Lictor

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 17 Feb 2018, 16:45 · from 2018-February.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2018 16:45:54 -0000
Subject: (urth) Lictor
In-Reply-To: <077d2f22-3505-881a-591c-b03bd7974678 at verizon.net>
References: <07507bff-069b-30d8-5887-4f927209f2ff at casema.nl>
 <077d2f22-3505-881a-591c-b03bd7974678 at verizon.net>
Message-ID: <CAJ8=rtiiUNHR2+Od89VmNpkgzmQbnjVKj9PJFy5-xY-UpYQWpg at mail.gmail.com>

I'm not sure what you mean about Severian's sword belonging to "a
lictor...never mentioned in the text." Severian is a lictor.

The Mithras thing also ties in with the Old Autarch being a castrato.

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

The spatula is the natural enemy of the hypothalamus.

On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 7:28 AM, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net>
wrote:

> I don't see "lictor" mentioned in the wiki---do you have a specific link
> to that?
>
> Nevertheless, the Mithraic cult has always been suggestive of similarities
> to both early Xtianity, which is useful to Wolfe, and to Severian's "secret
> history." It's closely allied with a branch of Roman government and with
> Rome. A sword figures prominently in its symbology. Severian becomes an
> outcast when he gives Thecla a blade, and he becomes Autarch when he kills
> the Autarch with a blade. He is often blood-covered, as with the
> sacrificial blood of a bull (sun symbol), but never blood-stained.
>
> Cultists proceeded through grades like Masons to become Leos, and lions
> have always been linked with the sun. The Mithraic leo has been taken as
> Aion, who is the Greek god of eternity or "unbounded time." Severian's
> going to Yesod and returning as the New Sun literally enacts this elevation
> to Leo.
>
> I had not realized that "mitra" could be read as "covenant." That's
> suggestive too. It's always been a mystery to me that Severian's sword (The
> Sword of the Lictor) belongs to a lictor that is never mentioned in the
> text, but if the lictor is a servant of a secret god with whom a covenant
> is held, then ... it fits.
>
> Hidden in plain sight, as usual.
>
> Thanks!
>
> On 2/17/2018 9:10 AM, Ab de Vos wrote:
>
> By chance I had to look up the Greek word for servant (????????). The
> "servant of the eleven" in Athens was the executioner or his servant.
> Servant is also the greek translation of Lictor. The lictor is an official
> of the roman state but the term is also used for servitor in the cult cult
> of Mithras.
>
> Mithras-Helios, with solar rays and in Iranian dress,[104]
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism#cite_note-iranica-105> with
> Antiochus I of Commagene <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commagene>. (
> Mt. Nemrut <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nemrut>, 1st Century BCE)
>
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism
>
>
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