All Greek 2 Me

There have been a lot of theories relating to Prince's new name,here is another.Have a look at the book, "Plato for beginners", where on pages 111-113 you will find images of the different classes that will make up the ideal society. The gold class' symbol is a circle, as these were considered by the greeks as perfect forms, i.e. the sun is a heavenly body, considered perfect, that gives life, etc. The bronze class is represented by a bronze spear, which is a long thin thing with a point on the end, and a bit in the middle of the shaft to grab onto. Putting these together we get a shape not at all unlike the '90 Nude symbol.It is unclear from the book what the silver symbol stands for, but it is another circle, this time with added curly appendages, not at all unlike the left hand side of what could be taken to be a resemblance to the treble clef in his name. There are two such shapes on the circle pointing away from each other, so that the space between them is like the right hand side of the treble clef in his name. Adding these shapes in you get his name.

Why did he do this? His whole view of the 0(+> album is the creation of the ideal state, and this is the express object of study of Plato's Republic, from where this theory of the classes originates. That the ideal state is to be christian, is no problem, as Plato is seen as the founding father of monotheistic religion by the early church, and is seen to be a significant factor in shaping christian thought. Just because he was a classical greek doesn't mean that his ideas have no connection to christianity.

Is there any other supporting evidence to this effect? Well, we know that 0(+> is familiar with classical greek work, as he adapted Homer's "The Odyssey" for the "Glam Slam Ulysses" production. Indeed in the "Interactive" video we see that the giant is stabbed in the eye by a version of his name, whereas in the original text it was a bronze spear that was used. It is not entirely implausible to think that he has read more than just this one classical work, and that this use of his name is not unconnected to its origin. Also some of the early promotional material for the 0(+> album, namely sweatshirts for "My name is Prince" were written in greek script. Why would he do this? It may be the case that he was indicating a theme that the album partook of.

It makes sense when you think of what his purpose seems to have been in taking the name, as if the name does stand for the ideal future society that he is always professing to aim for in his work, then his moniker literally does symbolise what he wants, he is calling himself after the world he wants to create. Being a symbol then, is not such a bad idea.

A little more on the supporting evidence front might come from the fact that the symbol is all gold. There were three classes, so why is the symbol all gold? We can't be sure and can only assume that 0(+> is something of an egalitarian. But, if you will also recall, gold was the circle shape, and was associated with the sun, which is, after all, a rather vital gold circle in all our lives. This might explain the references to "the children of the sun" that appeared in Mayte's recent album. Those people who are a part of the NPG are those who will play a big part in the new society and will be members of the gold class, and these people will be closely associated with the sun, hence the "children" bit.

Of course,the '90 Nude symbol is just a combination of the male and female gender symbols, and the thought that a musical addition to this constitutes his new name (see the closing paragraph of "The Making Of a Sex Symbol") is surely worthy of serious consideration,too.

Written by Craig Walmsley :(J.C.Walmsley@lse.ac.uk) Edited by Simon Quinn.

Please contact the author J.C.Walmsley@lse.ac.uk before redistributing in any way. Thanks!

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