Quadrifons & Juturna

James Jordan · 21 Dec 2002, 14:53 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Quadrifons & Juturna
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2002 08:53:58 -0600
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2509 at digest.urth.net>
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At 08:57 PM 12/20/2002, you wrote:
>Did anybody ever work out what the deal with Quadrifons is? Going  back=20
>thru the archives, I see suggestions that Quadrifons is the name of a=20
>cherub. I'm sure that's true, but I'm also sure that the more relevant=20
>association is with Janus, in his four-faced aspect - Janus Quadrifons.=20
>After all, the text describes Quadrifons as "the god of doors and=20
>crossroads, and much else", which sounds pretty much like Janus to me.
>
>Assuming the connection with Janus is intended, why "Quadrifons" rather=20
>than the more usual "Bifrons"?

         Cherubim have four faces. Sphinxes are a one-faced form of the=20
cherub. Being cats, they guard crossroads (as you know if you have a cat;=20
look where he/she likes to sit: where he can watch up and down the halls=20
and into the rooms). Cherubim guard doors, particularly the door into Eden.

Nutria

>
>Janus was married to the nymph Juturna, the goddess of springs and wells.=20
>Wolfe presumably knows this, but what's it supposed to mean?  Like all of=20
>these speculations, anything you can make of it is based on the flimsiest=20
>textual evidence; but I wonder if Juturna is the Undine Scylla and Silk=20
>speak with at the end of RTTW; and whether somehow Juturna's interest in=20
>Severian stems form this? Dunno!
>



--=20

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