Soldier Of The Mist: first reading (mit spoilers)

James Wynn · 21 Jan 2010, 23:58 · from 2010-January.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:58:55 -0600
Subject: (urth) Soldier Of The Mist: first reading (mit spoilers)
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Interesting, that big about anamnesis.
There were thriving Greek colonies on the Italian peninsula, which
explains Latro?s knowledge of the language and aspects of Greek
culture. If there?s a deficit in the story, its that Latro?s knowledge
of Spartan?s seems secondhand. I think the colonies closest to Rome
were Spartan.

> Why Latro is so favored by the gods is not clear to me, nor is why he can
>touch the Gods and make them visible to others.  (I'm certainly not well
>versed in Greek Myth, so these are my best guesses)

Well, he?s not merely *favored* by the Gods. He?s cursed by Demeter
because his part of the Persian army desecrated the grove near her
Temple. This IIRC was listed as a reason for the Persian?s defeat,
particularly by the Spartan 300 (where Latro was wounded). But in
Wolfian fashion, to be cursed by the gods is also to be blessed by
them?that is, in both cases one is merely touched by them. This is
quite Lupine. From his other novels, we're already used to
"enlightened" being the same as "insane". Prophets are insane until
their prophecies come true.

Having been touched by a god, he has become a Mediator between god and
man. He is both mundane and divine. So he can return the favor. He can
touch the divine and make it mundane.

> Looking back, I can't
> find any point where Eurykles was changed into the snake woman, so I'm
> guessing that this is part of his/her nature from the first meeting.

Um?no. That snake we saw leave Eurykles?s body was the little snake
that Hekate (the black goddess with the dogs) put into his drink.
Latro can see him slowly change?first into an ugly woman with stubble
on her chin, then as a beautiful woman wearing a snake belt. But to
everyone else, it is just Eurykles in drag, until at one point Latro
kiss her. This causes his divine nature to become "real", and Eurykles
becomes the beautiful woman he already was...but no one could see it
before.

J.

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