Baldanders' dream

Gerry Quinn · 20 Aug 2014, 21:07 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 22:07:59 +0100
Subject: (urth) Baldanders' dream
In-Reply-To: <BLU175-W2280AAA84D8494FDF8208CFD20 at phx.gbl>
References: <BLU175-W2280AAA84D8494FDF8208CFD20 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <53F50E2F.1000605 at bindweed.com>

On 20/08/2014 13:47, Lee wrote:
> Though "Echidna" is not mentioned by name in BotNS, it would seem 
> Wolfe thought "snake" and "cave dwelling" would be enough clues to tie 
> the character of The Cumaean to the wife of Typhon. Since few got the 
> reference, Wolfe made sure the name Echidna was front and center in 
> Long Sun.

Echidna is, but the Cumaean isn't, so it hardly ties the two 
characters.  Snakes and caves do not an Echidna make -  as you point out 
yourself, a mash-up of two Appolonian shrines is enough. Besides, she's 
not necessarily a snake:

"As I had suspected, the Cumaean was not a woman at all; yet neither was 
she one of the horrors I had beheld in the gardens of the House 
Absolute. Something sleekly reptilian coiled about the glowing rod. I 
looked for the head but found none, though each of the patternings on 
the reptile's back was a face, and the eyes of each face seemed lost in 
rapture."

She shares no obvious personality characteristics with Echidna.

- Gerry Quinn

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