(urth) Patera Inire

Roy C. Lackey rclackey at stic.net
Sat Jul 17 10:52:10 PDT 2010


Craig Brewer wrote:
> So what of "Patera," then? When we get to Long Sun, are we supposed to tie
the
> "Inire Religion" to what Pas has created? "Patera" (a nice mix of the
possibly
> Spanish/SouthAmerican/Nessus-influenced "padre" and Latin "pater") is of
course
> suitably close to "Father" (the "authentic" word Inire used, or at least
as the
> translator had it). Could this suggest a connection-to-yet-corruption-of
the New
> Sun religion, rather than the LS theology being completely Pas, et al.'s
> creation?

I don't think that is possible. Typhon was stranded on Urth at the time
Severian showed up as the Conciliator, meaning that the _Whorl_ was already
gone and Typhon was not far from death behind his curtain.

The religion of Viron was said to be a parody of the state religion back on
Urth. Whatever that state religion may have been, it cannot have been based
on the religion that sprang up surrounding the Conciliator and the desire
for a new sun: there had been no need for a new sun before the decline of
the old sun observed during Typhon's era.

I intended nothing more by my use of "Patera" in the subject line than to
point out that Patera means no more and no less than Father or Padre or any
number of other linguistic equivalents.

-Roy




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