Dionysus

Lee Berman · 30 Nov 2010, 13:17 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:17:52 -0500
Subject: (urth) Dionysus
Message-ID: <SNT123-W20BDD61602D74BCB083B52CF250 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn: It depends on what you mean by being a Dionysian. For C.S. Lewis, it was 
>a pre-Christian Christian. And, remember, I'm not saying Silk _is_ D., even thematically. 
>He's a _follower_ of D. I've argued that the Book of the Long Sun is mapped over Robert Graves' 
>telling of the life of Aristeaus. Aristeaus was inducted into the D. mysteries. In the Book of 
>the Long Sun, the role of D. is played by Quetzal. The inhumi are like D. in that he is known 
>as the Twice Born god. But there is someone else who died and was reborn...Pas. As the Rajan put 
>it, Pas was regrown from a seed.

As other montsers were grown on Urth from black beans? I think the Robert Graves exploration is
a fruitful enterprise. I'm wondering about the goddess Fauna (Bona Dea) and her connection to the
Town That Forgot Fauna.

I think Neighbors and Inhumi may be seen as symbiotes, intertwined (much as Dionysus and Pan are?
or trees and vines?). If Neighbors used the Inhumi to explore the humans on Whorl, perhaps they used 
the same process to explore the rest of the universe, including Urth? They do seem a bit contrite as 
they offer their planet, Blue, to Horn and humanity.

Some interesting Pan anectdotes from Wikipedia:

>Pan could be multiplied into a swarm of Pans, and even be given individual names, as in Nonnius' 
>Dionysiaca, where the god Pan had twelve sons that helped Dionysus in his war against the Indians. 
>Their names were Kelaineus, Argennon, Aigikoros, Eugeneios, Omester, Daphoineus, Phobos, Philamnos, 
>Xanthos, Glaukos, Argos, and Phorbas. Two other Pans were Agreus and Nomios...., [who] could have 
>been two different aspects of the prime Pan, reflecting his dual nature as both a wise prophet and 
>a lustful beast.

>Aegipan, literally "goat-Pan," was a Pan who was fully goatlike, rather than half-goat and half-man. 
>When the Olympians fled from the monstrous giant Typhoeus [Typhon] and hid themselves in animal form, 
Aegipan assumed the form of a fish-tailed goat. Later he came to the aid of Zeus in his battle with 
Typhoeus by stealing back Zeus' stolen sinews. As a reward the king of the gods placed him amongst the 
stars as the Constellation Capricorn.

I am thinking of when Horn first meets the Neighbors and is struck by the short, stiff hairs on the
arm of their leader. He is never quite able to count their heads or see their eyes.

Loose associations of these concepts may be all we are expected to make by Wolfe. Getting a one-to-one
correspondence between Sun series elements and earthly mythology is probably going to remain as 
elusive as trying to count Neighbors (or Shadow Children). But I'm still rather awestruck that after
decades, there still seems to be a lot of room left to explore.

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