Father Inire as Dionysus

Lee Berman · 26 Oct 2011, 15:40 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:40:43 -0400
Subject: (urth) Father Inire as Dionysus
Message-ID: <SNT123-W59E78F794E9F04585C50E6CFED0 at phx.gbl>

>David Stockhoff: Certainly "Hector" should have significance, even if ironic. But what's 
>a demonic magistrate?

I don't know! I found it in an obscure occult text from 1920. I don't normally read such
stuff. But I get the impression Gene Wolfe has. There really aren't many online references
to the name "Hethor" and most of them are post-BotNS (i.e. probably inspired by it).

>What of the other suggested names: Kimleesoong? Heston/Colonel George 
>Taylor?

Humorously, I also considered "Heston" as a possible inspiration for "Hethor" but only because
I detect other 60's pop culture references in BotNS. I don't think it is a serious consideration
though.

I just don't get this stuff about "Hector". Wolfe isn't doing that (changing the spelling/sound
of mythological names). He doesn't give us Syphon or The Cumaeshion or Tzradspiel. He uses the
original, correct english spelling (or at least one of them, when there are variants).

>I'm not sure a friend would appreciate having a pervert named for him. 
>Hethor doesn't seem the type to have followers anyway.

Again, with all due credit (a lot!) to Mantis, I think he is off base in thinking Hethor is 
Kim Lee Soong. There is so much else about Hethor which points elsewhere.

Yes there is the suggestion that Hethor avoids Jonas to avoid being recognized. And in UotNS
Severian sees a Jonas look-alike on the ship and a Hethor look-alike on the ship. That's 
enough for me. They were ship mates.

I think it is a goosechase to think there is more than one ship which becomes lost in the folds
of time. The text hints there is only one and I take the hint. Hethor's ship is the Quasar which
(at least in the 70's) is the oppsite of a black hole, a White Fountain. That ship travels to Yesod 
to retrieve the White  Fountain. Severiran's"family" crest includes a ship and a fountain. These
clues paint a pretty clear picture for me.

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