Where's the Minotaur?

Lee Berman · 10 Feb 2011, 01:17 · from 2011-February.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 20:17:09 -0500
Subject: (urth) Where's the Minotaur?
Message-ID: <SNT123-W48F3253A70A3EBE64C5628CFEC0 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff WIlson:  and it reminded me that I had been meaning to pick up the thread about 
>the "teratoid symbols" Sev sees on the door to Inire's mirror chamber. 
>Thecla also has seen the chamber door, and describes their designs as 
>labyrinthine. So LEE BERMAN, where's the Minotaur?

Heh, that one's a bit too easy Jeff. I wasn't sure if you were kidding or not. But perhaps
you haven't followed any of the discussion between James and I on the general mythological
subject matter. Finding Dionysus and Ariadne is sorta tough. Finding Theseus, not so 
difficult. Minotaur, somewhere in between I guess.

In the tale of the Student and His Son, the Son is obviously a Theseus analog. His labyrinth
is a series of islands and channels, his Ariadne is Noctua so obviously the Naviscaput is
the Minotaur analog. As the raper of his sister Night, the Naviscaput is mythologically like
Erebus. But Severian compares this creature to Abaia. So, first answer for Minotaur= Erebus and Abaia.

But we also have monster and labyrinth symbols in the Secret House. Who can be found at the 
center of the Secret House? What is the connection of Father Inire to Erebus and Abaia?

Elsewhere I have discussed the connections between Father Inire and Dionysus. One of the primary
symbols of Dionysus is the bull. In his battlefield delirium, Severian/Thecla has a memory of her
father who inexplicably takes the form of a "man with the horns and muzzled face of a bull".

As Wolfe took Earth's Mowgli and Romulus and Remus and mushed them together to give us Urth's
Fish and Frog, so he has taken Earth's Dionysus and Minotaur and mushed them in a similar way
to give us Urth's Inire, Abaia and Erebus- the monster(s) at the center of the Labyrinth which
is BotNS. 

(add Flora/Fauna and the Dionysian snake and you can add the Cumaean to the list as well).

I'm sure that answer is just what you were looking for ;- ).

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