Baldanders' dream

Lee · 21 Aug 2014, 16:20 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee)
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:20:31 -0400
Subject: (urth) Baldanders' dream
Message-ID: <BLU175-W404F9D67004CE88D8AE0B5CFD30 at phx.gbl>

>Gerry Quinn: Echidna is, but the Cumaean isn't, so it hardly ties the two 
>characters.  Snakes and caves do not an Echidna make.

I find them to be sufficiently linked. It is to be remembered that the Cumaean

is the leader of the Witches in BotNS. There is a constellation of traits

including snakes, witchcraft and caves which link such Greco-Roman female 

mythological characters as Echidna, Lamia, Hecate, the Pythian Oracle and the 

Cumaean Sibyl.

> Besides, she's not necessarily a snake:

"Snake-like" or "snake-associated" would be more accurate descriptors. Mythological

 Echidna was not a "snake" but she had snakey attributes.

Anyway, anything "coiled", "reptilian" and without a distinct head is clearly going

to be more "snake-like" than, say, "turtle-like", "elephant-like" or -like any other

non-snake creature. 

>She shares no obvious personality characteristics with Echidna.

I'm not sure what "personality characteristics" you might be referring to. But, 

Echidna, in Long Sun, clearly has snakey attributes and was quite notably involved

in an incident of human sacrifice.

The Cumaean also has snakey attributes and is associated with human sacrifice.

(Hopefully the connection between human sacrifice and Apu Punchau doesn't need

to be explained; The Cumaean's "s?ance" is not quite what it seems).

Typhon and Scylla from Long Sun are mentioned in BotNS (and Short Sun). Echidna

is not mentioned in BotNS by name, but given the combination of cave-dwelling, snake

association, witchcraft and human sacrifice, I think Wolfe has given us enough

clues to find her in BotNS. Just my opinion, of course.

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