speaking beast / Hyacinth as man?

maa32 · 06 Feb 2002, 22:42 · from urth-v0202.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) speaking beast / Hyacinth as man?
Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2002 15:42:47 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0202-93 at digest.urth.net>
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Anyway, was any consensus ever reached in the old days about the phantom=20
presence of Triskele being able to "speak" in Severian's dream in Shadow of=20
the Torturer? Is the friend with dripping jaws definitely Triskele? I ask t=
his=20
because that presence in the mine at Saltus which Severian awakens has the=20
same kind of subterannean associations, and I know that has been discussed =
a=20
lot.

Also, I wanted to apologize if I offended anyone about bringing up that stu=
dy;=20
it seems the media should be blamed rather than making fun of me for using =
a=20
search engine with a poem. Sniff.  You have to admit that without technolog=
y=20
like that we could never have our enlightened discussions - and I only brou=
ght=20
it up to a list of maybe 25 people, while the media reaches hundreds of=20
millions. I was only interested in the idea that a mother's behavior and pa=
st=20
influences the devlopment of her child; it obviously does during pregnancy,=20
but this study analyzed events that occured before gestation - I wasn't rea=
lly=20
concerned with the specifics. (Wolfe seems to believe that behavior affects=20
development).

While we are on this topic, there is an interesting thing going on in=20
Nightside the Long Sun which involves "boy toys" in mythology.  When Silk=20
breaks into Bloods house, he runs into a statues of Catamitus and Ganymede=20
(both young boys who have relations with older men; Ganymede was Zeus'=20
cupbearer and special "plaything").  At first this seems to obviously invok=
e=20
Musk as Blood's special "friend", but THIS IS WHERE HE RUNS INTO HYACINTH .=
..=20
and in myth, if I am not mistaken, Hyacinthus is another one of those "boy=20
toys". Chenille makes the comment that Hyacinth used to be very flat before=20
Crane doctored her up ... Is there a possibility that Hyacinth could have b=
een=20
a man at one time? =20
Here is the story of Hyacinthus:

"A Greek vegetation divinity who was loved by both Apollo and Zephyrus. He=20
returned the love of Apollo, but not of Zephyrus.
 When he and Apollo were throwing the discus together, Zephyrus blew Apollo=
's=20
discus out of its course. It struck the head of Hyacinthus and killed him.=20
=46rom his blood Apollo made spring up a flower, the hyacinth. "

OK, what we have here is Apollo (and his obvious associations in Wolfe's wo=
rk)=20
contending with THE WIND, while a flower blooms up, though trod under the=20
shepherds heel.  Ho ho ho.  Notice how many times the Wind comes up=20
prominently in the Short Sun: it's in almost all of the prophecies, and is=20
even mentioned as one of the primary differences between Blue and Urth.  No=
w,=20
if we accept that Apollo might have some connection with someone like Sever=
ian=20
or someone who comes to associate himself with Severian, like Silk, do we g=
et=20
an accurate image of anything?  Here is my question: COULD Hyacinth have be=
en=20
altered more than we suspect by Dr Crane, and if so, could her death have=20
directly resulted from the awkward place in which she was placed: being a=20
loyal wife of Calde Silk while still serving enemy forces?

Marc Aramini

--=20

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