do the Hierogrammates care about the megatherians?

Nick Lee · 26 May 2011, 05:26 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: starwaterstrain at gmail.com (Nick Lee)
Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 00:26:31 -0500
Subject: (urth) do the Hierogrammates *care* about the megatherians?
Message-ID: <BANLkTi=1fw11O_MAvdCsjy-_=XKwgcR-cw at mail.gmail.com>

>From James Wynn?crushtv at gmail.com:

> Now my interest is peaked. At first I thought you were thinking of Zephyrus. I think Wolfe *did* riff on that in The Book >of the Long Sun. But the comment about having a lot of heads suggests you mean someone else.

He has three. This fits nicely between Quadrifrons' four and
Typhon/Pas's two. To clarify, I meant Return to the Whorl, not UotNS
-- a bit of aphasia on my part. The discussion Patera Horn has
concerning the identity of the Outsider is quite illuminating. As an
aside, did anyone else notice that Horn mentions a Patera Ray? Ray and
Horn can be translated from the same Hebrew word, ??? (qeren). I think
this is another linguistic joke/clue Wolfe is giving regarding the
divinities he's referring to.

"Spring Wind" is one translation for Erikapaios (or Ericapaeus), also
known as Phanes. Interestingly, "Pas" can be derived from both
Erikapaios and Phanes. Phanes is the main god of the Orphic mysteries.
Yes, that means he is Dionysus -- and Eros as well; he gets around. I
don't think I need to remind anyone that Wolfe brings up Dionysus a
lot: Peace, Sorcerer's House, RttW, etc. Borski thinks he's the Devil,
but he also represents the opposite.

Phanes also manifests as the goddess Thetis (or Thesis). I think
"Spring Wind," Phanes, is the Outsider. What this has to do with
Wolfe's cosmology (fictional or otherwise) has already been speculated
upon, in a tangential way, by others -- on this very mailing list, for
example. If you like, Phanes can be another piece of the puzzle. I
think he's much more. He's in both Peace and Pandora as well. That
strikes me as significant.

I suppose it could all be a coincidence. We gravitate toward the
interpretations that speak to us most strongly, after all. And yet if
you look into the Phanic myths as I did, I think you'll find them
illuminating.

--Nick

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