Historical story

Jim Morrison:Why the Greek inscription was put on his grave

On this day, July 3, 1971, the iconic Jim Morrison died. A great performer, singer, lyricist, frontman of the Doors, but above all a poet, Morison left his mark with his every act.

He chose the name "Doors" inspired by Aldous Huxley's book "The Doors of Perception", which in turn referred to the Englishman William Blake's poem "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", specifically the lines "If the doors of perception were cleansed/ everything would appear to man as it is, infinite ".

Also known as "The Lizard King", James Douglas Morrison was born on December 8, 1943, in the city of Melbourne, Florida, USA, and was the eldest son of the military George Stephen Morrison and Clara Clarke Morrison. At the age of four he witnessed a car accident in the desert, where the members of an indigenous family probably lost their lives. It was an event that marked him and he returned to it in the subject matter of his lyrics.

Due to his father's career the family was constantly on the move with "Jim" going through several schools. In 1964 he moved to Los Angeles where he graduated in Fine Arts. While attending UCLA, he produced two films and collaborated with the Los Angeles Free Press.

He and his classmate Ray Manzarek were the first two members of The Doors. Drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger soon joined the band.

Led by Morrison, the band released six highly successful albums, and after the death of their frontman, released two more and disbanded in 1973.

Morrison was found dead in the bathroom of the apartment he was renting in Paris on July 3, 1971, by his partner Pamela Courson. An autopsy was never performed on the musician's body, which gave rise to a number of scenarios regarding the cause of his death. According to Courson, his death resulted from an accidental overdose of heroin, which Morrison mistook for cocaine. Courson herself died of a heroin overdose three years later. Jim Morrison was buried at the Père Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris.

In the 1990s, his father placed a marble plaque on his grave that reads in ancient Greek "AGAINST THE DEMON OF HIMSELF", loosely interpreted as "true to his own spirit".

The word "demons" refers to fate (δειομαι =to distribute) and followed as a designation any deity to whom honor was paid.

The patron deity, something like a "guardian angel", was described through the "Self Demon". It was a "channel" between the world of the living and the dead.

"I act against the demon of self" means "I act according to conscience".

Thus, the phrase "Against the demon of self" written by Morrison's father on his grave, means that the great singer acted during his short life solely on conscience, not caring what "others" will say, not caring about dictates of society. In other words, it is the phrase that fully described his uncompromising nature.

Being a landmark frontman for his time, Morrison used to challenge America's conservative mores on stage. He was arrested during his career for violating user morals, while the Doors' concerts were banned under the pretext of disturbing public order.

On September 20, 1970, he was sentenced to six months of hard labor for showing his genitals to the public during a Doors concert in Miami in the spring of 1969.

In 1971 he decided to get rid of the anti-him climate that had formed in the USA and together with his partner Pamela Courson (1946-1974) he settled in Paris to devote himself to poetry. A year before, his poetry collection The Lord and Creatures had been released.

A little later he was found dead in the bathroom of the apartment, at the age of 27. He was buried in the "poets' corner" of the famous Parisian cemetery "Per Lachaise", near Balzac, Moliere and Oscar Wilde.

As "like today" aptly observes, unlike other psychedelic music artists who tended towards mysticism, Morrison saw the expansion of consciousness as a way to penetrate the dark region of the unconscious and the unacknowledged desires of man.