Subject: (urth) Soldier of Sidon Questions

From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:49:17 +0000

I finally got around to buying and reading SOS. Here are some things
that perplexed me.

1. This is now the 3rd Wolfe novel in a row where the protagonist has
a vampiric inhuman paramour who poses more or less successfully as a
beautiful woman. I can think of no thematic requirement (literary,
mythological, religious, or narrative) that compels Wolfe to continuously
rework this particular scenario.

On the same note, I was little relieved when they came to a fork in the river
and the branches were called "Blue and WHITE" instead of Blue and
GREEN.

2. The dog that joins Latro at the end of the book is Set or Set's servant,
I suppose: Set's heiroglyph is a dog. But who is the "scarred child"?
Any likely candidates in Egyptian mythology?

3. The titles of the Soldier series are as follows:
Soldier of the Mist (denoting clouds and the mist of memory)
Soldier of Arete (denoting mountains and soldierly virtues)
Soldier of....Sidon?

Is there a discernable double meaning to "sidon"?

J.

---

From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:56:56 +0000

> Any likely candidates in Egyptian mythology?

I just got my answer to this while poking around in the glossary.
The scarred child is Mtoto, from whom Latro cast out the demon.

---

From: Transentient <transentient at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:21:27 +0000

> rework this particular scenario.

This is obviously the influence of modern gangsta rap on Wolfe's  
writing. "Bitches ain't s*** but hos and tricks," Snoop Doggy Dog.  
Hmm. Interesting coincidence with the names, don't you think?

---

From: David Duffy <david.duffy at qimr.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:35:42 +0000

On Feb 27, 2007, at 10:49 AM, James Wynn wrote:

> mythological, religious, or narrative) that compels Wolfe to
> continuously rework this particular scenario.

The "British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt", which I am perusing to try
and work out what the McGuffin-scroll could be, says (presumably
straight-faced):

"Many of the [Egyptian] goddesses, however, could also present the more
negative, destructive aspects of womanhood, in the form of the EYE OF RA, the
daughter of the sun-god sent to persecute the human race."

I think Wolfe likes looking at traditional devils, starting with Lilith, and
at vampires.  From the Greeks onwards, there are female vampires (more
vicious than the male :)).

I have posted about the trinities that appear in several books, usually two
males and a female.

David Duffy.

-- 
| David Duffy (MBBS PhD)                                         ,-_|\
| email: davidD at qimr.edu.au  ph: INT+61+7+3362-0217 fax: -0101  /     *
| Epidemiology Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research   \_,-._/
| 300 Herston Rd, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia  GPG 4D0B994A v