(urth) Hera and Sphinx / achilles
aramini1 at cox.net
aramini1 at cox.net
Sat Apr 1 10:16:39 PST 2006
This is another post I made in May of 2003 that I was most impressed with reading it again. This will be the last repost - just thought this was some important stuff.
"Latro offends Hera or Gaea by fighting in her temple (in the books, Gaea
and Hera are blended together and oppose the triple goddess, who is
Echidna(enodia)+Moon (Selene) + Huntress) The sphinx is identified by Latro as
Gaea (!) in chapter 29 of Soldier of Arete. this would make her Hera, who
would be Ares mother (I am your mother, and your mother's mother).
However, I believe that there is an undercurrent here in the soldier series:
the Achaens have been replaced by the Dorians (Spartans), who have taken over
the old ways. If I'm not mistaken, this would make the ghost of Achilles mad,
and he wants the Spartans to be vanquished. The remains of the achaens are
symbolically put to rest with Lykaon in the boar hunting segment late in
Soldier of Arete, where Latro picks up the shepherd Aglaus, who he then takes
into Sparta with him. He keeps Aglaus around because Aglaus reminds him of
things, and helps him remember. I don't know if anyone else has said
anything, but Aglaus is the goat man who identifies Polos as a centaur (or
bull-killer) in chapter 33. He later makes a pipe for io and begins dancing,
where Latro says that he is reminded of Elata by Aglaus. Aglaus is a satyr,
who chases nymphs, and the same carnal force flows through him. So, Latro is
surrounded by a nymph, a satyr, a centaur, and a man named Seven Lions, and he
is probably chasing the shape shifting Zalmoxis as well.
Why would a satyr, or a being who resembles Pan, remind Latro so strongly of
his past? Notice that after Aglaus shows up, Latro starts to remember. The
memory house of Simonides helps, but Latro claims that he bought Aglaus'
services after Themistocles no longer required a guide to Sparta because of
Aglaus' effect on his memory.
In the boar hunting scene at the middle of part three of Soldier of Arete, we
see several things: the Achaens are old and wiped out, replaced by the
Spartans, and dying out obscurely in the mountains. Aglaus and Lykaon seems
to represent the older forces, while Latro represents the burgeoning triumph
of Rome that looms over all Greece (he is the seed of Rome, as has been said).
I need to look up which side was the Achaen side, but I'm pretty sure that
Achilles is mad at the Spartans and is working from beyond the grave to insure
that they are going to have some big problems in the near future, and that
Latro is somehow involved in that effort to thwart them.
Then again, maybe I have it backwards. Aeneas is the survivor of Troy, whose
seed goes on to found Rome. Perhaps Achilles wouldn't want that force to rise
again, since he vanquished Hector and fought for it. What do you think?
Which side would the shade of Achilles take? The Great King of the Medes or
the Twin Kings of Sparta? Or would he want both to fail so that Rome could
eventually come and take over everything?"
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