(urth) Severian's Family. What the text shows...

[Lee Berman]

>James Wynn: I think Severian knows the answer by the time he meets Ouen. But he's 
>not telling. Yeah, we should know more about Ouen. But we should definitely know more 
>about Catherine. I really expected Severian to meet her in tUotNS.
 
I agree that Severian is not telling us a lot of embarassing stuff that he knows.
 
I think Severian does meet her in tUotNS; sees her anyway, as the woman on the 
Path Of Air. As such, I think this ties her to the Contessa in the play and to the 
woman in the coffin that Vodalus/Hildegrin dig up. So perhaps all we need to know
about her can be gleaned from these connections.
 
>Jeff Wilson: My reading is monials --> run off --> slept with Ouen --> arrested, 
>presumably for something done *before* she ran, but not positively.
 
Same here. I am willing to go a bit further and suggest the livid face of the dark-
haired woman in the coffin suggests death by Allowin's Neckace, the only torture device 
which is described in great detail for no apparent reason. 
 
For me, dark hair, middle age, armiger height, oval face, failed Pelerine, sentenced to
strangulation is enough of a connection for me to associate Catherine with Cyriaca. Thus
Catherine's crime was adultery (implying a powerful husband cuckolded). 
 
I can provide some further speculation in this vein if any are interested.