Lictor

David Stockhoff · 17 Feb 2018, 16:55 · from 2018-February.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2018 16:55:37 -0000
Subject: (urth) Lictor
In-Reply-To: <CAJ8=rtiiUNHR2+Od89VmNpkgzmQbnjVKj9PJFy5-xY-UpYQWpg at mail.gmail.com>
References: <07507bff-069b-30d8-5887-4f927209f2ff at casema.nl>
 <077d2f22-3505-881a-591c-b03bd7974678 at verizon.net>
 <CAJ8=rtiiUNHR2+Od89VmNpkgzmQbnjVKj9PJFy5-xY-UpYQWpg at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <bf8f7f3d-f7a0-4ac6-42c7-25549ebe0969 at verizon.net>

How is Severian explicitly a lictor, and which definition fits him?

Yes, although the bull Mithras kills is not shown as a castrated one.


On 2/17/2018 11:45 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> 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 <mailto: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
>>     <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism>
>>
>>
>>
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