Dionysus, the Mausoleum

Lee Berman · 21 Dec 2010, 16:40 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:40:46 -0500
Subject: (urth) Dionysus, the Mausoleum
Message-ID: <SNT123-W2513B9515878E1803F9E7DCF1A0 at phx.gbl>

>Gerry Quinn- I see no obvious reason why Scylla should be connected to Severian. 
>She died (in her first form) at least a millenium before his birth.

I don't think we have very much which is "obvious" left to discuss in Wolfe's work. Haven't 
we moved on to the subtle and not so obvious? (like the antechamber being a spaceship)

Recognizing Scylla's "first form" is important I think. But is it really her "first" form? 
Dream travel seems to transform denizens of Blue into different forms. Inhumi to human for 
example. The little girl who is the form of Scylla also happens to have snakes for arms. 
I suspect this is meant to demonstrate this is not just a normal human girl. She may have died 
1000 years before Severian but she was uploaded to god form in The Whorl and she also achieved 
monster status and mountainous size in the oceans of Urth.

Scylla is mentioned in BotNS: 

>Saltus Caloyer: "...You the hero who will destroy the black worm that devours the sun;...you 
>whose breath shall wither vast Erebus, Abaia and Scylla who wallow beneath the wave...

Scylla is conflated again with Erebus and Abaia at the end of RttW. We know these guys are capable 
of pinching off human-shaped versions of themselves. Severian even interacts with one of human size 
on The Ship named Idas. He has a deeply erotic attraction to another in Juturna. Similar stuff is
happening on Blue with The Mother.

If such pinchings and clonings and interactions with the human race have been going on for 1000 years, 
it may not be obvious that Severian is related to Scylla and her ilk but a mechanism for it to happen 
seems very clearly illustrated.

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