Father Inire as Dionysus

Lee Berman · 26 Oct 2011, 14:55 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:55:50 -0400
Subject: (urth) Father Inire as Dionysus
Message-ID: <SNT123-W5109F85A2AF43E4282E037CFED0 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn: > On 10/26/2011 8:48 AM, James Wynn wrote:
> I'm not prepared to show that Wolfe has woven elements of the Illiad 
> into the life of Severian, but it would be very much like Wolfe to do 
> that.

I agree, it WOULD be like Wolfe. It wasn't only me who was able to follow
James' lead in recognizing that the sober, brilliant young general Spring
Wind and the arrogant, vain Typhon are connected by a wind theme and the 
contrasting youth and later years of Alexander The Great.

>And Hector, and as the nemesis of the sword wielding Achilles 
> and slayer of his alter-ego, would be a fine reference to Severian's 
> Hethor. Then who is Helen? Presumably Agia. Is Dorcas then Thecla, Achilles' 
>mother 

Unfortunately, the dots aren't connecting for me at all here. I'm pretty familiar
with the Iliad but I don't recognize its characters' aspects in BotNS characters as 
I can for other likely Wolfe mythological allusions. 

(Hercules' life seems a much closer match to severian's, though I think I can only
find plausible matches for 7 or 8 of the labors)

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