{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1085",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1085,
    "subject": "A question concerning etymology and Wolfish intent...",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2001-02-01T04:31:39+00:00",
    "last": "2001-02-01T08:32:27+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0104@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "M Smith",
        "address": "autarch2000 at hotmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2001-02-01T04:31:39+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) A question concerning etymology and Wolfish intent...",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Gutentag,\n\nI'm not sure if this has been discussed yet...but I've been pondering the \netymology and significance of Patera Quetzal's name for a while. Could it \nhave something to do with Quetzalcoatl? Perhaps some ties with the Aztecs, \nsince they were involved in bloody rituals (the inhumi connection?)? I know \nWolfe is familiar with American mythologies(\"Native American\" would seem too \ninclusive, I think), besides every other classical mythology out there.\n\nAn asimi to whomever can piece this together.\n\nM.D. Smith\n\n\"Mundus vult decipi\""
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0109@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at sirius.com"
      },
      "date": "2001-02-01T08:32:27+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (whorl) A question concerning etymology and Wolfish intent...",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0012-0104@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "M.D. Smith wrote:\nI'm not sure if this has been discussed yet...but I've been pondering the\netymology and significance of Patera Quetzal's name for a while. Could it\nhave something to do with Quetzalcoatl? Perhaps some ties with the Aztecs,\nsince they were involved in bloody rituals (the inhumi connection?)? I know\nWolfe is familiar with American mythologies(\"Native American\" would seem too\ninclusive, I think), besides every other classical mythology out there."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Yes, Quetzal's name has a definite connection to the Toltec/Aztec god\nQuetzalcoatl.  (To me at least: I wasn't familiar with the quetzal bird\nwhen I first read NIGHTSIDE THE LONG SUN, but I certainly knew about\nQuetzalcoatl.)\n\nThe parallels between the god and the character are open to debate.  For\nme, the primary ones are: a \"reptilian\" nature (the god is called \"plumed\nserpent\" and the inhumu has snake-like features); a dual nature (the god,\nfor one reason or another, is also a mortal hero; the character is an\ninhumu posing as human); an aversion to human sacrifice (the god is\nnoteworthy as being one of the few, if not the only one, of the Aztec gods\nwho did not want human sacrifice; the character has halted human sacrifice\non the Whorl); one who fights on the side of light/life against the forces\nof dark/death (the god as mortal was killed by the treacherous warrior of\ndark/death; the character seems to have been struggling against inhumi who\nwere preying upon the humans on the Whorl).\n\nAs it turns out, the quetzal bird really was the animal symbol of\nQuetzalcoatl (as owls to Athena, peacocks to Hera).\n\n=mantis=\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}