god(s) and gods

Jack Smith · 28 Nov 2010, 10:19 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: jack.smith.1946 at gmail.com (Jack Smith)
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 05:19:48 -0500
Subject: (urth) god(s) and gods
In-Reply-To: <4CF1C33F.9020801 at sky.com>
References: <4CF1C33F.9020801 at sky.com>
Message-ID: <AANLkTi=3kJgND5TgU20LaYZwg7i8e5JVbcZC2p7yR4aJ at mail.gmail.com>

I think "Pas" is a corruption of "Pan", the Greek god of rustic places.
"Pan" means everything, as in "pandemic" or "pandemonium".  Scylla,
possessing Chenille, explains about the gods being members of Pas' family on
Urth and says "with Daddy to be the god of everything--that's what his name
meant--and boss over everybody."   (LotLS, ch. 11)

Perhaps "Pas" is also meant to suggest the French "pas" (meaning "not") to
indicate a negative quality.


On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 9:49 PM, Jane Delawney <jane_delawney at sky.com>wrote:

> Not at all sure what this means but anyway ...
>
> Why is Typhon known as Pas on the Whorl?
>
> (btw, I am sure there was a thread regarding this question on the list
>  fairly recently, but I'm darned if I can find anything on it in my archive,
> so apologies if this is a Previously Solved Problem.)
>
> The noxious kind-of-canines which roam the Whorl's ventilation /
> heat-exchange system are known by the Whorl's chem soldiers (and also by
> Vironese convicts consigned to the Pits) as gods, because they are the exact
> reverse of what one would normally expect a domesticated dog to be
> (ferocious instead of benign, unmanageable rather than obedient, and so
> forth). Silk is a little leery of this designation for obvious reasons, but
> uses it none the less because there is no other name for them.
>
> 'Pas' is Serbo-Croat for 'dog'. And Typhon/Pas is in most ways the exact
> reverse of what many would expect a father-god to be; he's a 'dog' rather
> than a 'god'.
>
> Would not be at all unlike GW to introduce this kind of bilingual pun ...
> just because. It gets all of us scratching our heads, and is pretty amusing
> once one has figured it out - yet it has no deeper significance at all, it's
> just Typhon (or rather GW through 'Typhon') having a laugh.
>
> Any views?
>
> JD
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-- 
Best wishes,
Jack
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