Inire and House Absolute

b sharp · 08 Jul 2008, 03:35 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 23:35:32 -0400
Subject: (urth) Inire and House Absolute
Message-ID: <BAY103-W3696D4CBB5CB657B6B9705D7970 at phx.gbl>

Roy writes:
>So who built the House Absolute, and when?

>Cyriaca's tale suggests that Typhon was the ruler responsible for the
>building of the Curtain Wall around the Citadel. That wall was a scaled-down
>version of the great Wall of Nessus, and was made of the same unsmeltable
>metal. Did the same ruler cause both walls to be built? The Citadel
>antedated the autarchy but was linked to the House Absolute by the
>space-warping properties of the passages in the Second House.

>I know of nothing in the Urth Cycle to suggest that Inire was involved with
>Typhon, and the above quote suggests that Inire was summoned to Urth. How
>was Inire "called by" Ymar? Called from where? How would Ymar even know of
>him?

I've wondered the same things and one answer is that there is no answer. That
Wolfe didn't develop that part of the story enough in his own mind for there to be
a reasonable answer.

But if there is an answer, perhaps Borski was on the right track. He thinks Ceryx
was Father Inire in disguise and Madame Prefect Prisca was The Cumaean. They 
were born in the future, did all their work moving backward in time and then they 
both die more or less at the hand of Severian in the past.  The arguments for Prisca
being The Cumaean are weaker, I think, relying on the Latin origin of her name, 
paralleling "Cumaean", "Camoena" and "Inire".

The whole idea presents some awkwardness and trying to work with his theory, I've
considered the alternative- that Inire and The Cumaean were immortal, lived forward 
in time and were just faking their deaths. Moreover, while hooded Ceryx with a head 
on a staff and magical eyes does resemble some likely Father Inire incarnations, his 
obsession with raising the dead calls the Cumaean to mind also (and her association 
with witches and Hildegrin who both raise the dead).  

Could Father Inire and The Cumaean be the same entity?

If we can assign some version of Inire/Cumaean to being Madame Prefect Prisca 
then perhaps there is the connection:  she/he served as an official of Typhon's government
and had familiarity with Ymar. So perhaps Father Inire served Typhon and Typhon's society
 in numerous roles as he would continue to do for the autarchs. Given Typhon's alien origin 
he might actually have been Typhon's  servant who became independent after Typhon's 
death (well, dehydration) but chose to be the vizier/power behind the throne rather than 
the face of power. 

Hardly an elegant theory but that's all I've got at the present moment.

-bsharp

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