Dionysus, the Mausoleum

James Wynn · 21 Dec 2010, 15:01 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 09:01:53 -0600
Subject: (urth) Dionysus, the Mausoleum
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-w28394E23FCDC06E74CB1F2CF1A0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-w28394E23FCDC06E74CB1F2CF1A0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4D10C161.7070104 at gmail.com>

>> James Wynn: I think Severian is a clone of Frog and the hero in the Tale of the Student
>> and His Son. That's why he saw his face in the tomb.
>
> Lee-
> James, as I understand your theory, Spring Wind is Typhon so Frog (and Severian) would be as sons of Typhon. I'm not sure how the Student and His Son legend
> relates to Typhon though.
> You've noted that Typhon is modelled on Alexander while the Student/Son hero
> is quite modelled on Theseus (with more emphasis on sailing, a sea labyrinth,
> and naval battling.

Typhon is not JUST Alexander, anymore than Pas is JUST Pan. Typhon, I 
suspect, is the Student. And, Severian "brother/ancestor" is the hero. 
We are told the story of The Student and his Son which ends in the Son's 
return and the Student subsequently tumbling from his castle. And then, 
a short time later, hello, Severian (sort of) returns to Typhon's 
mountain and Typhon goes tumbling down.  This theory, of course, implies 
that, at the beginning of tSotT, Erebus is dead and has been for some 
time. It also implies that Frog's birth was not entirely natural.

> Does Frog's twin brother Fish figure into the picture in any way?

Well, Fish certainly would identify where Severian's twin has gone. My 
working theory is that Fish, Frog's twin, was a clone of Typhon. So, the 
twin slain by his brother, ala Romulus/Remus, is a replayed when 
Severian kills Typhon.

>
> I've been noticing so many gnostic opposite pairings lately, like
> Severian-Typhon, Matachin Tower-Witches Tower, Father Inire-Tzadkiel,
> Commonwealth-The Ship, I'm thinking  paired mausoleums may be Wolfe's
> intention rather than an error.

Maybe.

> [just a side note, in re-reading the Boy Called Frog story I notice that
> Spring Wind's soldiers were, "drilled until they seemed men of bronze,
> quickened with fire". This and their loyalty to Spring Wind does sound
> much like Alexander's army (though they were long past the Bronze Age and
> into the Iron Age). The thing that really struck me is that "bronze, quickened with fire" is pretty much an exact description of the construction of mythical Talos. Coincidence in BotNS to have a character of this name? I'm not seeing a direct
> connection but Talos guarded Crete and can thus be associated with the
> heroic tales of Theseus and Jason.]

It made me think of the taluses in The Book of the Long Sun.

u+16b9

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