Subject: (urth) E&G- the need for Ushas

From: b sharp <bsharporflat at hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2006 12:16:31 +0000

I promised Dan'l I'd say why I think Wolfe finds Ushas necessary so this is 
my best stab at it.  I think the answer is found most clearly (hah!) in the 
play Eschatology (study of final days) and Genesis.

A long time ago in this archive, Alice Turner, Tony Ellis and other early 
titans were discussing Dr. Talos' play.  Some names  from Persian mythology 
were noted, and I think Meschia, Meschianne and Jahi were correctly 
identified as Urth counterparts to Adam, Eve and Lilith.  Further, I think 
the giant Nod was correctly identified with the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4.  
The discussion petered out after that, and I don't think it was ever 
resumed.  But I think there is something important there, worth exploring.

The Kabbalistic myth about Lilith suggests God initially made man and woman 
as separate simultaneous creations but Lilith (made partially from filth) 
wouldn't accept a submissive role with Adam (especially sexually, i.e. 
missionary position).  She ran off and mated with demons and which 
eventually resulted in lamia, vampires, human child stealing, improper 
seduction and other evils. She also managed to escape the mortality of 
humanity and lived on and on in various guises.  Later, Eve, produced 
(cloned?) from Adam's rib, was a more acceptable product.

Since Domnina and Father Inire's mirrors were recently discussed I have to 
include this side myth which I think is pertinent:

>"Now the daughter of Lilith who made her home in that mirror watched every 
>movement of the >girl who posed before it. She bided her time and one day 
>she slipped out of the mirror and took >possession of the girl, entering 
>through her eyes. In this way she took control of her, stirring her >desire 
>at will.... So it happened that this young girl, driven by the evil wishes 
>of Lilith's daughter, >ran around with young men who lived in the same 
>neighborhood."  From "Lilith's Cave," Lilith's >Cave: Jewish tales of the 
>supernatural, edited by Howard Schwartz (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 
> >1988)

In Genesis 6:4, the Nephilim giants appear after Adam and Eve and their 
descendents have become fruitful and multiplied and covered the earth.  
Apparently certain "Sons of God" looked down from heaven and found Earth 
girls to be attractive and came down and mated with them (Genesis 6:2).  
Nephilim is derived from the Hebrew verb "to fall" and thus these giants 
seem to be the product of matings of humans and fallen angels (demons).  Of 
course two demons also appear in Eschatology and Genesis.

In the earlier part of E&G, both Jahi and Nod, knowing destruction and 
re-creation are near, hope to interact with Meschia in reproductive fashion 
so as to be represented in the future.  Meschianne identifies Jahi as 
vampiric, recognizes she messed up the first creation and eventually punches 
her in the mouth.  Later, the tender but manipulative Contessa needs care 
for an unexplained minor injury. The Contessa also hopes to mate with 
Meschia.  Since both are played by Jolenta, it seems clear the Contessa is 
Jahi in disguise.  Jahi (like Lilith) never really left, but has been a 
corrupting influence on humanity all along.

In Genesis 6: 5-7  God soon recognizes the corruption and evil on earth 
represented by the Nephilim (and Lilith?) and decides to destroy the whole 
thing. But then he found Noah and his family....Hence, Ushas.

We never get to the Genesis portion of E&G except for the demonic prediction 
of Ushas, but I think we are meant to understand that Urth is like Earth; 
that humanity on both worlds has been corrupted and must be purified.  This 
corruption isn't a vague pandoric cloud of evil but very specifically 
introduced by matings between humans and demons/fallen angels.  I think 
Wolfe's choice of sailors from Tzadkiel's ship to re-populate Ushas 
represents an earlier sample of humanity, like Noah's family, which had not 
been corrupted by demonic interbreeding.

I'm pretty convinced that Wolfe identifies the pagan gods of Greece, Rome, 
Egypt, Persia etc., the early competitors to Judeo-Christianity, with these 
demons/fallen angels on Earth. The demons/fallen angels on Urth are not 
explicitly identified as such but I think they can be spotted.

-bsharp