(urth) pleistorus and latro: communicable divinity
aramini1 at cox.net
aramini1 at cox.net
Sat Apr 1 10:09:30 PST 2006
I did a google search on Pleistorus, and was surprised when one ofmy own posts was one of the first things to come up.
My argument hasn't changed much in three years, I guess, here is the original post from May of 2003:
"I'm reading the soldier books for the second time and I'm about 3/4 through
Soldier of Arete. So far, the major gods conspicuous in their absence are
Zeus, Hermes, and Ares. While there is a chapter entitled Ares and others,
I'm pretty sure Ares doesn't make a direct appearance. Here is my question
for the list - Is latro an avatar of Ares? He has all the qualities of Ares
(thus Soldier of "Are"te.) There is that big discussion at the beginning of
Soldier of the Mist where they talk about greeting a tradesman who has a
family in a war by certain titles depending on where he is, and I thought this
would apply nicely to Latro - he would seem to be a soldier, so everyone
treats him as a soldier. Yet the gods don't treat Latro like just another
soldier.
There is also a scene in Soldier of Arete in which someone states that Ares
may be Ahura Mazda, the all good God, in disguise. There are other statements
made that indicate Pleistorus is angry at the Thracian King Kotys for his
treatment of the amazons and Latro - and note that Latro is especially
troubled by the death of amazon women - they are the daughters of Ares. Also,
in at least one place the claim is made that Pleistorus (or Ares) is "inside"
Latro in some sense. Also, the ironic statement of Hypereides right before
Part Three of Soldier of Arete (p 498 in the omnibus "'Pleistorus didn't come
around to help us. I wish he had - we could have used him'" But I think he
did.
The evidence against Ares being Latro must certainly include Latro's early
memories of his childhood and his farmland. On the other hand, Nike always
follows Latro invisibly, and I'm pretty sure Ares is at least living inside
Latro or possessing him (if he is not entirely homoousious with Latro). Could
it be that the Great Mother is mad at her son?"
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