Abaia and the undines

David Stockhoff · 11 Dec 2008, 17:39 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:39:01 -0500
Subject: (urth) Abaia and the undines
In-Reply-To: <mailman.41017.1229015788.21489.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
References: <mailman.41017.1229015788.21489.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <49415035.2020501 at verizon.net>

That's certainly true, and that's why I briefly considered a connection with the apocalypse. Arioch is only mentioned once at the opening of Book 3, and Scylla only once in Book 2. They are unimportant unless they provide a clue to the significance of the main 2. I'm not sure they do.

Obviously, all are monsters. Scylla's physical form is probably less important than the root "to rend" (conflated by poets with crab and bitch, thus her depicted form). Arioch may signify some kind of devourer, though there are many far cooler devourers in mythology. Wolfe may have chosen them to round out the bunch, but that's all I see. Maybe he wanted to give a shout-out to Milton.

Funny that Abaia did not after all cause the Flood. 

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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:49:01 +0000
From: Matthew Malthouse <matthew at calmeilles.co.uk>
Subject: Re: (urth) Abaia and the undines
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <20081210234924.D4D3A8039 at diego.dreamhost.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 15:14 10/12/2008, you wrote:

> >Otherwise, I have not found any correspondence of these names with 
> >one another or any single mythos in any way, except that the names 
> >Erebus and Arioch may have Semitic roots, and that Erebus and Scylla 
> >are Homeric.
>   

Arioch is indeed Hebrew meaning fierce lion and as a  demon appeared 
in works as diverse (or similar?) as Paradise Lost and Morcock's Elric et al.

Erebus son of Chaos was shadow.  Also a part of or alternate name for 
all of Hades.  The word has proto-indo-european roots and may be 
cognate the Hebrew erebh, sunset.

Scylla, daughter of Nissus king of Megara.  Or (more likely):  one of 
the monster guardians the straits of Messina, either 6 headed or a 
single human head with 4 dogs' heads.

Thematically all these three are bad ends for men - or mankind.

So even if their motives are complex and their actions mot entirely 
explicable I think the name are enough to tell us that Wolfe means us 
to understand that This Is Not A Good Idea.

Matthew

Si non confectus, non reficiat

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