Severianus, Severus and False Images

Alice Turner · 26 Apr 2000, 19:54 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Alice Turner" <akt at attglobal.net>
Subject: (urth) Severianus, Severus and False Images
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 19:54:24
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0934 at digest.urth.net>
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Nick, thank you for enlightening me re Severiano! Now on to Severianus and =
Severus. Plus another puzzle (to me). I am reading a book called -A Chronic=
le of the Last Pagans- (Pierre Chuvin), and in just a few pages I found an =
account of Severianus, a 5th c. Damascene and committed pagan who lost his =
job of judge because he refused to convert (some thought it was because he =
was too tough in sentencing). About six pages later, the author refers to "=
the monstrous Typhon, last and most dangerous of all Zeus's primitive foes.=
" Two pages later comes Severus, patriarch of Antioch, who was slandered as=
 a pagan.

That's all very well, and not really worth passing on to you, but here's th=
e puzzle (to me). The bishop of Alexandria organized a raid on a monastery =
of Isis (an Iseum, for those who care) and found a walled-up hiding place w=
here hundreds of pagan images were found, probably made of wood or metal, p=
robably mostly small. Twenty camels were laden with these idols. A pyre was=
 built on the public square of Alexandria and an unruly mob went on a rampa=
ge in the town and came back with many more statues, many of the part-anima=
l figures of the Egyptian gods. And there was a huge orgy of breaking the a=
rms and legs off the idols and flinging them into the fire and dancing arou=
nd and behaving badly and screaming invective (the names of the gods) and g=
lee that the gods could not save themselves.

My question is this--I have read this account before, but in fiction. In a =
story, I think, somewhat different. What I remember is the detail of the an=
imal figures, and their disfigurement, and perhaps the names. I think in th=
e story it was a furnace, not a pyre, and might have been set on another pl=
anet. Or on a ship? Does it ring a bell with anyone? Is it a Wolfe story? I=
t certainly has a Wolfe flavor to it. The bare account, I mean.=20

-alga

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