Subject: (urth) Hierodules

From: b sharp <bsharporflat at hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 10:48:48 +0000

I'm pretty sure the  ugly Hierodule masks of F, B and O are an insect, a 
lamprey (fish) and a human leper.  I think Famulimus is the leper.

yep, earthly hierodules, uh praying mantises, have very triangular heads.  
So does Thecla (face anyway).  Perhaps Michael Andre-Driussi also?

Praying Mantises are pretty scary looking up close but helpful to us because 
they eat a bunch of nasty, harmful bugs.  Plus they pray!  Deliberate 
symbolism by Wolfe?

---

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 02:11:53 +0000

On 5/26/06, b sharp <bsharporflat at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I'm pretty sure the  ugly Hierodule masks of F, B and O are an insect,
> a lamprey (fish) and a human leper.  I think Famulimus is the leper.

This is correct. And there were exceptionally beautiful human
faces -- to the point, as I recall, that they were no longer quite
human -- underneath the second layer of masks. Severian, if I
recall correctly, remarks that they appear to him to be what the
walking statue in the garden of the House Absolute was based
on.

--Dan'l

-- 
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