Urth Net
point to Borski
↰ answers Robert Borski
· by quotation
2 quoted lines
From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at charter.net>
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.
[...]
2 quoted lines
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.
Okay, point taken. I remembered the line about "holy slave" after I posted. I suppose the only legs that the Cumaean-as-Inhuma hypothesis has left to stand on would require that a) Severian was wrong (as he often is) about the Cumaean being a Hierodule or b) the Inhumi DO come from Yesod, which is certainly an interesting thought.
Shellac
*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.