's nothing but a mirror for a man's own self-esteem
Her strength is just a currency of whispers and of sighs
The desperate, hungry emptiness behind her perfect eyes
She cannot love, she only needs, a reflection to feel whole
A beautiful and tragic, and completely empty soul
'Cause I've been in the engine room of all the gods you praise
I've seen the cracked foundations and the self-destructive ways
They're all just broken systems, they're all just pretty lies
With a fatal flaw in their design they can't see with their own eyes
They want me to be a worshipper, to bend a faithful knee
But a good mechanic can't pretend a flaw is not what he can see
Then Odin on his lonely perch, who traded his own eye
For a drink of cosmic knowledge that just taught him how to die
He sees the future, knows the end, the coming of the frost
And every single victory just calculates the cost
A brilliant, broken general who's won his final war
And now just waits in silence for what he was fighting for
And Ishtar with her seven veils of passion and of rage
A goddess of the battle and a queen upon the stage
She'll love you like a hurricane and leave you in the dust
A perfect engine running on a fuel of pure self-lust
Her power is her beauty, and her beauty is her flaw
A rule unto herself who'll never be bound by the law
'Cause I've been in the engine room of all the gods you praise
I've seen the cracked foundations and the self-destructive ways
They're all just broken systems, they're all just pretty lies
With a fatal flaw in their design they can't see with their own eyes
They want me to be a worshipper, to bend a faithful knee
But a good mechanic can't pretend a flaw is not what he can see
I looked to find a leader, a king to serve with pride
A single, working engine where there's nothing left to hide
But every god I've ever met is just another ghost
A broken, lonely monarch who is guarding his own post
And in their fatal flaws I see a truth I can't ignore
I am the only bastard who knows what the wrench is for...
'Cause I've been in the engine room of all the gods you praise
I've seen the cracked foundations and the self-destructive ways
They're all just broken systems, they're all just pretty lies
With a fatal flaw in their design they can't see with their own eyes
They want me to be a worshipper, to bend a faithful knee
But a good mechanic can't pretend a flaw is not what he can see
A flaw is not what he can see…
Yeah.
Time to get to work.