(urth) Latro

[thalassocrat at nym.hush.com]

On Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:25:45 +1100 Michael Straight 
<mfstraight at gmail.com> wrote:
>On 11/14/06, thalassocrat at nym.hush.com <thalassocrat at nym.hush.com> 

>wrote:
>> 2. Why does Latro end up as a favorite (apparently) of the Earth
>> Mother after starting out (apparently) cursed by her?
>
>I think it's just that she's decided she has a use for him.  It's 
>not
>like she revokes her curse and heals him.

Could be. But by the time he encounters her in sphinx-form, she's 
instructing him in a perhaps motherly way; apparently guarding his 
memory palace; and actually declaring that she's his mother. 

And also his mother's mother. 

Here's my guess at what that's supposed to mean. As a Roman, Latro 
is perhaps a descendant of Aeneas. Aeneas was the son of 
Aphrodite/Venus. This might make Latro a "son of Aphrodite/Venus" 
in the same way that the Amazons are "daughters of Ares/Mars". 

In Homer & elsewhere, Aphrodite is the daughter of Dione, who seems 
to be a great mother goddess, another aspect of Gaea. So that could 
make Gaea Latro's "mother's mother".

If Latro is himself supposed to be some kind of aspect of 
Mars/Ares, that also makes him a "son of Juno/Hera", arguably 
another aspect of Gaea. 

(Latro is at least a "son of Mars", like the Amazons - Mars was the 
father of Romulus, the other great Roman ancestor, and Romans often 
referred to themselves in this way. Maybe this explains why he & 
Amazons get on so well together, as well as injecting some Wolfean 
quasi-incest into the story.)

>> 3. What did Aphrodite hypnotize Latro to say or do or believe in
>> Kalleos' garden?
>
>Aphrodite=love.  She says Latro will not forget her=will not 
>forget
>love.  One of the few things Latro seems to remember is his love 
>for
>Pharetra (he gets choked up hearing her name even when he hasn't 
>read
>about her that day).  Maybe this is the gift Aphrodite gave him 
>with
>her visit?

It could be.  At any rate, there's a little incident in Sidon which 
hints at Aphrodite gently interfering once again, maybe in the same 
kind of way ...