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From: "Tony Ellis" <tellis at futurenet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Dr. Talos' Play
As we might expect from a play called "Eschatology and Genesis", this
is also a re-telling of the Genesis story. The Biblical Genesis story is itself a re-telling of earlier Sumerian genesis stories, as I'm sure = Wolfe knows. There is even a throwaway reference to a Greek genesis myth: in Greek mythology the survivors of the flood are told to repopulate the world by throwing stones (the bones of Mother Earth) over their = shoulders, and in the play we have:
MESCHIANE: It might come to life. I heard something once about raising sons from stones.
I had originally thought that that was a reference to Jesus words about being able to raise up stones as sons of abraham as a warning to those who trusted in their heritage to save them. I don't know if that fits the reference very well without looking.
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The names Meschia and Meschiane... I have an idea that these are the names of Adam and Eve in another (Hebrew?) genesis myth. Any ideas?
I remember from the Urth Dictionary that they were from the (persian) Koran?
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Nod, the giant, is one of the Nephilim. Go back to the Biblical Genesis story and you'll find the Nephilim described as the offspring of angels and the "Sons of God" - one of those little details which reminds us that this story originated as Sumerian creation myth. Who were the Sons of God? Nobody knows for sure, but they obviously have no place in the conventional Christian universe.
Huh? Part of the Bible but not the "christian universe"? I guess most assume they perished in the flood (except for grendels mother :-).
Or they just represent the godly line of seth intermarrying with the cainites.
"I am an impure thinker. I am hurt, swayed, shaken, | paul + | + elated, disillusioned, shocked, comforted, and I | --|-- have to transmit my mental experiences lest I die." | + | +
-- Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy | pduggan at world.std.com