(urth) Pantocrator

[David Stockhoff]

That Christ looks ready to CAGE FIGHT!

Seriously, I considered making a certain point regarding the evidence of Urth's age but didn't want to fan the fire. The theology issue seems a better context.

Consider how many references there are in Severian's thoughts to different cosmological or religious concepts that may or may not work together. I don't know enough to make a specific argument, but I think we can agree it would be somewhat odd if we went back to Byzantium, grabbed a random townsman and interrogated him, and found that his head was full of all sorts of bits and pieces of different heresies and orthodoxies and cults. (Note: I don't deny that any orthodoxy may contradict itself, but that's not what I mean.) Perhaps such people existed, but orthodoxy is orthodoxy and heresy is heresy.

But Severian seems to believe everything, or perhaps his culture does, and he makes reference to an enormous number of ideas without making any distinction or judgment. He talks of the Black Sun, the Demiurge, pantocrators, hypostases, Abaddon, on and on. This is just how Wolfe uses such words in TBotNS---consider the names of prehistoric beasts. 

EVERYTHING EXISTS. (As the Heirodules said about time.) Just look at the Lexicon. And it doesn't matter whether these ideas appear to contradict one another or not. They appear to have collected over chiliads, and their disassociation from their time of origin has a certain flattening effect.

This technique creates a world that seems more complex than we can handle in one reading, but it's an illusion. If Wolfe had said "elephant" and "horse," and God/Jesus/Jupiter/Juno, we wouldn't be here discussing these mysteries.

My side point is that I feel forced to read the various geological-historical clues the same way. Ultimately, none can be trusted; they must all be taken as devices.



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Message: 7
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:25:37 +0000
From: Matthew malthouse <calmeilles at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Pantocrator
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <49382EB1.4060709 at calmeilles.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Son of Witz wrote:


> > OrthodoxWiki is as good an example of the stuff I'm finding: "The
> > word Pantocrator is of Greek origin meaning "ruler of all". Christ
> > Pantocrator is an icon of Christ represented full or half-length and
> > full-faced. He holds the book of the Gospels in his left hand and
> > blesses with his right hand.
> > 
> > The icon portrays Christ as the Righteous Judge and the Lover of
> > Mankind, both at the same time. The Gospel is the book by which we
> > are judged, and the blessing proclaims God's loving kindness toward
> > us, showing us that he is giving us his forgiveness.
> > 
> > Although ruler of all, Christ is not pictured with a crown or scepter
> > as other kings of this world. The large open eyes look directly into
> > the soul of the viewer. The high curved forehead shows wisdom. The
> > long slender nose is a look of nobility, the small closed mouth, the
> > silence of contemplation.
> > 
> > It is the tradition of the Church to depict "God is with us" by
> > having the a large Pantocrator icon inside of the central dome, or
> > ceiling of the church.
>   

Two examples from Sicily.

Montreale  http://www.calmeilles.co.uk/pictures/20040507/pages/1012.html

Cefalu  http://www.calmeilles.co.uk/pictures/20040507/pages/1270.html


Matthew


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