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    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6587",
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  "thread": {
    "id": 6587,
    "subject": "Short Stories 73 and 74: The Woman Who Loved the Centaur\n Pholus/The Woman the Unicorn Loved",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2014-07-30T23:11:38+00:00",
    "last": "2014-07-30T23:11:38+00:00"
  },
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    {
      "message_id": "<CAF1072z12t-KK6zShMq3Tu-YzdKmQJaabi3X+Co+3pYCrhG4kw@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Marc Aramini",
        "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2014-07-30T23:11:38+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Short Stories 73 and 74: The Woman Who Loved the Centaur\n Pholus/The Woman the Unicorn Loved",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
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          "text": "“The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus” first appared in *Isaac Asimov's\nScience Fiction Magazine* in 1979; “The Woman the Unicorn Loved” appeared\nthere in 1981. Both are reprinted in *Endangered Species. *The summary\nbelow also makes some comments about the poems interspersed throughout, so\nmight be worth perusing.\n\nSUMMARY, CREATURE OBSERVATIONS, AND POEM PLACEMENT:\n\n“The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus”\n\nIn a tale set at the end of the 20th century or at the start of this one,\nProfessor Anderson is awoken from his sleep before dawn by a call from his\nassociate Janet and gets ready to go help her and her crew of Mythical\nConservationists. Several ordinary species have gone extinct recently and\nadvances in genetic engineering have allowed mythical beasts to become more\nor less a reality. Because of the widespread possibility of genetic\nengineering, people are making monsters and then releasing them into the\nwilderness if their experiments are not successful. The army is seeking to\nkeep it under control, often using violence.\n\nAnderson looks at the engineered waterhorse he keeps in an aquarium, made\nfor him by his colleague Dr. Dumont. It reminds him of a verse from “The\nBattle of Lake Regillus” which mention the steeds of Castor and Pollux (see\nLiterary Allusions below — Castor and Pollux resonate throughout the first\nstory), and Anderson cannot recall the name of the author, Thomas\nBabbington Macauley. He dresses in warm durable clothes, and thinks again\nof the middle lines of the quoted portion describing the armor of Castor\nand Pollux which begin “Never on earthly anvil” as he considers his\ncold-weather gear and remembers the murder of a bird woman, a “weak and\nfrightened siren”, in the snow at the start of winter, then segues\nmistakenly into a poem called “Amphitrite” (the wife of Poseidon), which he\nattributes to Darwin's ancestor, regarding waves and the wife of Poseidon\nsteering her shell, which he possibly thinks of because of the line about\ndrinking from an earthly stream in the Macauley poem.\n\nDuring his drive to meet Janet, Anderson thinks that the taillights of the\ncars in front of him resemble the red eyes of beasts, which brings to mind\nan Assyrian named Nin who was also murdered (certainly a Shedu man-bull, a\nmale version of the lammasu, a protective winged deity with the body of a\nbull — one of these was also found in Aslan's army in C.S. Lewis' Narnia\nbooks.) The wings of the Shedu remind him of the siren again, and he says,\n“They sell everything but Odysseus' wax, but then I don't need Odysseus'\nwax” - referring to the scene in the Odyssey where Circe gives Odysseus\nearwax so that the wail of the sirens will not tempt his men. (It does seem\nthat Janet in some ways represents a siren's call for Anderson throughout\nthe story)\n\nJanet contacts him on CB, identifying herself as Sombelene, a reference\nAnderson does not recognize (it is from Lord Dunsany's “Bride of the Man\nHorse” — see Literary Allusions below) and Anderson as Peirithous (again,\nLiterary Allusions below). She tells him where to meet them (they\nostensibly use pseudonyms to hide their actions — working somewhat against\nthe army who seeks to ?clean up?/annihilate rogue man made mythic beasts).\n\nAn army helicopter passing overhead puts him in mind of a poem called “The\nCranes of Ibycus”, where Ibycus praises the birds as companions. In\nreality, the cranes serve as an evil omen for the soon to be murdered poet\nIbycus, and the helicopters bode ill here as well. Anderson sees a\nbillboard praising the river sternwheeler *Apollo 2 *and turns off the\nroad, thinking of lines from the “Hymn to Proserpine” by Swinburne which\nbegins “Will thou yet take all Galilean?” (concerning the lack of joy the\nspeaker sees in the deaths of the Roman gods and the ideological dichotomy\nbetween the pagan revelry and the somber sinless but still moribund one of\nthe Judeo-Christian God, no doubt stirring the idea of a battle about to\noccur between the modern world and the ancient brought to life in the\nstory) and knows that he is going to a fight. Anderson also thinks that the\nmost important thing is to fight the good fight rather than win.\n\nA bearded man working with Janet who is later named Paul says that there\nare more than one type of engineered beast out there, and their existence\n“makes one feel like Adam” in discovering new life. Anderson says they\nsense where natural life is dying out and migrate to those areas.\n\nA colonel approaches Anderson, and is surprised that he teaches classical\nliterature. He mentions a cat the size of small dog with the head of a\nsnake was killed yesterday, and Anderson speculates real wild cats must be\nmuch more dangerous than that one. The colonel has been ordered to clean up\nthe mess of these unnatural creatures, and the Mythic Conservationists are\nin the way — he assumes Anderson is in charge because of his height and\nmale gender, but Anderson says the colonel is wrong about many of his\nassumptions.\n\nWhen the media arrive, they hone in on Janet as the leader, and she\nindicates that these creatures are people. Dumont asserts that this\n“life-shaping” is moral and that the products of the work should be\nprotected as animals are. Janet says it is done to finally see the “friends\nour ancestors dreamed of” while the bearded man, Paul, speaks in more\nreligious terms, saying man has the authority to name, and to name was to\ncreate.\n\nThey go on the hunt, with the conservationists given orders to stand\nbetween the army and the beasts so none are killed. Anderson gets lost,\nthen sees Janet in a red ski suit, thinking of the lines from The *Iliad*\nin which Thetis begs Zeus to grant her one desire (to give honor to her son\nAchilles). Dumont, Janet, and Anderson convene, and soon a wounded young\nfaun appears. Contrary to their initial assumption, another genetic\nmodification has bitten him and he has not been shot, as Anderson knows\nfrom his experience with gunshots in the Marines. The faun reveals that\nthere was a “dead twin”, bear-like footprints in the woods, and terror.\nThey realize someone has created real monsters, like werewolves or Anubis\nand Set, even “Narashimha, the lion-man of the Vedas” (who is an avatar of\nVishnu).\n\nWhen Anderson admits that they must lead the soldiers to the dangerous\ncreated monster before humans are killed, Janet is enraged and runs off,\nwhere her centaur appears to carry her away in his dark enormity. Janet\nchooses the engineered myths over humanity of the 20th century, and\nAnderson walks back with the faun, thinking of Shelley's “Adonais: An Elegy\non the Death of John Keats” and the last visitor who comes to mourn for\nAdonais. “The road and the cars, all the relics of the dying twentieth\ncentury except himself, would be in the direction opposite the one Pholus\nhad taken. Anderson trudged towards them.”\n\n“The Woman the Unicorn Loved”\n\nAnderson is in his office, and sees a unicorn comes trotting between\nfragrant pines and the “river of steel and rubber roaring out of the heart\nof the city”. The unicorn is white, with dark red hooves and a bull's tail\nseen in heraldic beasts, with a horn as long as a man's forearm. When the\nunicron is crossing traffic, Anderson thinks of merciless Pluto in a quote\nfrom book 9 of the Iliad — death being the only god unmoved by offerings.\nAnderson goes down to meet with Dumont and pushes through the crowd\nsurrounding the unicorn. (Knowing only virgins can touch a unicorn, some\nstudents push a cheerleader towards it).\n\nAnderson runs past it as Dumont tries to feed it, and warns the group not\nto antagonize the modified horse. Anderson wonders if the conservationists\nor the army will arrive first, and a female graduate student takes the\nwhite bread of Dumont and offers it to the unicorn. Anderson fears she will\nbe killed, and he quotes Revelation: “Behold a pale horse: And his name\nthat sat on him was Death.”\n\nThe horse takes kindly to the girl and eats the bread and lets her stroke\nits horn, before the police arrive in a gunship and gas the area.\n\nAnderson returns to his office to clean up after the chaos, and finds the\ngraduate student, named Julie Coronell, already there. She indicates she\nwants help finding the horse, and tells the story of the derivation of the\nname pumpernickel for the bread she has brought for it — a french general\nsaving German bread for his horse Nicole at the time of Napoleon, saying\n“pain pour Nicole.” She asks about the origin of unicorns and Anderson\nreveals them to be Indian in nature, a misunderstanding an mistranslation\nof a description of an Indian rhinoceros. Anderson mentions Chesterton,\nsaying that unicorns were always real - “to think of a cow with wings is\nessentially to have met one.” He says the unicorn is a symbol of masculine\npurity.\n\nDumont calls saying the unicorn was spotted on the far side of the practice\nfield. Anderson needs him to get a hold of the tranquilizer gun or they\nwon't be able to do anything.\n\nAnderson indicates many people are making these genetic conglomerations in\nthe city, but the horse is too big and must be from a rural area. They\nspeak of his seahorse at home and he explains that Balios and Xanthos were\nPoseidon's steeds, but that the waves were his herds, the whitecaps a\nsymbolic mane for his horses. He goes on to demonstrate that most of the\ncreatures she would create have already been thought of in myth, such as\nthe roc and Pegasus.\n\nDumont arrives and Anderson reveals he knew that Julie has hidden the\nunicorn herself or she would be more urgent instead of engaging in all that\nsmall talk. She says it is hidden in the library, in the fantasy section.\nThe watchman was complicit with her, and soon, amidst discussion of the\nnature of fantasy fiction and its relationship to classical literature,\nwith mention of Cabell, Gardner, Oz, and the Overworld (of Vance?) they\ncome across the dead body of Bailey the watchman, gored by the unicorn. (He\nwas called Beetle after the cartoon strip of the lazy Beetle Bailey, no\ndoubt).\n\nAnderson reasons that even without advanced intelligence his sense of smell\nled him to feel abandoned by Julie. He knows that with the doors closed the\nhorse must still be there, and he plans to goad the unicorn outside by\nopening the doors and tempting it with freedom while Dumont waits with his\ntranquilizer. He quotes Aiken's “Semlin”, which states that unicorns “come\ndown to the sea” in the moonlight.\n\nJulie begins to cry and Anderson quotes Walter Scott's “Twist ye, twine ye”\nabout the inextricable nature of suffering and happiness, and, according to\nAnderson, “That this isn't the end. Not for men or women or unicorns.\nProbably not even for poor old Bailey. Threads are long.” She kisses him\nand the unicorn attacks in jealousy. His reaction is just quick enough to\nescape with a belly wound as he is knocked down. He grabs onto the horn and\nis dragged and kicked, eventually realizing his leg is broken.\n\nKnowing that stallions don't kill if the other lies down and surrenders, he\ndoes so and sees “the white head — silhouetted against the twinkling\nconstellations now, the colors seemingly reversed as in a negative, the\nlongsword horn both new and ancient to the sky of Earth.”\n\nThe horse spares him and he remarks that the unicorn is heading to the lake\nshore, and that he was “a superhorse — armed, with size, strength, grace,\nand intelligence all augmented.”\n\nJulie ends the story with a nursery rhyme about England and Scottland: “The\nlion and the unicorn/were fighting for the crown/The lion beat the unicorn/\nAnd sent him out of town”. She remarks that it all came true, except for\nthe last part of the rhyme, which concerns plum cake, and Anderson denies\nthat there was a lion at all.\n\nCOMMENTARY:\n\nThe juxtaposition of classical poetry and action shows us a pretty clear\ntheme: those who understand the past and the mythical dreams of mankind\nknow important things about not only contemporary humanity but also have\nuseful knowledge about how those dreams are being explored. Anderson is\nperhaps the most erudite of Wolfe’s heroes, with his Marine background and\nPhD in classical literature, and the third person limited point of view\ntied to his perspective seems to be reliable.\n\nWhile the story is a fairly simple exploration of genetic engineering\n(re?)creating the mythical creatures of yesterday, the classical poetry\nthroughout grants immense allusive depth to an otherwise straightforward\ntale and lets us see that the dreams and fancies of humanity have not\nchanged unrecognizably — old knowledge is still useful. Since we are in a\nmetaphysically simple situation in these stories, the third person\nnarration is much easier to parse than in works such as “To the Dark Tower\nCame” or “The Eyeflash Miracles”. While the quoted poetry usually only has\na tangential or imagistic relationship to its surroundings, any look at\nthese stories must examine the placement of the texts and see if the\noverarching poetic themes of the poems and quotations are relevant\nthematically as well.\n\nWhen Anderson sees the small waterhorse, he remembers a verse from the\nBattle of Lake Regillus where the Romans and the Latin League of the\nTarquins fight, and Castor and Pollux mysteriously arrive to fight for Rome\non twin steeds. Historically this was the final bid of the once powerful\nTarquins for power in Rome. The Tarquin's struggle has little to do with\nbattle in Wolfe’s story and instead invokes Anderson’s strange feelings\nabout his tiny watery steed, which has never been in nature. The water\nhorse is of course associated with the kelpie, and the myths are mixed a\nbit — some malevolent, some benign. However, the presence of Castor and\nPollux is no accident, as they will feature in the story of Perithous, the\ncode name Anderson has chosen, whose betrothed is abducted by centaurs. The\nbattle between centaurs and Perithous is mirrored in another mythical\naccount, that of Pholus, the only civilized centaur besides Chiron, who is\nactually of semi-divine origin. When the centaurs anger Heracles, he slays\nthem with poisoned arrows, and both Chiron (the divine centaur) and Pholus\n(a friend of Heracles) die in this fashion. We will return to this in\nLiterary Allusions below.\n\nThe second story has another thesis: that fantasy is a natural outgrowth of\nclassical literature, and, furthermore, that many of the fantastic beasts\nare misunderstandings or mistranslations of nature. The root of\nPumpernickel as folk etymology, starting as bread saved for a horse named\nNicole, as well as the exploration of a unicorn being a mythical outgrowth\nof a real description by Pliny of a “monoceros” or an Indian rhinoceros,\nwith its traditional horn based off of a narwhale's. Thus myth and reality\nare strangely interwoven here, and it is the understanding of the\nstallion's nature that allows Anderson to avoid being killed.\n\nThe old thesis that fantasy and science fiction are the real heirs of the\nancient classical literature so respected by the literary establishment is\nonce again put forward by Wolfe in the second story quite forcefully in the\nlibrary scene, and the relative paucity of classical poems in this section\nspeak to its more modern theme. The character Ed says, “That's what fantasy\nis — classical lit that's still alive. When the people who wrote those\nstories did it, their books were called fantasy.” Wolfe of course has his\nclassical scholar Anderson agree.\n\nWhile both stories have “Woman” and ?Love? in the title to show that they\nare part of a series, of course the women are different.\n\nRELIGIOUS ALLUSIONS:\n\nAnderson's name, son of Andrew, also implies Son of Man. This Christian\nimagery is not overt but is reinforced by a few associations in the second\nstory especially — when Julie reveals that her specialty is 20th century\nfiction, he says that his focus is 2000 years earlier — pretty close to the\ntime of Christ's birth on the cusp of the change from the pagan world view\nto that of Christianity, which so many of the poems address. In addition,\nthe final poem leaves with the image of the lion defeating the unicorn —\nwhile winged lions signify St. Mark, lions without wings represent Christ\n(according to the fairly contemporaneous “The Eyeflash Miracles” by Wolfe).\nJulie identifies Anderson as the lion, who “defeats” the unicorn by\nironically surrendering and recognizing its beast with his superior\nforesight — it does not kill as men would.\n\nIn addition, while the first story almost entirely references poems set in\nthe classic mode with a very few biblical statements concerning the\nbeginning (Adam and “the word”, for example), the second story features\nsome Christian apocalyptic imagery: “Behold a pale hose: And his name that\nsat on him was Death.” The large, tawny haired Anderson is certainly hinted\nto be a lion by Julie, who says every aspect of her final rhyme came true\nsave the plum cake: “The lion and the unicorn/ Were fighting for the crown;\n/The lion beat the unicorn/ And sent him out of town.” While his tawny\nlarge frame is not directly mentioned in the first story and Anderson\ndenies being the lion, the Dunsany quote below in literary allusions does\nmake a rather memorable statement about Sombelene and lions who fear to woo\nher.\n\nWhile there is perhaps not much to Anderson's association with this\nimagery, the second story seems to show the difference between man and\nbeast, almost an inversion from the conclusions of the first one, that show\nthe anger of Pholus and perhaps hint at a war between the world of man and\nthese new beasts in much the same way that the pagan and Christian\nworldviews clashed. Anderson's knowledge of myth and the instincts of\ncreatures allows him to triumph in the second story, but it is not certain\nthat he does so in the first.\n\nLITERARY ALLUSIONS:\n\nThe name Sombelene which Janet uses for her handle comes from Lord\nDunsany's story, “The Bride of the Man Horse” - for this reason, the more\nclassically educated Anderson does not know it's source. There is a very\ntelling line in Dunsany's story that I think resonates with Wolfe's\nreference as well: “Not all of us have sat at historians' feet, but all\nhave learned fable and myth at their mothers' knees.” Of Sombelene, who a\ncentaur who has just become an adult goes to woo, it is written:\n\nHer father had been half centaur and half god; her mother was the child of\na desert lion and that sphinx that watches the pyramids; -- she was more\nmystical than Woman.\n\nHer beauty was as a dream, was as a song; the one dream of a lifetime\ndreamed on enchanted dews, the one song sung to some city by a deathless\nbird blown far from his native coasts by storm in Paradise. Dawn after dawn\non mountains of romance or twilight after twilight could never equal her\nbeauty; all the glow-worms had not the secret among them nor all the stars\nof night; poets had never sung it nor evening guessed its meaning; the\nmorning envied it, it was hidden from lovers.\n\nShe was unwed, unwooed.\n\nThe lions came not to woo her because they feared her strength, and the\ngods dared not love her because they knew she must die.\n\nThe man-horse grabs her by the hair and takes her, ironically to be her\nservant, though she shows no animation or life in any of the narrated\nscenes.\n\nThis last lion reference is interesting in light of the final image we are\nleft with of Anderson in the second story, as mentioned above.\n\nAnderson's handle of Perithous is also interesting: Perithous and Theseus\nbecame friends after Perithous challenged Theseus' heroism. During his\nwedding party with Hippodamia (whose name means horse tamer, roughly), the\ncentaurs became drunk and unruly and carried her off. The battle with them\nresulted in victory for Perithous. Later he attempts to steal Persephone\nfrom Hades after Theseus steals Helen (whose brothers, Castor and Pollux,\nsteal her back when Theseus and Perithous are captured in Hades by the\nFuries — then Helen can be taken and start the Trojan War) . Heracles fails\nto save Perithous from Hades, but Heracles' friend the civilized centaur\nPholus, along with the more divine centaur Chiron, will die from the\npoisoned arrows Heracles will use to slay the bestial, uncivilized centaurs.\n\nGiven the prominent position of Castor and Pollux and the types of poems\nselected by Wolfe, his primary source was probably Bullfinch's *Mythology*\nand the accompanying *Poetry of the Age of Fable*, which is the only source\nthat Darwin's poem about “Amphitrite” is readily and easily accessible (no\ndoubt Wolfe appreciates the irony of quoting Darwin's ancestor in a text\nabout the manufacturing of entirely new - but already conceived - species\nthrough science). Macauley's poem is listed under the Castor and Pollux\nheading in Bullfinch as well, primarily the section of the poem Wolfe\nquotes, and not far from there are references to the poet Ibycus and his\nstory: believing that cranes are a good omen, he is robbed and killed on\nthe road, and the cranes serve to identify the murderers so that justice\ncan be maintained.\n\nFor this reason, rather than believing that the poems are randomly\nassembled, I think that the story of Castor and Pollux was one of the\nstarting points for Wolfe's research into the story rather than a\ncoincidence, and I do expect that there should be some “twinning” going on,\nthough of special note is that Castor is normally considered a mortal,\nwhile Pollux is of more divine origin.\nOn a different note, with Anderson's thoughts of the Sirens, it does seem\nthat he is tempted to join the wilderness by Janet's pleas, and Darwin's\npoem of Amphitrite also mentions water spirits:\n\nFair Amphitrite steers her silver shell ;\nHer playful dolphins stretch the silken rein,\nHear her sweet voice, and glide along the main\n\nAs round the wide, meandering coasts she moves,\nBy gushing rills, rude cliffs, and nodding groves,\nEach by her pine, the wood-nymphs wave their locks,\nAnd blue-eyed Naiads peer amid the rocks.\n\nThe final stanza that closes “The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus”\ndescribes a lonely stranger comes to mourn for the passing of Adonais, from\nShelley's elegy on the death of Keats. The first part of that elegy laments\nthe sadness and loss of all the joyous, natural things in pretty explicitly\npagan cosmology. The stanza referenced is a turning point, however, in\nwhich this stranger, probably the poet Shelley himself, appears, and the\ntone of the poem shifts to one of the celebration of life even though\nAdonais/Keats is gone. However, the somber tone of the “The Woman Who Loved\nthe Centaur Pholus?' ending, and the separation between the resurrected\nmythic world and the ?dying” world of the 20th century, seems to maintain\nthe tone of the first half of the elegy.\n\nOf special note is the idea that the Christian world and birth of Christ\nbrought about the death of Pan, associated with Fauns, and here, at the\nconclusion of the story, we have a wounded faun returning to the world.\n\nThe second story has far fewer classical illusions, referencing the Iliad\nand the Bible, but by far the strangest reference is the Aiken's “Senlin”,\na series of vignettes in which the main character undergoes several\nmetaphysical shifts, becoming the things that the thinks about, whether\nthey be trees, his city, or other abstract concepts as he unearths the past\ninto the light of day, finally becoming something of a dream. The section\ndealing with unicorns going down to the sea is rather oddly taken as\nincontrovertible fact — the unicorn is assumed to be heading to the water\nbased on the passages from “Senlin”.\n\nThe brief vignette from Osenso that begins “Pity the Unicorn,/ Pity the\nHippograff,/ Souls that were never born/ Out of the land of If!” simply\nserves to ground the fantastic premise of a unicorn lingering in the\nfantasy section of a library.\n\nIt ends with a nursery rhyme which actually concerns the relationship\nbetween Scotland and England, since they are symbols of the United Kingdom.\n\nTHE TWINS:\nWith the pairing of Castor and Pollux (one human, one divine) and the\nhistorical blurring of Chiron and Phollus (one centaur, one divine) into\none creature, is it possible that the final centaur is a twin? “Only once\nbefore had Anderson seen him. Then he had thought him roan, the human\ntorso, arms, and face, Caucasian. Now Pholus looked black, bigger than any\nhorse, immensely bigger than any man, muscled like a giant.” Or is this\nchange in appearance simply a symbol of his rage and rebellion against\nmankind and ideological separation from Anderson? The faun speaks of “the\ndead twin; the footprints like, but not quite like, a bear's; the terror in\nthe winter-wrapped woods.”\n\nNAMES:\nWe have already mentioned the mythical names and how Anderson can imply Son\nof Man, another name for Christ, but in light of the limerick about the\nlion and the unicorn, Julie Coronell's name must certainly imply she is the\ncrown that the lion and unicorn are fighting over. (Even though her name\nmore accurately means column, though the change to -r- in the name implies\na crown).\n\nUNANSWERED QUESTIONS:\n\nAre the roan and then black centaur really one individual, the same Pholus?\nIs the bearded man named Paul who quotes scripture in the first story just\nwhat he appears to be, a normal person involved with the Mythical\nConservationists? Given the presence of the Castor and Pollux allusions and\nthe conflation of Chiron and Pholus in some ancient documents concerning\ncentaurs, it almost seems that the twin theme is quite deliberately\nrepeated in the references Wolfe selected. There is a version of the Castor\nand Pollux myth in which they are given alternate times to live, sharing\nthe immortality of Pollux.\n\nWhy is the man-bull shedu named Nin, which, in Assyrian, probably implies\n“sister?”\n\nCONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS:\nI feel this is the science fictional version of Wolfe's Nebraskan stories.\nThe main character seems to be a bit more astute and well-informed than\nmany of Wolfe's other protagonists, who are at times deliberately obtuse,\nbut the future coming to resemble the imagination of the past summons New\nSun as well."
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}