Borski and cacogens (Long)

b sharp · 23 May 2006, 12:15 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 08:15:22 -0400
Subject: (urth) Borski and cacogens (Long)
Message-ID: <BAY103-F787918780719E926AD5FAD79B0 at phx.gbl>

maru writes:

>So you think the Cumaean was a single really weird hierodule? Funny-
>I'd always took it as a message that this was a single entity who
>inhabited multiple humans over time (the many faces and continuous
>snake), possibly in an Autarch-way of eating the brain.  One wonders
>what Autarch Sev would look like....

I believe Wolfe specifically identifies Inire and The Cumaean as cacogens in 
one of his appendices, but I like your idea! It fits well with my upcoming 
post on the purpose of The Cumaean and witches.

In Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, the Tralfamadorians can see in four 
dimensions, that is all of time simultaneously.  So to them, a human being 
looks like a long caterpillar with a baby's legs at the back and an old 
person's head at the front.  Something similar for The Cumaean?

If we take a mythological point of view (as Wolfe seems happy to, at least 
in part) we could say in simple terms that there are three basic sorts of 
beings:

                               Beast     Man     God(s).

Magical creatures are usually found in the spaces  between.  In modern times 
and modern mythology (SF, Fantasy?) we can add Machine to that Trinity, 
though there are rare examples of them in ancient myths (the Greek Talos, 
for example, perhaps the Golem is another).

So I wouldn't call The Cumaean (or Inire) Hierodules because they have 
bestial associations (and may be capable of rather beastial behavior.).  
They are ugly and can scare small children (Domnina) when they smile.  The 
Hierodules or "holy slaves" seem to inhabit the space between human and 
angel (or arch-angel as Tzadkiel's name suggests). They are inhumanly 
beautiful and are so pure we aren't even supposed to discuss slime around 
them.

-bsharp

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