Seawrack

David Stockhoff · 26 Nov 2013, 00:27 · from 2013-November.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 19:27:03 -0500
Subject: (urth) Seawrack
In-Reply-To: <BLU175-W4965EEC85C0D94820FAC63CFED0 at phx.gbl>
References: <BLU175-W4965EEC85C0D94820FAC63CFED0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <5293EAD7.1000405 at verizon.net>


On 11/25/2013 1:39 PM, Lee wrote:
>> David Stockhoff:   Any chance she is a projection of Hyacinth/Kypris? She
>> couldn't possibly have her own personality.
> I think other Sun Series beings budded off from a larger whole are meant to have their
> own personalities, including the various incarnations of Tzadkiel, and Idas.
>
> But surely the closest analog to Seawrack the siren is Juturna, the undine. There
> is a clear mythological connection between sirens and mermaids. Also, there is
> that moment of overwhelming mutual passion depicted between Severian and Jurturna,
> though Seawrack's human size makes her a much better candidate for sexual fulfillment.
>
> Anyway, I see The Mother as being related to the gods of the Whorl but it is difficult
> to see the direct connection. My best guess is that Blue is an origin world for Typhon
> and his brood and they took human form for their trip to Urth. Once there, they could
> keep their human form, as we see with Typhon and Cilinia.  And/or part of them could
> hit the ocean and start growing into such megatherian beings as Great Scylla and Abaia,
> like the Mother creature we see on Blue.
>
> Thus, when The Cumaean (who is almost exactly what we'd expect of a human-form of
> Echidna), speaks to Severian of a planet around the star Fomalhaut (fish's mouth), I
> think it might be her home planet, Blue.
>
> By choosing the epithet "Kyrpis" for Aphrodite, Wolfe may be invoking the sea-foam
> version of that Greek goddess, in contrast to the traditional hellenic Aphrodite, who is
> the daughter of Zeus. So maybe that connects Kypris with Seawrack. But otherwise it is
> difficult to see how Kyrpis in Mainframe on the Whorl is related to Seawrack on Blue.
>
>

That all fits, with caveats. But Seawrack behaves as though she is no 
longer an eater of dead sailors. She reads much like other Wolfe 
characters who are "not themselves," though she remembers when she was 
herself. Why would/how could she love a human man?

Positing that she is even a demigodly mermaid does not quite explain 
Horn's longing for her. Why does she haunt Silkhorn---and what part of 
him does she haunt?

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