Dionysus, the Mausoleum

Lee Berman · 21 Dec 2010, 13:22 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:22:18 -0500
Subject: (urth) Dionysus, the Mausoleum
Message-ID: <SNT123-w2818BE95BCC20FE76E35D1CF1A0 at phx.gbl>

>Jane Delawney- Don't know if it's helpful or not but it appears to me at least that 
>toward the end of RTTW Cilinia / Scylla (a thirteen or fourteen year old 
>girl, who has suffered the huge misfortune of being born male-chauvinist-pig Typhon's 
>eldest child) finally lays herself to rest in a small casket ... in a mausoleum that 
>Severian has already, several volumes beforehand, determined is destined to be his own.

There has been some recent debate on whether this mausoleum is Severian's or another. I'm 
not sure but I don't think it is out of the question that part of the hidden structure 
beneath BotNS is the story of the conflict and connection between two "families" which might 
be called House of Typhon and House of Severian.

>I have to say I was quite perturbed by this on my first (and so far only) reading of RTTW - 
>strongly suggests that actually, Severian is a blood relative of Typhon, and will eventually, 
>after many time-travelling excursions, be interred in the Monarch's family monument....
>Sev loathes Typhon and kills him at the first opportunity.

Hm. If this were simply an American tale I could see how Severian might simply be the humble son of
commoners Ouen and Catherine who managed to make good. We like that sort of thing.  But since 
the story seems to draw upon Medieval, Greek and Roman themes I guess there is more to Severian's 
lineage than is openly acknowledged. Be it Arthur or Aragorn, Theseus or Hercules, that noble/divine
blood will out. (Even Jesus needed linkage to the House of David, yes?)

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