Fish

Lisa Schaffer-Doggett · 09 Mar 2003, 00:26 · from urth-v0303.mbox · original

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From: Lisa Schaffer-Doggett <harlekin at earthlink.net>
Subject: (urth) Fish
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 16:26:06 -0800
Message-ID: <urth-v0303-3040 at digest.urth.net>
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Howdy y'all.  It seems like my brain is on fire today.  One of the=20
arguments I have been expecting against my theory that Valeria is=20
Severian's  sister is the fact that Fish in the Tale of a Boy called=20
Frog is described as Frog's twin brother.  This only bothered me=20
slightly because all throughout Graves there are indications of gender=20
name change.  A God who was originally an aspect of the Goddess, but=20
became masculinized.  I figured there would be a gender difference=20
between Frog and Fish in either Greek or Latin.  What I found has my=20
wheels turning.  Ichthys is fish in Greek, and it is very masculine. =20
In fact it is used as the acronym for Christ, as well as being an=20
aspect of Horus and some other sun gods.  This seems like a strike=20
until I looked a little further and dug up the word Delphos, which also=20
means fish (I think more correctly dolphin, though I'm not sure the=20
word distinguishes between mammal and fish) and womb.  It turns out=20
that the fish is an ancient symbol (allegedly) of a variety of=20
goddesses and was co-opted by the masculine sun gods.  So the Tale of a=20
Boy called Frog might also be read as a triumph of the masculine.  What=20
troubles me is this duality.  Valeria fits the profile of Frog's twin,=20
but so does Silk in a way (though it would have to be fraternal).  All=20
of the embryo's on the Whorl are stored underground.  And Severian sees=20
Silk as Malrubius.  It occurs to me that Malrubius might be another=20
black bean, corresponding with death, and that Silk's genetic=20
similarities with him make him appear as similar in his astral state. =20
I think I need to just reread Long Sun.

Don

--=20

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