Hierodule = alien, not Hierogrammate

Robert Borski · 22 Mar 2001, 00:58 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at charter.net>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Hierodule = alien, not Hierogrammate
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 00:58:24
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Shellac having expostulated:

<Hold on.  I don't think that hierodule necessarily =3D hierogrammate.
My impression was that "Hierodule" covered all aliens.  Dr. Talos
suggests "extrasolarians" which might not include Martians but
definitely covers Inhumi.>

I doubt you'll find much support for the notion that Hierodule is a generic
term for all aliens--unlike, say, cacogen, or as you mention, extrasolarian.

=46rom LEXICON URTHUS: "Hierodule   one belonging to a race created by the
Hierogrammates of the higher universe, Yesod." (p. 168)

=46rom URTH OF THE NEW SUN, with Barbatus talking to Severian:

*********
"You call us Hierodules, and that is your word and not ours, just as
Barbatus, Famulimus and Ossipago are your words, words we have chosen
because they are not common and describe us better than your other words
would. Do you know what Hierodule means, this word of your own tongue?"

"I know that you are creatures of this universe [i.e., Yesod], shaped by
those of the next to serve them here. And that the service they desire of
you is the shaping of our race, of humanity, because we are the cognates of
those who shaped them in the ages of the previous creation."

Famulimus trilled, "Hierodule is 'holy slave.'" (p. 36)

*********

So clearly Wolfe is using "Hierodule" specifically to designate the aliens
who hail from Yesod, not Briah or the front pages of the National Enquirer.

Robert Borski

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