Juturna, the Missing Sister

Lee Berman · 27 Jul 2010, 17:34 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:34:41 -0400
Subject: (urth) Juturna, the Missing Sister
Message-ID: <SNT123-W13053690C13EFE82A718D5CFA70 at phx.gbl>

Jeff Wilson-
>It's more than likely Abaia's would see to it that his seed survived in 
>Juturna, if such a thing were possible.

>But let's look at Juturna's name. She's a bit of a Jotun, true, and 
>Juturna was a Roman goddess of fountains who saved her brother Turnus, 
>at least for a bit.

>Now, who else may travel the Corridors of Time and is associated with 
>fountain? And why would an otherwise loyal concubine of Abaia with no 
>prospects of returning to the land seek to help some land-lubbing foundling?

Well, many major power players including Father Inire, The Old Autarch and 
The Cumaean (via Hildegren) explicitly state that their strategy involves
playing both sides so as to benefit no matter who wins. Why not Abaia?

The fountain connection is nice but for me the strongest evidence for a
family connection between Severian and Juturna is the ridiculous, 
apparently unfulfillable, sexual ardor they share for each other. Sounds
like the incestuous Severian family curse in action. Seems even stronger
than what Severian and (his cousin?) Agia feel, so maybe "sister" is a
good assessment.

This family curse is shared by all the family pantheons of pagan gods. Who 
did they have (initially) to mate with but each other? Adam and Eve's kids
faced a similar problem (as perhaps did Adam and Eve- clones via rib?).

In my interpretation, the lust between Severian and Juturna is gone at their
meeting on Ushas because the family curse of incest has been broken by the 
coming of the New Sun as the pagan curse on Earth was broken by the Flood 
and the rise of Judeo-Christianity with its immaculate conception and virgin
birth. But yes, surely Juturna carries some potential for demon-spawn within
herself.

Still, when you say "missing" sister I have to think of Severian's absent twin, 
Severa. I have a difficult time tracing a Juturna lifestory which allows for 
that identity switch. Actually, among all the candidates for Severa, I find 
only one has the potential for Severa as a real name- Jolenta, which could be
only her stage name.

We expect Severa to have been a witch (exiled?) and we don't know what Jolenta
was doing before her months as a waitress. Wolfe hides her hair color when 
Severian first meets her then seems to reveal it with the "newly hatched chick"
thing. Borski thinks the "gold" hair is a sign for Severian family-hood.

There is a lot of dialog to the contrary but I must wonder whether Jolenta
was the real purpose for Severian's meeting with the witches in the Stone Town
...trying to save the life of one of their own, via Severian's power. Perhaps 
similar to Severian's "accidental" resurrection of Dorcas from the Lake of Birds. 		 	   		  
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