Oannes

Lee Berman · 17 Mar 2012, 23:10 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:10:54 -0400
Subject: (urth) Oannes
Message-ID: <SNT123-W55D55BF36A17D15C7B8974CF5C0 at phx.gbl>

>David Stockhoff: What is it [Jurupari], then? A monstrous mouth? A fish sign..

Sorry I didn't meant to be oblique. Summing up the evidence, I think Jurupari is

a reference to Abaia and generally signifies (like the chicken with needles through

the eyes) an allegiance to the forces trying to prevent the coming of the New Sun.

Given the village name "Murene" and the lake name "Diuturna" I find sufficient 

evidence to suspect Oannes also is associated with Abaia. Yes, Abaia is supposed to

be in the ocean but, as for Tzadkiel and Greek gods, I think we are dealing with 

asexually reproducing, plural beings who can be in more than one place at once.

At the end of UotNS, when Severian says he has become the Oannes of these people I

think it signifies that he has (as The Sleeper) replaced Abaia to become the ruling 

pagan god of the planet. (and if that sets up the potential for an unusual

relationship with Juturna, so much the better to match the filial confusion of pagan 

mythological pantheons, like, say Zeus and Dionysus or Pas and Silk)

>Andrew Mason: Later, in _Urth_, Severian says that he has become the Oannes of  his
>people. Might this be a clue to what Wolfe means by saying that Severian is a form of 

>the Outsider?

Yep. I think so. But I think it only works if The Outsider is recognized as a paganish,

gnostic sort of god. Approaching the Christian ideal of God but not quite there yet.

I have suggested that the God of the OT seems to be rather pagan by our modern Christian

standards. I think the prevalence of the fish motif in the Sun Series is a recognition that

the earliest Christians (including the ones who used the fish symbol) were still pretty damn 

gnostic in their beliefs and actions by modern Christian standards.

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