Subject: (urth) Baldander's dream

From: Lee <severiansola at hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 03:32:19 +0000

>Gerry Quinn: Football is as pertinent to the Cumaean as virgin acolytes 

>and a desire to rule.  That is to say, the personality characterics of 

>the Cumaean as written resemble those of Echidna about as much as they 

>resemble those of Lionel Messi.

Sorry, I am not familiar with "Lionel Messi". But I disagree that he and

football have a relationship to these BotNS characters.

Mythological Typhon is a multi-headed monster representing storm winds.

His wife is Echidna, a cave-dwelling snakey sort of female. Together

they are "The Mother and Father Of All Monsters". Their Whorl children

are all named for mythological monsters.

Typhon is found on Urth. Scylla, in one form or another, is found on 

Urth. I see no reason against Echidna also also being found on Urth.

Are there any cave-dwelling snakey females on Urth who are associated

with human sacrifice?  Yep.

As previously mentioned, the mythological link between the Cumaean Sibyl

and Echidna is the Pythian Oracle. It is Apollo who ties these two

oracles together, not to mention the cave and snake.

>Nor do I recall Typhon asking after his wife when Severian subsequently 
>encountered him.

I don't understand why he would. Moreover, Typhon on Urth and in the Whorl

does not seem particularly devoted to his wife, nor vice versa.

>Should not these chains of allusion, if they are intended to be 
>meaningful, dip at some point into the personaities or storyline 
>encountered in the text?

I find snakes and caves and human sacrifice to be sufficient. This isn't a

story about the gods/aliens who lurk behind the scenes. These are stories

about Severian and Silk and Horn.

>It's true that in the promiscuously retconned mythologies of Ancient 
>Greece and elsewhere, characters absorbed characteristics from each 
>other such that probably no two characters in myth can be seen as 
>entirely separate.  That seems reason enough in itself to take the 
>position that a relatively vague link has no significance in terms of 
>identifying characters associated with the particular mythological 
>characters.

I disagree. As Severian serves as a Christ-like figure, so the somewhat

indistinctly defined gods/aliens of Urth/Whorl/Blue serve as the Sun Series

versions of our earthly pagan gods who blurred and merged with each other

eventually evolving into Christianity.