(urth) dog-ape (was: Re: Who's Right)
Mo Holkar
lists at ukg.co.uk
Tue Dec 7 00:44:11 PST 2010
At 02:57 07/12/2010, Jane wrote:
>The cynocephalus isn't even close to being the creature Silk wants
>to buy, and could have been dismissed in a few words like the sheep;
>but instead it's described in some detail (trained to act as
>link-boy and bodyguard, this adding to its value and to its
>desirability, in the value-system of Viron, as a potential
>sacrifice) and of course there's the standout feature that it is a
>fantasy animal in a market of mostly real-world creatures.
>
>(Yes, IMO an ape with the head of a dog - ! - is a tad more
>fantastic than a monkey that can make a few human-like
>vocalizations, let alone than a talking night-chough.)
I assumed this dog-headed ape was just an ordinary baboon (albeit
rather well trained), as they're generally referred to by Classical
authors as cynocephalid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Baboon
That seems more likely to me than it being an out-of-place fantasy animal,
Mo
# ~ # ~ #
WolfeWiki -- a wiki about Gene Wolfe
http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/
More information about the Urth
mailing list