Serpents and Undines

Lee Berman · 30 Jul 2010, 04:56 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:56:58 -0400
Subject: (urth) Serpents and Undines
Message-ID: <SNT123-W325683320469223E30F991CFAA0 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff Wilson- She [the Cumaean] appears as a clump of many serpents to Severian's
>second sight, the way Dr Talos's face looks like a stufffed fox's. She doesn't actually
>unmask, other than sword-swallowing the rod that should be too big for a
>human being to do so. The rod remains visible in the swarm, making a kind
>of living caduceus,

I think it is a single snake-like thing which extends to nether-dimensions; no visible head. 
The "many" are faces which form the pattern on the "reptile's" back "the eyes of each face 
seemed lost in rapture".

I absolutely agree on the caduceus reference. I can't decide if Wolfe is approving or 
disapproving of modern medicine's symbolic nods to its pagan roots. (including the Hippocratic 
Oath which starts- 

>"I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all 
>the gods, all the goddesses, to....)

To speculate further, I do think the witches serve, in some manner, in a medical capacity for
some members of the Commonwealth. There are a few bits of evidence that witches are involved 
in the whole khaibit-blood sharing process used by exultant women.  

The Cumaean shows an obsession with resurrection of the dead and I have a suspicion that she, 
like Inire, takes on a few other guises in the story. Hers serve her in the quest to winnow the
secret of true resurrection from Severian; a skill even Tzadkiel does not possess.

One is the old leech. He (she) tells Severian that a person of his great skill is working with 
Vodalus for an ulterior motive. 

Leech- "there is nowhere a man in my profession can learn as I learn here."

Severian- "you mean the eating of the dead?"

Leech- "No, no. Learned men- particularly of my profession- practice that everywhere....The 
knowledge I seek cannot be learned in that way, since none of the recently dead possessed it,
and perhaps no one has ever possessed it". We are never told what the Leech is actually 
trying to learn but I can guess and also guess who he/she is hoping to learn it from.

The other possible Cumaean guise is  Ceryx, from the distant past, also obsessed with raising
the dead, also incapable of Severian's true version of it and insanely jealous as a result.

I see the seance scene with Severian, the Cumaean and the witches as a strategem aimed at 
Severian all along, not Apu Punchau. If Jolenta had been a witch it might have been her they
were really trying to resurrect via Severian.

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