sphinx etc.

maa32 · 09 May 2003, 15:22 · from urth-v0305.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) sphinx etc.
Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 08:22:35 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0305-3388 at digest.urth.net>
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Thanks for the input, Nutria.  Seven Lions is an interesting character, and=
 if=20
anyone has a divine archetype it might be him.

On another tack, had to go look up the parentage of the Sphinx.  Perhaps I =
was=20
mistaken, too many versions of the story to keep straight.  In some myths, =
she=20
is the daughter of Echidna and Typhon (or Orthrus or laius or Ucalegon). =20
However, she was definitely sent by Hera to Thebes to punish Laius.  I knew=20
Hera was somehow reponsible for her ... there are too many versions of Gree=
k=20
myths, and this is why I find the Soldier books somewhat frustrating.  Even=
 a=20
name like Pandora is fraught with too many diverse interpretations.  Sorry =
for=20
the mistake - but still, what does "I am your mother, and your mother's=20
mother" mean?!

Very good point about Latro's journey echoing Hercules - he meets the Lerne=
an=20
Hydra by the rock with a hole in it, and it does seem as though these=20
creatures are the daughters of Enodia or Echidna.  However, he doesn't meet=20
Anteus - when Hercules gives him advice on how to defeat Basias, he gives h=
im=20
the advice he used to defeat that earth bound creature.

Hey, there are only a few imbedded stories in the soldier series.  One deal=
s=20
with the wrath of Achilles on the last daughter of Priam, and the other dea=
ls=20
with a pregnant clump of earth (since a wife doesn't fire the earth she use=
s=20
to dupe her husband, it gets pregnant and the sons soul infests an apple tr=
ee,=20
whose branch the husband uses to dupe his stepmother, and said branch kills=20
both husband and wife).  I am interested in the theme of the wrath of Achil=
les=20
in the Soldier books, since when Odysseus rips out that one guys throat for=20
Latro in a fight he starts spouting about 'more blood for the wrath of=20
Achilles'.  Any other evidence that Achilles is acting throughout the text?

Probably enough for now ...
Sorry again about the Sphinx, I'm confused, too.

Marc Aramini

--=20

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