(urth) The Severian Behind Curtain #3

[thalassocrat at nym.hush.com]

On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:28:26 +1000 "Roy C. Lackey" 
<rclackey at stic.net> wrote:
>
>Huh. My second thought after reading that was about the scene 
>depicted on an
>inner door of the Old Autarch's whorehouse: "It had a stained-
>glass insert
>showing the Temptation." (SHADOW, IX, second page) Three 
>possibilities for
>the subject matter come to mind; Eve with the "apple" in the 
>Garden; Jesus
>in the wilderness; Severian on Mt. Typhon. This last can be 
>reasonably
>dismissed because it would not happen until more than a year in 
>the future;
>only revivified Typhon and Sev would be there, and only Sev would 
>live to
>tell the tale. So what did the picture show?

I think "the Temptation" has to refer to something like it would in 
our world, which is certainly the Temptation of Eve. In Sev's 
world, the Temptation of Meschiane. At least on the basis of Dr 
Talos' play, you can have this story without Christianity.