The Cumaean

Lee Berman · 08 May 2013, 13:15 · from 2013-May.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 8 May 2013 09:15:00 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Cumaean
Message-ID: <BLU175-W38060B849E5189BAFEE7FACFBB0 at phx.gbl>

>On Tue, May 7, 2013 15:56, DAVID STOCKHOFF wrote: You mean some kind of farseeing 
>or scrying? 

>Jeff Wilson: That's possible. "Hairless and crippled" is not much to go on. I mean any 
>kind of technology that lets them see hidden things. Or it could be both, ultrasound 
>and X-rays have medical uses as well as industrial and spying applications.

This discussion got me thinking.  I think if we are to solve this mystery, the answer
might come from a better understanding of The Cumaean. We first learn she is the Seeress
who lives in a cave, which surely invokes the Cumaean Sybil of roman myth. That her cave
impossibly stretches to the other side of Urth might be a suggestion of Ouroboros, the 
world-spanning snake whose mouth resembles a cave.

Later we learn of her snake-like nature. This could be suggesting the Cumaean Sybil's
predecessor, the Pythian Oracle.  But given that we have a character nameed "Typhon", 
a snake-woman living in a cave is highly suggestive of mythological Typhon's wife,
Echidna. 

Mythological Echidna was, interestingly, a "guardian of the vineyard". But mostly she
was the "mother of all monsters" and prone to eating people whole. I think this jibes
with Long Sun's Echidna enjoying human sacrifice and Short Sun's Mother drowning and
eating sailors. In addition to the snake association, mythological Echidna is sometimes
called the "Tartarean lamprey" thus adding a fishy aspect to her nature.

When Severian sees the Cumaean's true snakey nature, he also sees multiple, enraptured
human faces appearing on her back. This could symbolize the Cumaean Sibyl's cave which
had a hundred mouths, all whispering prophesy. But given that the Cumaean invokes a
being from the star Fomalhaut, I think she must be associated with the theme of the
Fish's Mouth that we see over and over in BotNS. 

The Jurupari, the man-ape cave, the Ouroboros story, the Alzabo and Casdoe's family are
all references to or depictions of people being eaten then continuing to have consciouness 
and some sort of life within the belly of the beast. perhaps this is what is going on with
the faces we see on The Cumaean's back.

So perhaps the hairless, crippled animals in an artificial landscape that Severian sees
is somehow a depiction of what is going on inside The Cumaean. Half-digested people living
their lives within a mentally constructed environment.

Ignoring earthly and Biblical analogy for now, perhaps the Fish's Mouth theme and the
snakey-fish "Abaia" is a metaphor for the great beast(s) which have swallowed Urth whole 
and which now lives on within the dark belly of the beast. Perhaps Jonas (Jonah?) was named
for one who escaped that belly.

Moreover, I had previously wondered how Severian bringing a flood could vanquish ocean-
dwelling giant creatures. But if those creatures are understood in terms of dark-loving, 
cave-dwelling, murky depth creatures such as eels, lampreys and jurupari, I can see how
restoring the sun might do it. There is much description of golden light flooding the 
ocean as Severian swims through it after the New Sun has arrived.

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