The Traitor By Leonard Cohen

The Traitor
Greek mythology contains innumerable stories that involve mandates and prophecies. In these stories, the hero embarks on a journey to overcome some beast or creature and then returns home as a better man having fulfilled his mandate. However, in Leonard Cohen’s song, “The Traitor,” the hero is on a stage before his peers as he fails a mission; the hero betrays his old dream of finding true love for the prospect of having intercourse. The song later reveals that he was never supposed to find love and he must now cope with the results of his predestined failure.
Established early in the piece is an extended metaphor of a swan and flower; in this case, the swan is the hero, and the flower is his maiden, but the relationship between the two has yet to be defined. This illustration strengthens the imagery of how the outsiders are closely observing them since swans float on rivers for all to see; “Now the Swan it floated on the English river / Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide” (Cohen). The hero even says that “... the judges watched [them] from the other side” as they passed the summer together in their own little world, which is illustrated by the river (Cohen). Even though the couple’s peers are judging them, the two flirt and exchange conversation as if they are alone. The couple remains together regardless of the adversity posed by those outside the
For the hero, this means that he should seek happiness with his physical partner even though he never found his soul mate. He must also cope with having ruined the maiden’s chance at a normal life with a loving husband. And though he fails, this hero’s atypical mission is a valiant one. The hero is seeking love but prematurely settles for a physical interaction with the maiden because she is his first